PIT @ HOU 9/14

 Pirates Lineup:

McCutchen 8

Jones 9

Tabata 7

Alvarez 5

Walker 4

Doumit 2

Clement 3

Diaz 6

Maholm 1

*The Buccos lineup is all kinds of crazy. Jones moves to the second spot and Walker drops down to fifth. Pedro moves up to cleanup and Tabata is batting third. I’m all for switching it up and seeing if it can get the boys hitting again. The Pirates have scored just 11 runs in their last 5 games. In the month of August they have been outscored 39-69 and are just 3-12.

I like the idea of giving Clement a start. Since he was re-called he is batting .333 with 2HR. He has a much different approach at the plate since the begining of the year when he struggled so bad. I think he deserves another shot.

I’m not happy to see Doumit back behind the plate. Synder just had the day off on Thursday. Yuck!

 

Astros Lineup:

Bourn 8

Sanchez 6

Pence 9

Lee 3

Keppinger 4

Michaels 7

Johnson 5

Quintero 2

Norris 1 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Pirates Pre-game, Greg Brown chatted with Chris Synder:

Greg Brown: “Chris, is it still special to come back home?”

Chris Synder: “It’s always good. This will be the first time I’ve come back here twice. I came back here earlier in the season with Arizona and now I”m back again. For the past few years, it’s just been the one time trip so now family and friends get the double dose.”

GB: “Now that your in the National League Central, you can count on at least two trips every year here. What about the family and friends? Still pretty good contingent on hand?”

CS: “Yeah it is. They already got their show early on in the season. There was close to 20 tickets that I think I left today.”

GB: “Chris when you grew up where you an Astros fan? And if you were, did you have any particular players that you watched closely?”

CS: “I was. I was a big Astros fan. As a young kid I’d probally say it would be easy to say Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott. As I grew up it was Biggio and Bagwell. All those guys, I loved watching the Astros.”

GB: “I assumed you went to games at the Astrodome and here.”

CS: “Yeah, I was there. I saw Randy Johnson’s first win as an Astro. I saw Mike Scott’s no-hitter. There are quite a few of them [that] I saw. A clinching game that they had, yeah it was fun.”

GB: “Now that you are with the club a couple weeks, do you feel comfortable calling yourself a Pirate or is it still kind of a strange feeling?”

CS: “It’s still a little different. I’m starting to get a little comfortable around the guys and getting to know them and know the pitchers I think which is most important. And starting to get a good feel for them. It’s just one of those things where you got to be the same guy you’ve always been.”

GB: “First time you came over we asked you about your learning crash course, in terms of the pitching staff and low and behold, shortly after that, changes in the pitching staff. Is that a thing that concerns you at all? Or do you kind of roll with the punches?”

CS: “I guess you kind of roll with the punches. I hadn’t been here long enough to know the situation where the two guys who are no longer here . I didn’t know what kind of situation they were in or what was going on or which direction the organization wanted to go. I’m not unfamiliar with coaching, managerial, general manger changes. That’s something I’ve seen quite a bit of in the past couple years.”

GB: “Now that you’ve gotten to know the team, gotten to know the staff, what do you think about the direction of this club Chris? The record is abysmal, let’s be honest about it. But what about the short and long term future of this club?”

CS: “I think this last month and a half is going to be big. It’s going to be one of those things where we kind of have to learn how we play. I have to learn what makes the pitcher sucessful because there is very good arms in the rotation, in the bullpen. The young guys with Tabata, Alvarez, Jones, guys like that, Walker. These guys are getting their taste of a first full season out of the way and it’s tough. If you look at it, as if they were Septemeber call-ups, they get the one month where your riding on adrenaline, the ball looks like beach ball. That first full season where pitchers learn who you are, scouting reports get out and your going to take your lumps. And they are getting that out of the way this year and they’re having success. So i think taking that and finishing up strong and getting used to playing the full season because September will creep up on you and It’s tiring. You get through that and take that into next year with a hunger of you don’t want to be a last place team anymore. Or you don’t want to keep up the, however many years that this team has had losing seasons, you want that to finally come to and end and you want to be part of it.”