Long story short: the lock at my apartment got jammed shut last night and no one answered the emergency maintenance number, so I couldn't get into my apartment and as a result didn't see much of last night's game besides Rickie Weeks's homer that sealed the deal for Milwaukee. There were home runs, bad pitching, the Pirates lost at Miller Park. Frankly, I've heard that story before and don't really care to read the details of how it happened again. 

Today, Jeanmar Gomez gets his first start in a Pirate uniform. I don't understand why Francisco Liriano's being kept in Triple-A and Jeanmar Gomez is being given starts for the Pirates, but here we are. Travis Snider still isn't in the starting lineup for reasons that haven't been explained all that well as far as I can tell (something about discomfort in his side was mentioned a few days ago, but that's it), so that means that the Pirates will again start Jose Tabata and Brandon Inge against a righty. John McDonald's being thrown in for good measure. 

With this lineup on the field and Jeanmar Gomez pitching, all I want is for today's loss to be as painless as possible and for the Pirates to get the hell out of Milwaukee. Hiram Burgos starts for the Brewers. First pitch today is at 1:10. 

If there ever was a day that the Pirates needed James McDonald to be "Good J-Mac," this day certainly qualifies. They played terribly last night in their least favorite place in the universe, but today is a new day. Jonathan Sanchez's Pirate Rein of Terror is over, as he's been designated for assignment to make room for Bryan Morris in the bullpen. McDonald, of course, is capable of literally anything when he's on the mound. Maybe he'll give the Pirates the strong seven inning start that they need after an ugly loss. Maybe he'll force the team to use a long reliever for the second straight day. Who knows? Not even McDonald! 

Marco Estrada goes for the Brewers. Travis Snider and Neil Walker remain out of the lineup, which means Gaby Sanchez and Brandon Inge both continue to start against right-handed pitching and the bench will once again be gnats' eyelash thin. The first pitch tonight is at 8:10.

Mike Newman at FanGraphs today has a great look at Stetson Allie's return to prominence as a hitter with the West Virginia Power this year. After his two-homer night last night, Allie's tied for the Sally League lead in homers with eight and his season line is a ridiculous .351/.409/.660 in 110 plate appearances. There's quite a bit of conversation with both Allie and Kyle Stark on the transition and where Allie goes from here and it's all a very interesting read if you, like me, have no idea how to rate Allie as a prospect now that he's a 23 year old slugger in the Sally League that was a pitcher a couple of years ago. 

I seriously have no concept of what to do with Allie in any way right now. It's hard to tell what to make of this huge power surge, it's hard to tell if the Pirates deserve credit for moving him off of the mound so quickly or blame for drafting him in the first place when it seems clear from this article that he had no intention of being a starting pitcher, it's hard to tell what his ceiling is and where he goes from here since he's had such a weird prospect journey to this point. This is a weird and awfully unique situation given how quickly the Pirates moved him into the field and how quickly he's finding success there. Obviously we need to see more than 110 plate appearances in Single-A ball before knowing what to really make of Allie, but it's clear that Newman thinks that he could become a legitimate corner infield prospect. Reading that from someone with an outside perspective is definitely encouraging. 

I want to say that nothing went right in this game, but that's not true in the strictest sense. The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning and then nothing went right from there. Wandy Rodriguez couldn't find the strike zone in the first inning and when he had a chance to get out of the inning with the Pirates still only down 2-1, Clint Barmes booted a double play ball and by the time the inning finally ended, it was 5-1 Brewers. 

Given the way the Pirates have scored runs lately, that didn't necessarily seem like the worst thing in the world. Rodriguez seemed to settle down and the Pirates got a second run and then Yovani Gallardo and Norichika Aoki hit back-to-back homers and pretty soon Jonathan Sanchez was in the game and that was that. 

Let's try again tomorrow.

The Pirates are probably the hottest team in baseball right now, rolling to 14 wins in their last 19 games against mostly good teams and first place in the NL Central. No matter how well they're playing, though, a trip to Miller Park is a terrifying thing for the Pirates. Last year the Pirates won two games at Miller Park. In 2011, they won one. In 2010, they won two. They didn't win any games there in 2008 or 2009. In that whole span, the Pirates have only won one series at Miller Park, and that was in 2010. 

If the Pirates are going to turn things around for real this year, winning some games in Milwaukee would be a really good place to start. Tonight Wandy Rodriguez starts against Yovani Gallardo. Gallardo's off to a pretty rough start this year with a 4.97 ERA and an alarmingly low 5.3 K/9 in his first five starts. Everything has to start somewhere, I suppose. 

First pitch tonight is at 8:10

Before the game started, I laid my gameplan out thusly: Jeff Locke needed to keep the game close for as long as Shelby Miller was on the mound, the Pirates needed to work Miller to get him out of the game reasonably early, and the Pirates needed to pile runs on the Cardinals' struggling bullpen. That worked pretty much to perfection with one notable exception: Jeff Locke did more than keep the Pirates within striking distance. For his second straight start, he was excellent. He tossed a shutout over a career-high seven innings, striking out four, walking two, and only allowing three hits. Over his last two starts, he's thrown 13 shutout innings, striking out ten, walking four, and scattering five hits off into the wind. 

