Be Like Tike

Sunday, June 17th, 2007 by Adam Wagner

What Became Obvious - Pirate Edition

The Pirate came out victorious today, winning a wild one 8-7, improving their record 30-39 as they prepare to head out west on maybe the most unfair road trip planned by Major League Baseball ever. The Pirates are now 4-5 in interleague play, which is not too bad considering their general interleague history. That number will probably tilt in favor of the loss column shortly, as the team is about to begin that road trip to the west coast to play Seattle and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim before heading to Miami to play the Marlins. Other notes after the jump:

Jack Wilson is reacting very well to his benching. He made at least three very good defensive plays today and proved to be a catalyst in the victory, as Zach Duke needs a shortstop of today’s Jack’s caliber in order to be successful. Jack also went 2 for 4 at the plate, showing an effort that had been missing on the Washington- New York road trip. Just as Duke needs Jack to be good in the field, the team needs Jack to be energetic in the clubhouse and on the field. He is the intensity of the team and that showed today.
Jose Castillo may be feeling comfortable again, as he went o for 4 with two strikeouts and made a boneheaded defensive play that nearly cost the Pirates the game. When Castillo feels secure in his position, he plays like this, takes crazy risks with his swing and tries to make flashy plays in the field. It seems as if when he is insecure in his position on the team he just gets the job done and is clutch at the plate.
Thank you for making that catch, Jason Bay.
Does Major League Baseball hate the Pirates? This ridiculous roadtrip combined with Chad Fairchild’s godawful umpiring today and the questionable calls last night are beginning to make me a fan of a conspiracy theory. The Pirates just seem to be seeing a lot of calls going against them right now. Also, Fairchild should be fined for walking towards LaRoche in the first inning. An official should never escalate, which is what Fairchild seem to be trying to do.
If Zach Duke could have avoided the one big inning today, he would have had a very good start. The young starter is obviously good when he has confidence and is terrible without this confidence, as he began to just throw instead of pitch in that terrible fourth inning. When he is on, though, Duke is pitching and pitching effectively, hitting his spots and forcing batters to ground out.
It is annoying that we don’t see Nate McLouth more. He always seems to be effective when he starts, much more so than when he is coming off of the bench. His four RBIs today and his clutch double in the fourth, when a great opportunity seemed to be about to come to waste, are an example of the skill of NDog to just get the job done.
The Pirates now have two players on their active roster that can only be used in case of emergency, in Chris Duffy and Freddy Sanchez. The problems with these two severely limit Jim Tracy/ Jim Lett’s options.
Speaking of injuries, Ryan Doumit was originally scheduled to start in rightfield today, but was benched after the team deemed the thumbing at the base of his right thumb, which came off of a foul tip last night, was too detrimental to his play to let him make the start. That was fortuitous for the Pirates, as Xavier Nady got the start instead and had a very good day.
Xavier Nady is proving to be one of the more important players on this team. No matter how much flak Dave Littlefield is receiving for the Oliver Perez trade, it was not a bad trade at the time. Remember, Oliver was never going to turn it around under the direction of Jim Colborn. Nady, however, is proving to be one of the more important players in the lineup not only today, but overall as his 42 RBIs are the second-most on the team.
Capps is becoming a master of the Mike Williams save, where you make the situation as dramatic as possible. That is worrisome.
Jose Bautista really likes the leadoff spot.
Bautista’s leadoff homerun was the only run scored that did not come with two outs. I’m not sure if that is good or bad, as it shows an ability to make things happen with two outs that the Pirates did not seem to have last year. It also shows, however, that the Pirates were not scoring before they reached two outs, referencing the Nady situation in particular where it seemed as if two runners were going to be wasted.
Ian Snell apparently burned his finger in a kitchen accident and will miss a start. That’s exactly what this team needs right now . . . maybe if the Pirates are lucky, Chad Fairchild will be the home plate umpire in his comeback game.