To be honest, I don't really have a lot of problems with losing this game the way we lost today. This was my first chance at seeing Charlie Morton pitch, and it was clear that he didn't have his best stuff, but I thought he did a nice job making do with what he did have, changing speeds and keeping the Royals off balance. They got to him the second time through the order and that was where the runs came from, but I thought it was pretty clear that his hammy is still bugging him, so it's hard to call this a bad outing.

As for Greinke, well, he was good, but he wasn't great. I guess that's been his MO for the past month or so, but we hit a few balls very hard right at people, including Andy LaRoche's liner right back at Greinke for an easy double play and Adam LaRoche's bomb off of the Clemente wall that Jose Guillen played perfectly to hold LaRoche to a single, which later became a caught stealing. Our best rally of the game was interrupted by the rain delay and with Soria looming, a loss seemed inevitable after we didn't pick up a third run in that seventh inning.

All told, it was still a good series against the Royals and we still finish up with an improbable winning record in interleague play. A win today leading into the Cubs, Mets, and Marlins next week, would've been nice, but there's no shame in losing to a guy like Greinke.

It's incredible to think that just a few days ago, the Pirates had spiraled into six losses in seven games, were eight games under .500, and we'd all written them off as officially in the midst of their annual summer swoon. Since then, they've now won four in a row against teams they should win four in a row against, and a win today brings them right back to their most recent high-water mark of three games under, set on WHYGAVS Day.

That won't necessarily be an easy task, because today they draw one of the best pitchers in either league this year; Zack Greinke. He's come back to earth a bit in his last four starts (4.24 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, **only** 7.9 K/9, still with an insane 5:1 K:BB ratio) and I suppose that leaves the door open for Charlie Morton to lead the Buccos to try and close out the sweep this weekend.

I don't know how this whole Ian Snell thing is going to play out, but I can tell you that it's headed nowhere good. In today's notebook, DK talks to Neal Huntington, who actually calls Snell's extension a mistake and closes the piece out with this:

"Our focus now is to salvage something from this situation," Huntington said, "whether that's a trade, or Ian comes back -- maybe that's in the bullpen -- we'll see."

Check the whole thing out; I can't ever remember a GM being so completely negative about a player that's still in his system and frankly, I'm kind of shocked by it, even with everything that Snell's said and done in the past month.

I posted that first because I'm fairly sure that Huntington said that prior to Snell's start today (I know I heard during the game that someone said he called the Snell contract a mistake). In the lead to that notebook, DK has some of Snell's postgame comments posted, but the Indians' play-by-play guy, Scott McCauley has a lot more posted on his own blog. Here's a sampling:

The guys made me feel welcome here.  It was just fun to see this relaxed and fun atmosphere.  Nothing against the guys up there you know they work hard they do everything ...

It's just the fans are electric here.  You can tell, even though they don't say much or cheer much they pay attention to the game.  It was just fun pitching in front of them again."

I owe a lot of credit to (Catcher Erik) Kratz.  He did a tremendous job of setting up you know he didn't set up too early where they can see where I'm going.  He mixed the pitches real well ...

Again, check out McCauley's whole post because there's a lot in there about Snell that's worth reading. In the three paragraphs I've posted there, Snell tosses his teammates in Pittsburgh under the bus, completely slays Pirate fans, and then pushes his catchers under the same bus he already threw them under once, gets in the proverbial bus, backs over them several times, parks the bus on top of them, douses it with gasoline, and lights it on fire. Oh, but nothing against the guys up there. Talk about passive aggressive.

I have been accused by some people (including, I'm pretty sure, Snell himself, albeit in an indirect manner) of being too hard on Snell and making too much of the comments, like the ones above, that Snell makes after his starts. The final line on it is this; either Snell went out and did exactly what he did in the majors and found success against a Triple-A team, or he went out and flashed stuff that was above and beyond what he's shown with the Pirates this year to prove a point to the front office and coaching staff and team. Neither is a good thing.

Looks like the doubts surrounding the report that the Pirates were going to sign Cheslor Cuthbert were valid. DK is reporting today that he'll sign with the guys across the field for $1.5 million; twice what the Pirates were rumored to be offering.

As for the game itself, our ability to make anyone look good will be put to a real test today. Bruce Chen takes the mound tonight in his first big league appearance since 2007, his first start since 2006, looking for his first win since 2005. He's been pretty good in 13 starts with Triple-A Omaha, but still ... come on. How is Chen only 32 right now? It seems like he's been around forever.

Paul Maholm takes the mound for the Pirates, hoping that PNC Park (where he's 2-1 with a 1.83 ERA) can help break him out of his current slump and send the Pirates to a fourth win in a row.

Interesting rumor popping up in a couple places today, both from fellow FanHouser Ed Price and DK's blog; apparently the Pirates and Nats have discussed a swap that would send Nyjer Morgan to DC in return for Lastings Milledge, but the deal was held up when the Pirates asked for Craig Stammen to be included.

