Friday, June 29th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Recapping the Marlins Series
The Pirates are not worth game by game recaps anymore, so I’m just going to go over series’ as a whole for now, including random notes and making individual posts about especially interesting events. So, with no further ado, here goes:
June 26: Pirates 3, Marlins 2
-The Pirates hit Miami like a dying hurricane, with a record of 31-44 and in the midst of a five-game losing streak. That streak quickly became history, as Paul Maholm had one of his better outings of the season. This is Maholm’s second good start in the month of June, which is odd considering that Maholm tends to have about one good outing a month. Maybe he’s just getting a jump start on an awful July.
-Dan Uggla is quietly having one of the best seasons in the game. The second baseman has a .260 average, but has hit 16 homers and has 48 rbis. That, my friends, is an All-star worthy season.
-Maholm works very fast, but needs teams to be aggressive in order to be successful. If a team feels as if it can wait on his pitch, it whacks him straight out of the ballpark. When it is trying to hit everything, it hits everything straight into the ground and the Pirates end up victorious.
-I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Josh Phelps. The kid seems like he could be a decent ballplayer, but unfortunately he plays positions where the Pirates already have guys with confidence issues. They should attempt to install him somewhere on a semi-permanent basis while someone like Paulino heads to the minors to regain his confidence.
June 27: Pirates 7, Marlins 5
A victory put the Buccos on a winning streak (or something like that), if two games can ever be called a winning streak. The Pirates saw something of a power outage, a bizarre pitching performance, and an attempt by the bullpen to lose the game all lead to an oddly entertaining victory.
-Xavier Nady further solidified himself as the team’s MVP, as his second homerun regained the lead for the Pirates in extra innings and his first homer kept the team in the game. This guy has been the most important position player on the club, as Jason Bay continues to look lethargic and uninterested.
-For further proof of just how anemic the Pirates’ offense has been, Nady’s multi-homer game was the first of the season for the club.
-John van Benschoten’s outing was extremely bizarre, as he coasted through three innings then suddenly hit a wall with his control in the fourth, putting the Pirates in a dangerous spot. I’m not really sure what to make of it, as he just stopped finding the strike zone at some point. Oh well, it happens to the best pitcher. Even Roger Clemens goes a game without getting a strikeout sometimes (but not very often).
-Ryan Doumit had two passed balls. Anyone think he’s an everyday catcher? Anyone?
-This was easily Kevin Gregg’s worst outing of the year, as the closer by default had been very good to this point.
-Winning streak? Ha.
June 28: Marlins 9, Pirates 7
The Pirates lose a difficult one as they manage to keep clawing back into the game, only to eventually fail in their attempts to create an actual winning streak out of this series. They leave Miami with a 33-45 record.
-Scott Olsen found a team to reacquire his form against as he struck out his first five batters. The young lefty has struggled some this year without the tough guidance of Joe Girardi, but he had a very good season last year and displayed a lot of talent. It’s only a matter of time until he regains that form.
-Why don’t the Pirates have promotions like Camp Day? The Marlins got 21,000 to buy tickets at a group discount rate. Why don’t the Pirates just sell every ticket at the group discount rate? “Long-suffering fans of an awful team.”
-Adam LaRoche hit an impressive long-ball and raised his average to .218. He’s still an interesting fantasy player as he either gets a hit, walks, or strikes out at this point.
-Zach Duke and Paul Maholm seem to have reversed roles as Duke has become the victim of one big inning in each of his starts and a bunch of decent innings otherwise, while Maholm has shown potential to get guys out. It’s all about confidence, folks, and Duke has none right now.
The Pirates host the Nationals for the next three days in a series in which they have no right losing a single game. The boycott is scheduled for Saturday. If you hold tickets, participate, please. This franchise is a laughingstock.
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