Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
What Became Obvious - The Second Liveblog
Tonight, the 31-39 Pirates are in Seattle for the middle game of a three-game set. After last night’s nail-biter (which shouldn’t have been a nail-biter), the Pirates could really use a blowout. This blowout could go either way, as the Pirates are sending Paul Maholm (3-9, 5.00) to the hill tonight to face a surprisingly strong Mariners’ lineup. The team from the birthplace of grunge will throw Jeff Weaver, who has turned into an $8.325 million bust and is probably fighting to maintain major league starter status as he is 0-6 with a 10.97 ERA. Just think how much worse the Pirates would have been if they had signed this Scott Boras-created product of October instead of Tony Armas (which is not a compliment to Dave Littlefield, but is a bashing of Buzz Bavasi, Seattle’s free-agent-obsessed general manager). On a semi-interesting note, the Mariners have lost six games in a row. This means that the Pirates will be blown out tonight.
9:55 - Tracy is throwing essentially the same lineup as last night against Jeff Weaver, with the only difference being Jason Bay starting in LF instead of Xavier Nady. I’m not sure how wise this is, as Bay had a solid game last night while he was just focusing on his hitting and it seems as if it would be wise to allow him to maintain this focus for a few more days, so that he can re-enter one of his extremely hot streaks.
10:04 - Jose Bautista was apparently hit in the face with a ball during batting practice, brining some questions to his participation in tonight’s game. It is expected that he will be the starter, though.
10:07 - Another late start in Seattle and the Pirates’ announcers have now noticed it. They are “lingering romantically” until the first pitch is thrown. That’s not an image I wanted in my head.
10:08 - The crowd is cheering, so it sounds as if the Mariners are taking the field. At last.
10:10 - Bautista is coming to the plate, always good news for Pirates fans. Phil Cuzzi rules the first pitch a swing by Bautista.
10:11 - How bad is Chris Duffy’s hamstring really? The Pirates are obviously a better team when he is not in the lineup, so perhaps they are exaggerating his injury so that sparkplug Nate McLouth can see some more playing time.
10:14 - Sanchez drops a ball into shallow L-CF for the first Bucco hit of the game, preventing Jeff Weaver from having a painfully easy top of the first.
10:16 - Some observations about Jeff Weaver; the guy only threw two pitches at 90 mph in the first inning. That’s pathetic. In order to be successful with such a total lack of velocity, Weaver must really learn how to pitch. It was unintelligent for him to take the money from Seattle and run instead of returning to St. Louis for another year with the very impressive Dave Duncan, who would have made something out of what is rapidly becoming nothing. In other words, Duncan would have taught the notorious thrower how to pitch.
10:20 - Maholm induces a routine hopper to Ichiro and gets the out, but Freddy Sanchez made things sort of interesting as he bobbled the ball, probably because of the pressure that the speedster puts on the infield. Oh, and the first pitch was a ball.
10:21 - Jose Bautista (the only person with any variation of that last name playing tonight) makes a very good throw across the diamond to get Jose Lopez at first. For anyone who wants to move this guy away from third, turn in your Pirate fancard immediately. He is a borderline gold-glove fielder.
10:22 - Maholm gets three groundball outs, a very good sign for the pitcher who must get guys out with guile instead of overpowering them.
10:26 - Bay gets on with a walk, showing that Weaver is vulnerable, as always, due to a lack of control.
10:28 - Bay has moved to third after two groundouts (Nady and Doumit), with him running the first time in a situation where he would have easily been safe. At least he saved the double play.
10:30 - Ronny Paulino hits a lame pop up just beyond the infield. The Pirate catcher has lost all confidence in himself and could seriously use a stint in AAA to regain the confidence that made him a .310 hitter last year. The Pirates need the catcher to succeed if they plan on ever being competitive, as he comes up in one of the most important spots in the lineup as the guy with the opportunity to drive in Bay/Nady. In this situation, he failed. For the team to be successful, he must relearn how to succeed.
10:32 - Apparently Sammy Sosa hit his sixth hundredth homerun. Apparently Derrick Rose is bigger news.
10:33 - Four groundouts for Maholm. The groundout is Maholm’s version of the strikeout. I have always thought, though, that a groundout would be more frustrating than a k, as you would feel that you could have done something with the pitch but just failed miserably. As a hitter, it would be easier to rationalize and be proactive about battling strikeouts than groundouts. Five grounders, by the way, but Bautista’s throw goes over LaRoche’s head and into the stands. Johjima on 2nd, one out.