On the offensive side, things started slowly. In the second inning, Russell Martin took an up-and-out fastball from Miller and slammed it over the centerfield fence. In the fifth inning, Jose Tabata took almost the exact same pitch and drove it the other way over the right field wall. In the sixth, Miller finally got chased with a Brandon Inge single. Fernando Salas was greeted with a John McDonald double that was more a terrible play by Matt Holliday (the ball literally bounced off of his wrist) that scored Inge. Garrett Jones homered in the seventh to drive the lead up to four. In the ninth, the runs came pouring in; Pedro Alvarez singled in two runs and Martin followed that up with a two-run homer.

Through 25 games, the Pirates are 15-10 and in first place in the National League Central. You know this drill by now: after starting 1-5, they're 14-5 with series wins over the Diamondbacks, Reds, Braves, Phillies, and now Cardinals. They're playing very strong defense and they're getting hits from all over the lineup. The pitching staff hasn't been great, but Jeff Locke has made two very good starts in a row now and Charlie Morton made another good rehab start and things have been better than the worst case scenario that I was certainly worried about before the season. 

On one hand, it's 25 games and it doesn't reall mean anything. On the other hand, it's an incredible amount of fun to see the Pirates playing like this. A good April is only the start of a good season, but I'll take a good start over a bad one for sure. Milwaukee's next. If the Pirates are ever going anywhere, they're going to have to start winning games there. Maybe this will be the week.

After yesterday's late comeback victory, the Pirates find themselves in the same place that they were in when this series started on Friday -- a half-game behind the Cardinals. If the Pirates win today, they'll move into first place in the division and they'll ensure themselves at least five wins on this 10-game road trip no matter what happens in Milwaukee next week. All of that frankly sounds pretty nice, so let's hope for a win today. 

As has happened pretty regularly in the early season, the pitching matchup is not a favorable one for the Pirates. Shelby Miller has been excellent thus far in his rookie season. He's got a 1.44 ERA over 25 innings in his first four starts, striking out 26 and walking just seven. He does have one loss and that one loss was hung on him by the Pirates, but that was more due to AJ Burnett's excellent start than it was anything Miller did wrong; he struck out six and allowed two runs on four hits in six innings. For the Pirates, Jeff Locke looks to make a second good start in a row. He's been wildly inconsistent this year and in his career and this Cardinal lineup is quite a bit scarier than the crap sandwich the Phillies trotted out against him earlier this week. 

The plan for this game should be pretty much the same as yesterday: get a decent enough start from Locke to stay close, even if Miller is dominating. Make Miller throw enough pitches that he can't throw a complete game. Once the Cardinal bullpen enters the game, make them throw strikes because they're not very good at that. 

First pitch today is at 2:15. 

I'm not sure what possessed Mike Matheny to take Jake Westbrook out of the game after six shutout innings and only 91 pitches, but the move certainly went appreciated by the Pirates and their fans. As soon as Westbrooke came out of the game, Pedro Alvarez singled and Russell Martin homered to turn a 2-0 deficit into a tie game. Then Clint Barmes singled, James McDonald came in and pinch-bunted for AJ Burnett (more on this in a second), and Starling Marte drew a walk. That was it for Kelly, but Trevor Rosenthal wasn't much better. He came in and drilled Jose Tabata to load the bases, then walked Andrew McCutchen to put the Pirates ahead, then surrendered a fourth run on a Garrett Jones ground out. 

From there, Tony Watson, Mark Melancon, and Jason Grilli held the Cards to one run in the last three innings and the Pirates tacked on a fifth run for good measure, stealing a comeback win in St. Louis. Maybe this shouldn't have come as a huge surprise. The Cardinals' bullpen has been one of baseball's worst this year, while the Pirates' bullpen has been nearly impeccable. Still, late come from behind wins are always nice, particularly when they're driven the lower part of the lineup, like this one was. Any time you can get a win after an ugly loss like Friday's, it's very welcome. 

*One quick note: both James McDonald and Wandy Rodriguez were used as pinch-hitters today. This is what happens when you're carrying John McDonald along with Brandon Inge and then you decide that an injured Neil Walker won't go on the disabled list. This week is going to see a very thin bench.

The Pirates play a weirdly timed 4:15 PM EDT today, presumably because the FOX games are at 1 PM this weekend. Last night did not go well for the Pirates, obviously. Jonathan Sanchez faced four batters, retired none, and got thrown out. Clint Hurdle got thrown out protesting Sanchez's ejection (obviously arguing that there's no way Jonathan Sanchez has good enough control to hit anyone intentionally). When Starling Marte got hit by his second pitch of the game in the fifth inning without a compensatory ejection on the Cardinals' side, Jay Bell got thrown out of the game, too. To top it all off, Neil Walker injured his hand in the eighth inning trying to break up a double play, resulting in some stiches that will require him to miss a week. Also, they lost 9-1. 

Anyway, AJ Burnett starts today and given his reputation and yesterday's goings-on, he will be immediately ejected if he so much as grazes a Cardinal player's shirt. Jake Westbrook is pitching for the Cardinals, which means that if he beans nine Pirate batters in a row directly in the nose, he will still be allowed to face a tenth. This is how baseball works right now, and the only way the Pirates can change it is to win enough games to be afforded the respect the Cardinals are given by the umpires. This is not a joke: if you want the Pirates to "man up and get revenge" or whatever foolishness today, AJ Burnett is not the pitcher to do that because he won't be given any leeway and the bullpen cannot handle another long afternoon. I would much rather see the Pirates go out and score more runs than the Cardinals. That always seems like the best form of revenge to me. 

First pitch today is at 4:15.