Friday, April 11th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Pirates are swept for first time this season
The Pirates returned to Pittsburgh on Monday hoping for success against the Chicago Cubs, a key in-division rival. What they were met with was three consecutive defeats and the first time that they have been swept this season, dropping them to 3-6. Tonight’s goat was likely Matt Morris and the beleaguered bullpen, which was too tired from Wednesday’s ridiculously long game to be properly utilized.
Morris was forced to throw 113 pitches through seven innings, surrendering all seven runs against the Cubs and falling victim to The Big Inning, something that all of the Pirate starters have the potential to do. After limiting the Cubbies to two runs through five innings, Morris simply collapsed in the sixth, surrendering home runs to Geovany Soto and Mike Fontenot and giving up five runs in the inning.
The only reason that Morris finished the sixth and pitched on into the seventh was the exhaustion of the Pirates’ bullpen, which had only Evan Meek as a healthy option (and no one wanted to see him come into the game). Morris, therefore, stayed on throughout his terrible inning and sucked it up to pitch one more before turning the ball over to Meek who surprisingly enough didn’t walk in any runs and actually looked somewhat effective, even throwing a fastball at 97 mph to strike out Derek Lee.
The Pirates were able to make things happen against Cubs’ starter Rich Hill, who was pulled after the third inning due to his quickly rising pitch count and ineffectiveness against Pirate hitters. It was, therefore, former Bucco Jon Lieber who came on to dominate the team that once traded him for Brant Brown, as Lieber, Bob Howry and Kerry Wood combined to shut the Pirates down for the rest of the night.
It seems worth noting that Matt Morris has just as many doubles as Jason Bay has RBIs, with both residing at a grand total of one.
The magic number is now 76 and is dropping quickly.
1 Comment
April 11th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I am baffled how anybody can continue to support this organization. I urge you to do what I did and divest yourself of any and all interest in the Pirates. They have alienated an entire generation of fans 18-35 years old. Go Pens!
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