The good news is that it looks like Chris Jakubauskas is OK after his scary encounter with a Lance Berkman line drive last night. The bad news is that the Pirates have now lost five games in a row and are turning to their most maddening and disappointing (so far) starter to try and stop that skid. I still think it's impossible that Charlie Morton will continue along with an ERA of 16.55, but so long he keeps on giving up line drives likes a Jugs machine.
The Astros send Brett Myers to the mound today. I'd normally say he's a nice target to break a losing streak against since he's right-handed and not particularly great, but I just don't have a whole lot of faith in this baseball team right now. Honestly, I kind of feel like the current losing streak might only be about halfway over.
(Reverse jinx, please?)
Given the depleted nature of the pitching staff, Brian Burres and Brian Bass will both be joining the team today (via Rob Biertempfel). Not sure about the corresponding moves yet as someone has to be DFA'd to make room for Bass and at least one person other than Chris Jakubauskas (who may be moving to the DL) needs to be removed from the big league roster. (UPDATE: Jakubauskas to the 15-day DL, Daniel McCutchen to Triple-A, Brandon Jones DFA'd to make room for Bass)
First pitch is 2:05, Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.
First things first: I've been hit in the head with a line drive before, and it's a terrifying thing. It was 14 years ago and honestly, I still flinch in softball games when balls are hit right at me. As much as a game like tonight's makes me want to lament whatever forces of the universe have driven the Pirates' pitching staff to the state it's currently in after Chris Jakubauskas was knocked out of tonight's game after just 12 pitches, what I really hope is that Jakubauskas is OK. It's a cliche, but at the end of the day it's just baseball and the players are just people like the rest of us.
As for everything, all you really need to know is that two days after being a big part of Thursday's 20-0 embarrassment, Dan McCutchen had to take the mount for an inning tonight and he's still expected to start again on Tuesday. This baseball team is an honest to god mess right now after just 17 games. I really hate to think what things are going to look like once the season starts to take it's toll.
PS - Seriously, Ronny Cedeno? You sit on the bench and watch Matt Lindstrom load the bases with his first walk of the season, see that he's already stretched to 19 pitches, know he threw last night, and just hack away at the first pitch? Really? That was frustrating.
no commentsAnyone that's been a WHYGAVS for a long time probably remembers the Andy Van Slyke quote that used to adorn the top of the blog:
“Every season has its peaks and valleys. What you have to try to do is eliminate the Grand Canyon.”
A four-game losing streak that includes that Brewers series and a loss to the Astros is scraping very dangerously close to the canyon.
Chris Jakubauskas gets his first start of the season tonight, not Kevin Hart as initially thought. He wasn't great in Bradenton but he's made a couple decent starts with Indianapolis and he's probably a better option to make this kind of spot-start than Brian Burres is. What a strong recommendation, huh? Jakubauskas goes against Wandy Rodriguez. Wandy hasn't been great this year, but he is a lefty and lefties have been awfully tough on the Pirates this season.
Remember that because tonight is Saturday, the first pitch tonight is at 7:05. Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.
The problem with losing every blowout and winning every close game is of course that baseball teams can't realistically win every close game. That's what the Pirates fell victim to last night; scoring some runs, getting a good start, and just falling short against a Houston team that had everyone convinced for a while that they were the worst team in baseball.
Saying that you "can't win every close game" isn't exactly right, though, because it implies that the Pirates played well and just kind of came up short. That's not what happened. Delwyn Young continued to be a trainwreck at third base and Ryan Church poorly judged where a pop-up was dropping in relation to both himself and the close left field wall at Minute Maid Park and those three combined fielding gaffes lead more or less directly to all of the Astros' runs.
And now the Pirates face a real problem; they lost with Zach Duke on the mound and they lost with Paul Maholm on the mound, so when, exactly, can they get another win? We may have seen .500 for the last time this season.
no commentsAppropriate Baseball Axiom #1 - Momentum is only as good as the next day's starter.
Appropriate Baseball Axiom #2 - A 20-0 loss counts no more than a 1-0 loss.
Look, there's no use lingering on what happened yesterday. It sucked, it's over, and now it's time to move on. How does this team respond to a 20-0 thrashing? How does any team respond to that? We find out this weekend against the equally awful Astros. Paul Maholm starts tonight; if you're a believer in Axiom #1, there's no one better for the Pirates to put on the mound tonight.
First pitch is 8:05, Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump
Looks like Kevin Hart will be starting Saturday and Chris Jakubauskas is being called up to work out of the bullpen while Brad Lincoln does ... whatever it is that they want him to do in Triple-A. I haven't given up hope that Hart can be an effective starter quite yet, but please allow me a moment of overwhelming cynical sarcasm anyways.
no commentsWhat I want to say is that It's Only One Game, that You Can't Evaluate a Team on One Game (or three games, or twenty games, or fifty games), that You're Never as Good as You Think You Are on Your Best Day and You're Never as Bad as You Think You Are on Your Worst Day, that They're a Young Team and There Will Always Be Road Bumps, that We're Trying to Evaluate These Guys and Even When We're Losing We're Learning. I want to say these things because they're all true.
What I will say, instead, is this: When people find out I'm a Pirate fan, they usually act in disbelief and almost expect me to be apologetic for following such a long-running joke of a franchise. I never am. They expect me to be embarrassed for sticking with a team that they would've left for dead long ago, for having the proverbial football pulled out from underneath me every year. I never am. Today, I'm sorry other people had to watch that. Today, I'm embarrassed. There will come a day when days like this don't happen anymore for this franchise. I still firmly believe that. But when something like this happens, I can't help but wonder if it's all really worth it.
no commentsPerhaps the best and worst part of early-season baseball is the exact same thing; the way a small number of games can wildly shift how you, as a fan, views a team. After the ugly 2-4 road trip, I felt pretty terrible about the Pirates. After the sweep of the Reds, things perked up a bit. After being outscored 16-1 over two games by the Brewers, I'm kind of curious if the Pirates will ever win again.
Today's Earth Day matinee feature doesn't seem to bode well for turning things around. Daniel McCutchen gets the start against Randy Wolf, who's been pretty good so far for the Brewers this year. And JR will surely go with an "afternoon game lineup," (note: I'm writing this up late Wednesday night because I have lab meeting Thursday morning and I'm not sure when I'll get to the computer) and even though the Pirates literally just won with one of these against Cincinnati on Sunday, I never feel good about the team's chances with the afternoon lineup in place.
First pitch is 12:35, Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.
This is not the first time the Pirates have been shut out this year. It is, however, the first time it feels appropriate to use this clip.
Is there anything worse to watch than two impotent losses to the Brewers? Tonight there was no pitching, no offense, no plate patience, nothing. The record says 7-7, but my gut says something much, much worse.
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