10:37 - Another ugly play, as Beltre gets a single into LF, but Bay hits Johjima with his throw at home. The run scores and Beltre gets to third. 1-0 Mariners, Beltre on third
10:38 - Wow. Richie Sexson gets an infield single as Jose Bautista messes up again. Beltre scores, 2-0 Mariners
10:39 - Paul Maholm may be the unluckiest pitcher ever. Every single Mariner batter has hit a grounder, but the Pirate defense has not capitalized as of yet. Bautista is taking way too many chances right now.
10:41 - Single by Jack. Let’s see if Jack Flash can make something happen. Bautista owes us anyways.
10:42 - Apparently not. Jack is picked off.
10:45 - The Mariner middle infield is one of the best in baseball in terms of fielding, an issue which I will address some point in the very near future. Probably later tonight.
10:47 - A scoring change: Johjima’s infield hit became an error. Maholm is no longer accountable for the two runs.
10:50 - Speaking of infield hits, Ichiro pulls of a nice one. It was a valiant effort by Jack, with a bare-handed grab, but not quite enough, And before I can finish typing, Ichiro steals while Maholm throws what will go down as a wild pitch.
10:52 - Ichiro now steals third, with a poor throw by Paulino. Paulino had him beat, but the throw went off the bag.
10:53 - Bautista’s diving stop made a nice out, but didn’t stop Ichiro from scoring. 3-0 Mariners.
10:56 - With a double by Johjima following a walk to Guillen, the score is now 4-0. Maholm is definitely having an off night, but thats how his whole season has gone anyways. He may be headed to the minors if he doesn’t pick up.
10:59 - After a mound visit, a nice diving catch by Ryan Doumit playing right field to end this terrible inning.
11:00 - How can the Milwaukee Brewers be running away with the NL Central? They are already up on the Cubs 7.5 games, but worse yet, the Pirates are only out 9 games. This division is crumbling.
11:04 - The Pirates go down 1-2-3 with a trio of flyouts…it’s not looking good for the Buccos tonight.
11:06 - Sexson hits a monster home run for the second straight game. Isn’t he supposed to be washed up this year? 5-0 Mariners. Maholm might not make it through the inning.
11:08 - Maholm is getting hit hard. Each of the last 7 batters have hit it deep into the outfield. I would expect to see another homer before he leaves.
11:11 - Fortunately, Maholm forced two flyouts and a weak chopper from Ichiro to end the inning with minimal damage.
11:12 - Wow. The giveaway for this Sunday’s game is a baseball that is stamped with the entire teams autograph. Thats got to be worth at least 75 cents.
11:13 - Nady gets struck out. Even the announcers are noticing that Pirates’ pattern of getting destroyed by pitchers with sky-high ERAs (Kameron Loe last week). Weaver has only let up two hits this game.
11:16 - Doumit flies out and Paulino gets caught looking to end the top of the 5th inning. The Pirates are getting beaten 5-0, and it looks worse than the score shows.
11:18 - Haha. “Wow…this is starting to look really disturbing,” says one of the Pirates announcers as Lopez grounds out to second.
11:20 - How many times are they going to mention that Bay’s family and friends attending this game? We get it. They drove 411 miles over 7 hours through Ryan Doumit’s hometown to attend this game.
11:22 - The Mariners go down quickly, but the Pirates better get on the board now. Apparently, Seattle has only lost once this season when leading after 5 inning.
11:25 - Jack Wilson needs to learn how to count. He started walking to the bench after only his second strike. In the end, it didn’t matter, with Wilson striking out on the next pitch anyways.
11:27 - Another Pirate goes down on strikes, with Bautista being the latest victim. That makes four on the game, but all within the last 5 batters.
11:28 - A nice tumbling stop by Lopez to get out McLouth. Is it too much to ask for an errant throw?
11:30 - Johjima gets his second infield hit/error of the night and probably the fourth for the team. Maholm should have made the play, but he missed the ball. Sanchez nearly saved it, but was a tad too slow.
11:33 - Beltre goes down on Maholm’s first strikeout of the game. He looked like he was swinging for the stars.
