Monday, August 06, 2012

Good to be Home


Welcome Home, Neil Walker & Co.
Now that the harrowing but invigorating series in Cincinnati is behind us, the Pirates are back in Pittsburgh for an 11-game homestand beginning tonight vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks.

With yet another game just hours away, maybe it's just as well there is little time to reflect on what transpired in Cincinnati.

What did we learn there?  That Charlie Sheen is a lifelong Reds fan?  That Bob Davidson's umpiring crew is all touchy-feely?  That umpire Brian Gorman is old-school incompetent?

That the Pirates can play toe-to-toe with the larger-payroll Reds, who have the best record in baseball after winning 18 of 22 games since the All-Star break?  Yeah, that's the one.

Despite Cincinnati's gaudy record; despite the recent absence of high-priced stars Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips; despite the Reds' incredible bullpen; despite the talented young players like Zack Cozart, Todd Frazier and Drew Stubbs; despite four Pirate hit-batsmen this series; despite all that, the Pirates have the look of a team that's going to dog the Reds for the remaining 55 games.

Erik Bedard (5-12) takes the mound vs. Arizona's Miley Cyrus Wade Miley (12-6), starting at 7:05 p.m., at PNC Park.  With Bedard pitching, the first three innings will probably take about three hours.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Just Win, Baby

"What did I say?"
A.J. Burnett leads the Pirates today, as he takes the mound vs. Homer Bailey and the Reds in Cincinnati.  "Leads" is the operative word in that sentence, and Burnett's leadership has been key to the Pirates' success this year.  Burnett has been the "stopper" of modest losing streaks all season, and, if the Pirates ever needed veteran leadership to right the ship, today's the day.


A word of advice to Pirates' hitters today:  You might as well crowd the plate.  Take away the inside pitch.  If you get hit by a pitch, the ump should eject the Red's' pitcher.  That, essentially, was the message from last night's home plate umpire, Brian Gorman.

We all know what happened Friday night: Reds' flame-thrower Aroldis Chapman nearly decapitated Andrew McCutchen with a 101-mph rising fastball accelerating toward McCutchen's head, only to be interrupted by his shoulder, thank heaven.  After which, the following happened on Saturday:
After the ejection.
  1. Pittsburgh sports-talkers clamored for retaliation
  2. The umpires neglected to issue pre-game warnings to both teams
  3. The Reds jumped to a 2-0 first-inning lead, aan-n-nd ... 
  4. With two outs in the top of the second, Reds starter Mike Leake apparently decided (or was prompted by manager Dusty Baker) to preempt any retaliation that might come from the Pirates -- by deliberately drilling Bucs' shortstop Josh Harrison with a hip-level fastball.
  5. An unhappy Harrison glared briefly at Locke, who immediately lurched off the mound aggressively, tauntingly, in Harrison's direction, as if to say, "Hey, you want a piece of me?  At least I didn't throw at your head!  I got the first shot in tonight.  What're you gonna do about it?" 
  6. Umpire Gorman warned both dugouts that any more hit-batsmen would lead to ejections.
  7. Pittsburgh manager Cint Hurdle approached Gorman, reasonably enough, to ask about the warning and to plead his case.  At first, Hurdle appeared calm and seemed to be saying, "What did we do?"  It was a brief discussion.
  8. Hurdle didn't appear particularly confrontational or overly agitated, but after, oh, 30 seconds, Hurdle shrugged, peaceably enough (so far as we could tell).  That was it.
  9. Gorman erupted with the classic heave-ho.  At which point, Hurdle did get in his say-so, and he did become vociferously confrontational and finger-pointingly agitated, and understandably so.  Not that it did him or the Pirates any good, but at least he said his piece before treading to the clubhouse and leaving bench coach Jeff Bannister in charge.
At which point we, as Pirates fans, would have expected Bannister to rally the troops and exhort his hitters to crowd the plate. Crowd the plate!  Force Leake to throw way off the outside part of the plate, if that's the direction he was going to go.

As it turned out, Leake worked the outside part of the plate all through his six innings, consistently nibbling the outside corner, especially against left-handers (Alex Presley, Garrett Jones, Pedro Alvarez, Travis Snider).  While Presley and Jones did just fine -- both went two-four -- Alvarez and Snider had putrid at-bats, swung early in the count at outside pitches, and seemed to play directly into Leake's hands.  They should have stepped right over the plate and dared Leake to challenge them.

It's time to rally the team.
Today's game is crucial. The Pirates have a number of young players in key roles.  It's the perfect time for a steady veteran presence, and leadership.  Win, and the Pirates leave Cincinnati on a winning note, four-and-a-half games back of the first-place Reds and still within striking distance.  Lose, and the Pirates drop to six-and-a-half back, scrabbling for purchase in the wild-card race.


It's a big game today.  A.J. Burnett, the Pirates' nation turns its eyes to you.


 





Saturday, August 04, 2012

Apocalypse Now in the Heart of Darkness (Cincinnati)

"The horror.  The horror!" 

Joseph Conrad wouldn't have blinked, but we wonder how Martin and Charlie Sheen reacted when Andrew McCutchen took a 101-mph-caliber bullet of  fastball from Aroldis Chapman last night at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.  Not cool.

Yes, those Sheens, the father-son Hollywood duo who, according to Pirates' announcer Tim Nevrette, flew to Cincinnati expressly for the weekend series between the Reds and Pirates.

"They were in the hotel lobby," said Nevrette.  "I rode up in the elevator with Martin Sheen.  We talked baseball, a little bit, but what do you say to Martin Sheen?"  

Fellow announcer John Wehner, the "color man" who is about as colorful as charcoal ash, responded, predictably, by mumbling incoherently and sounding bewildered, but that's beside the point.

Back to the game:  Starling Marte misplayed a Chris Heisey drive into an inside-the-park home run, Mat Latos dominated with shutdown pitching, hit a two-run homer for good measure, the Reds turned three double-plays, and then Chapman capped the evening by capping McCutchen.  Insult to injury, and all that.  All in all, an ugly game for the Pirates.

Quelle horreur, indeed.

Tonight's another game, another opportunity.  James McDonald takes the mound tonight for the Bucs.  Let's hope for the best.

Afterthoughts
There's not much we can do, really, about that pitch from Aroldis Chapman, the loopy Cuban defector (expatriate? exile? refugee?) and hotel-robbery "victim" who generally has good control (of his pitches -- 77Ks vs14 BB for the season), but flings danger with every 100-mph pitch.  One of which, as we say, nailed McCutchen -- a rising fastball interrupted by McCutchen's left should on its way to his head.  Not cool.

Unable to dodge the bullet, McCutchen reacted, well, remarkably stoically.  At first.  It's amazing he was able to walk, but he more or less dusted himself off, glared briefly at Chapman and trotted to first base.  A few minutes later, after Chapman closed out the Reds' 3-0 win, the TV camera caught McCutchen in the dugout, yelling angrily, and understandably so.  "No human deserves that," said the guy on the MLB Network after the game.

Amen.  Let's hope McCutchen is okay, and that the Pirates bounce back and right the ship.