There’s a first time for everything

 

Today, was Brad Lincoln’s first Major League win.

I hope this is how he was greeted in the clubhouse:

 

Obviously Lincoln is much more attractive than his man, but you get the picture. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to get your first career win but I hope he is enjoying it on the plane ride back to Pittsburgh.

Here is what Brad had to say after the game:

“It’s something that I’ve been wanting since I’ve been here,” Lincoln said of the milestone victory. “It gets that monkey off my back. Now I can just go out there and relax, and be who I am, and not have to worry about anything that goes on around me. I can be myself and attack hitters.”

You can read the rest of the article here 

What a beauty he pitched today.

8IP 0R 4H 6K (career high) Was hittless through the first 3 innings. If this is the future of Brad Lincoln, the Pirates will see many many more wins. He dominated today. Throwing his breaking ball for strikes, his curveball was awesome, his fastball (which has been straight) had a lot of movement. Great, great outing from Brad today.

Hanrahan came in the 8th and he was nasty. Dotel in the 9th for his 16th save.

If your a huge fan of pitching, today was a great day to watch the game.

Pirates won 2-0 over the cubbies. They are now, 9-3 against them this year.

• McCutchen 2-4, Run
• GFJ 1-3, Double, RBI
• Milledge 1-3, RBI
• Tabata 1-4, BB
• LaRoche 0-4, BB, Run
• Castro 1-3, Double
• Ramirez 2-4
• Gorzelanny gave up 4 hits over 5 scoreless innings (his longest outing since May 26th against the Dodgers) 5IP 4H 0R 3BB 5K

Cedeno went 0-4 today with 3K’s. I want to like Ronny, I really do. He makes some really great plays at Short. But as a hitter? He sucks. Sorry. No other way to describe it. A lot of people on twitter have been discussing the idea of getting Steve Pearce work at SS. Apparently, he used to play SS in high school but was eventually moved. I really like the idea. It would be a great way to get another bat in lineup. It would deffinitly be interesting. Fingers crossed, maybe it will happen?

Another huge problem has been Doumit. I hate to be debbie downer today after a great win but It’s something that should be brought up. On the pre game show, Rocco was discussing Doumit vs JJ catching runners on steals. Here are the results:

Domit- 7-57 11%

JJ- 8-11 42%

League average is right around 28%. Clearly Doumit has been insanely bad.

 Ryan is obviously not the catcher of the future. At 29, he is not getting any better. Kratz in AAA and JJ will probally split the time as catcher until Sanchez is ready. Atleast that’s my guess.

The Pirates end june 6-20 overall, 2-13 on the road. It’s the 8th series win, the 3rd on the road.

 

Andy LaRoche on the month of June:

“Hopefully, we can get this last month out of our system, just go from there. Come back from this all-star break refreshed, come out and dominate the second half. Everything that could go wrong went wrong…that last game in Oakland just summed it all up, the way the last two weeks have been going.” -Pittsburgh Post Gazette

 

 Today MLB trade rumors revisted the trade last year when the Pirates sent Sean Burnett and Nyjer Morgan to the Nationals for Joel Hanrahan and Lastings Milledge. Here is what they had to say. I personally don’t agree at all. I don’t think it was a toss up. I think the Pirates came out on top with that trade. Here is what Pirates.com had to say about it.

 

Around the Ballpark

• The Phillies offense the last 13 games:

.273 AVG, 6.7 Runs/Gm, 21 HR, .339 AVG w/ RISP

The previous 25 games they have only been averaging 2.5 runs/gm.

• The Mets have allowed 8 grand slams this season. It is tied for the 2nd most in history before the All star break. (Last time was 2008 Indians)
• James Loney has 19 RBI’s in his last 19 games
• The Dodgers are 20-5 against the NL West this season.
• Matt Kemp is batting only .208  in 26 games in June.
• Prince Fielder has 10 HR and 16 RBI in June.
• Today in Sports History: (1962) LA Dodger Sandy Koufax not hits the mets, 5-0.
• The Phillies Roy Halladay is the 1st pitcher to allow 13 + Hits and have 10 K’s in the same games since Curt Schilling (04/2001). Before that: Clemens (10/1991)