Sunday, April 13th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Pirates, bullpen win despite Snell
Last time Ian Snell pitched, he was the stopper. On Saturday night, the Pirates carried him to victory instead of the other way around. Snell had a rough start and a rough game overall, surrendering a total of nine hits, but managing to only give up three runs in his six and a third innings of work. The bullpen and the batting order came through, however, and eked out a victory for the Pirates, winning Pittsburgh its second series of the season and causing Cincinnati to lose its first.
Snell started the game by surrendering a double to Corey Patterson and then a single to ex-Pirate farmhand Jeff Keppinger, moving Patterson to third. The next batter, Ken Griffey Jr., lined out to shortstop Brian Bixler and then something remarkable happened. (Well, not really, but this is the Pirates so anything decent on defense counts as remarkable.) Brandon Phillips lined out to right fielder Xavier Nady and Nady gunned Patterson down at the plate, managing to yank Snell out of the inning without surrendering a run.
The bend but not break mentality would carry over for the rest of the night, as the Pirates jumped out to a lead in the second inning when Ronny Paulino, who was given the rare start at C, singled to score Nady and 3B Doug Mientkiewicz. The Pirates would never trail again, even though Snell would surrender two runs in the sixth (the Pirates would score in the bottom of the inning on a Nady single) and one run in the seventh (again, the Pirates would regain the lead in the bottom of the inning, this time on a Nate McLouth single).
The bullpen came through again, with Damaso Marte, Tyler Yates, John Grabow and Matt Capps coming together to stave the Reds off over the final two innings. This is the second night in a row that the bullpen came through in a big way. Marte ran into some difficulties, as he allowed Keppinger, who he inherited from Snell, to move all the way to third base before getting his first out of the inning by striking Adam Dunn out. That left the bases loaded with two outs for Yates, who came on and caused Edwin Encarnacion to fly out. Grabow also bent, putting runners on first and second with one out, but like every other Pirate pitcher tonight he managed to prevent that fourth run from coming around.
With at least four solid pitchers, the bullpen could actually be a strength this year. Granted, that is said every year, but this time there are three proven arms and three power arms (as well as Grabow, who has shown excellent stuff thus far). The Pirates may actually be able to maintain leads, for once.
Mientkiewicz’s start at third was further proof that John Russell is not afraid to play around with weird lineups. The Sunday game against Florida last week and the game tonight both featured players in odd positions, but the Pirates won both games. Their bench, which looked like it had a chance to be really terrible before the season, actually has a chance to be pretty solid. With Paulino, Mientkiewicz, Chris Gomez and whichever outfielder (Morgan/McLouth/Bay/Nady), there are always options for Russell to turn to and, somewhat, trust in.
McLouth has proven to be one of the most pleasant surprises of the season thus far, as the AP’s report of the game began with this:
The Pittsburgh Pirates found a National League batting champion on their own bench two years ago in Freddy Sanchez. To their surprise, they may have discovered yet another productive bat there. Nate McLouth, the major league hits leader, singled in the go-ahead run and had two more hits, and the Pirates won consecutive games for the first time this season by beating the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 Saturday night.
The issue with that tidbit is nothing in the second paragraph, as McLouth again proved vital to the Pirates’ victory. No, the issue is the first paragraph, which showed the Pirates’ issues with evaluating talent. If there were a batting champion on most teams’ benches, they would surely know about him. The Pirates, however, were surprised by Sanchez’s success and, in a similar manner, were seriously considering starting Morgan over McLouth at the beginning of the season.
Anyone who has been to a game where McLouth played knows that the outfielder is a competitor and one of those rare players who can rapidly shift the momentum of a game in his team’s favor. The problem is that the Pirates (or at least the past renditions of the Pirates) are incapable of seeing that. In order to become a successful franchise, they need to be able to identify these types of players and to give them the opportunity to succeed, much as they have given McLouth this season.
It is probably worth mentioning that McLouth’s go-ahead single in the sixth brought Brian Bixler around. Bixler had just pushed his first major league hit through the infield and probably deserves some congratulations for doing so.
The magic number still stands at 76 and the Pirates are *gasp* one game under .500. They could reach that magic barrier again tomorrow if Tom Gorzelanny can outduel phenom Johnny Cueto in what could be a matinée pitcher’s duel at PNC.
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