11:36 - Consider me impressed. Paulino, not exactly a defensive expert behind the plate, managed to throw out Johjima. That may be one his first throwouts all year. To think, he was my sleeper fantasy pick at the start of the year.
11:52 - More of the same for an inning, as the Pirates go down in order and the Mariners make things interesting. Maholm managed to get out of the inning this time, though, which is unnecessarily impressive. He also struck out Seattle’s version of Jose Castillo, Jose Lopez, for his second k of the night.
11:53 - Nady looks silly striking out. Jeff Weaver is making this game really fun for Mariners’ fans and rather dull for Pirates’ fans. Imagine that, the Pirates getting owned by a journeyman righty at a time when they could really have used the offensive boost.
11:56 - The Pirate announcers are beginning to discuss the games where the Bucs failed to hit the ball this season and where Jeff Weaver was “dominant,” meaning he was probably way better than he was tonight, over the course of his career.
11:58 - A double by Ronny Paulino ties the Pirate mark for fewest hits on the year. Well that’s good. At least they won’t set a new mark for futility tonight. Of course, Wilson promptly pops the ball up just to make sure that a run won’t score.
12:02 - Jim Tracy finally asks for a reliever in Dan Kolb, mercifully removing Paul Maholm from the game. I’m not sure how proper this move is, as the bullpen has a long trip in front of them and this game is obviously not winnable. Maholm should have gone another inning simply because the Pirates have nothing to lose.
12:03 - Raul Ibanez hits a Sexon-like shot to right field, giving the Mariners an even larger lead. Forget everything I’ve ever said about Dan Kolb. The guy simply can not get major league outs anymore and has reverted to a AAAA (yes, that’s four) pitcher. 70 Mariners
12:08 - Kolb just continues to let up hard-hit balls. This guy is simply not a major league pitcher anymore, but is instead just another white flag for the bullpen.
12:11 - Alas, we move into the ninth inning of this awful game. If last night revealed much of the good about this year’s Pirate club, tonight’s game reveals much of the bad. Shoddy defense, inability to make contact, struggling starting pitching, terrible strategy, lack of talent in the bullpen, and an inability to remain consistent.
12:14 - Wow, the Pirates are rallying. A walk by Bautista followed by a one-out single by Sanchez puts runners on first and third for Adam LaRoche. Hopefully he hits the ball solidly somewhere, as it would simply be embarrassed to be shut out by Jeff Freaking Weaver.
12:15 - Of course LaRoche comes up short, fouling out to Adrian Beltre.
12:17 - Oh my God. We just got shut out by Jeff Weaver. This is awful. More news and notes to come.
More notes: Ichiro hit into a double play, which is extremely uncharacteristic for him. So far this year (before tonight), he had hit into two double plays. Whether it’s striking out Johjima or getting Ichiro in a double play, the Pirates seem to like making the Mariners’ Japanese stars do things that they normally do not.
-Why does this team react so adversely to success? Just when it seems as if they are finally righting the ship, they pull a stunt like being shut out by the worst starter in major league baseball.
-I am not backing off of my stance that Jeff Weaver is terrible. The Pirates’ lineup could have been beaten by a AAA team tonight.
-The Pirates need to play better or else the pitchers will begin to quit on them (see Perez, Oliver last season and the season before).
-The hitters panic and swing more whenever they fall behind. Maybe the terrible announce team is onto something when they talk about scoring first . . .
-The Pirates dropped to 31-40 and to 5-6 in interleague play. Tomorrow they will see the most enigmatic pitcher in the American League as they will face Phenom Felix Hernandez. The Pirates will send John Van Benschoten to the hill. Hopefully he can continue being a positive addition to the rotation as a #3 or 4 starter.
This game was very disappointing, folks. Come back tonight for liveblog #3 in the West Coast series. It should be a fun one . . . Maybe Jim Tracy will say something like, “Well, you know, the guys put out all of the effort they had last night. Jeff Weaver saw Jimmy Colborn in the dugout, though, and simply remembered all of the great little tips that he taught Jeff. These are the same tips he’s teaching our staff. It’s just a shame they aren’t understanding them as well as Jeff is. I mean, you see a start like that and you think bona fide major league starters. Our guys, I’m not so sure. I mean, they’re putting all of the effort in. We’re just not seeing results. And that’s unfortunate . . .” and he would continue for five more minutes with that question. I am convinced that his pregame show goal is to answer two questions at the most.
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