Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 by Adam Wagner
The Pirates are back
After Monday’s aberration, the Pirates returned to their 2007 form, rapping out few hits against a young pitcher and looking like the worse team. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the night was the bullpen, which helped take any potential blame from an uncharacteristically weak performance by Tom Gorzelanny.
Gorzelanny went six innings, surrendering three runs and striking out three batters. Gorzo looked pretty shaky, but the game became disastrous after John Russell turned the ball over to his bullpen. Tyler Yates and John Grabow surrendered one run in the inning that they combined to work, but in the eighth inning, Damaso Marte blew the game open for the second consecutive game. (Pirate fans are wondering “Why didn’t we trade this guy when his stock was at its highest?” right about now, and rightly so.) There is really no one in the bullpen, and by that I actually do mean no one, that Russell can trust to pitch a stress-free inning right now. That could become a very large problem very fast.
On a plus side, Xavier Nady had another strong game, going 1-for-3 with two RBIs and a walk. Nady singled in the Pirates’ only runs, continuing his strong start to the season and, hopefully, strengthening the package that the Pirates will receive for him on July 31. Nady will inevitably be traded this season, but he needs to continue to play strong in order to be worth anything, meaning that if he wants to escape he will continue to play hard.
The pitcher starting against the Pirates was Jair Jurrjens, the pitcher that they almost got from the Tigers for Jack Wilson until Dave Littlefield rejected the trade. In other words, one of the smartest pitching organizations in all of baseball wanted this guy and was willing to surrender their starting shortstop for him, but the Pirates were not. Thanks, Dave.
The magic number is down to 81.
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