This is a really, really interesting rumor. Milledge is kind of in an Ian Snell situation in Washington; he's got all kinds of talent, but the Nats are sick of his attitude and have had him in AAA this year where he's nursing a broken finger. He's only 24, and he hit .284/.344/.441 with 13 of his 14 homers after May 24th last year, and he might benefit from a situation where the spotlight is off of him and on Andrew McCutchen. On top of that, as a centerfielder by trade he'd likely be good enough in left to fill the cavernous PNC outfield. I know his defensive stats aren't all that great, but he hasn't really played consistently enough to make a firm judgment on that yet, and again, he's still 24. He wouldn't be as good defensively as Morgan is, but he might strike a nice balance between the good defense that the Pirates want in left and some offense to go with it.

Morgan, meanwhile, is what he is. He's been a big surprise in the field, but even with his recent hot streak at the plate his OPS is below .700 and he's leading the league in getting caught stealing. He's 28 going on 29 (on July 2nd) and he's just not ever going to be a good offensive player. I like the guy as a person quite a good deal and I'd love to be able to hide him in the eighth or ninth spot in the order, but I just don't think that's possible with a left fielder.

Stammen would be another arm to throw into the Ohlendorf/McCutchen/Morton mix; he's not a great prospect but he's got some upside and he'd be worth a shot. He shouldn't hold this trade up on the Pirates' end, if this rumor is true, but Milledge's stock has dropped so far in DC that I guess it doesn't hurt to ask for him. Of course, it is worth wondering how much water this holds; it really makes hardly any sense at all from the Nationals' perspective because I'd think that Milledge, even with his attitude problems and injury this year, would be worth way more than Nyjer Morgan. What it comes down to, though, is that Morgan is never going to be more valuable than he is right now and Milledge is likely never going to be less valuable. If this is anywhere within the realm of possibility, Huntington needs to make it happen.

It takes balls to drop the bat and admire your home run when it's June 26th and you've only hit one other homer during the season.

Three years ago, a terrible Pirate team on an awful losing streak and a Royals team with the worst record in baseball combined to create a black hole of suck that nearly devoured baseball. Three years later, Allard Baird and Dave Littlefield are gone and both franchises are moving in the general direction of the light. This year, we celebrate the three-year anniversary of the worst series in baseball history/WHYGAVS semi-mainstream breakthrough with the Pirates and Royals playing at PNC Park. Thankfully, Kip Wells is nowhere near anyone this weekend.

Tonight, the Pirates send Virgil Vasquez out to the mound for his first appearance in black and gold to face off against Gil Meche. The Pirates are holding tenuously on to giving everyone a faint hope that they can finish .500. John Russell has even settled into a semi-regular starting lineup to mark the occasion. Vasquez probably isn't much better than a Josh Fogg/Jeff Karstens type player, but I suppose he's worth a shot if Ian Snell is going to be difficult.

Apparently, my decision to go see a movie tonight caused me to miss quite a Pirate game. There are still a few things I'd like to comment on.

Andrew McCutchen has, to this point, surpassed every single expectation I had for him when he was called up. He's been an electrifying presence on the Pirates since his callup; unlike anything we've had on the Pirates in years because of his young age. But of everything he's done, working Cliff Lee for a walk with the bases loaded in a one run game after falling behind 0-2 might be the single thing that's impressed me the most. How many 22 year-olds have the patience or eye to do that? How many players of any age?

That said, it also needs to be noted that his walk-off hit was set up entirely by Jack Wilson's heads up base running. With John Russell ejected, Gary Varsho somehow decided it was a good move to have his white-hot rookie bunt the winning run to third base with no one out. I can't speak for Varsho, but I know if I had to choose between having McCutchen bat with the winning run on second and Nyjer Morgan batting with the winning run on third, I'd take my chances with 'Cutch. Wilson followed the wheel play into third, though, and when 'Cutch didn't get a bunt down he stole the base, allowing Matt Herges to pitch to McCutchen and give up the game winning hit.

I've been trying to not get too excited about McCutchen because he's so young and at some point, he'll come back to earth and struggle a bit, but damn, it's hard to not be psyched about this kid.

Stepping away from the Ian Snell circus for a minute (and if you don't think it's a circus, check out the audio DK has posted at the PBC blog), there's actually a baseball game tonight. Cliff Lee and Ross Ohlendorf pitch tonight. Ohlendorf has been getting knocked around a bit lately, so it'd be nice to see him get back on track. Lee, meanwhile, is pitching pretty well, even if he's not anywhere near the level he was at when he won last year's AL Cy Young. Also worth noting is JR keeping Brandon Moss in the lineup, even with the lefty Lee on the mound. This is about the first time I can think of him doing that this year.