Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Pirates just avoid .500
The inclement weather on Sunday prevented the Pirates from playing the Atlanta Braves, meaning that the doubleheader on Monday could have potentially put the team at .500. After winning the first game 5-0 behind a ridiculously lucky Zach Duke, the team dropped the “night-cap” 8-1 behind a not very effective John Van Benschoten. As these two games showed, the Pirates go as their starting pitching goes.
The decision to start JVB in the second game was one of John Russell’s sketchier ones so far, as the pitcher hasn’t thrown consistently since being called up and was immediately being thrown up against Tim Hudson. There was really no chance that he would have a successful outing and he didn’t, giving up six earned runs in four innings. JVB was promptly demoted to Indianapolis after the game, in order to reportedly loosen his arm out. I’m not sure quite how to read that, only thinking that maybe the Pirates didn’t want to keep a pitcher they weren’t going to use around.
Zach Duke, on the other hand, somehow threw six shutout innings despite giving up five hits and five walks and only striking out three hitters (oh, there were four errors committed in that game as well). His ERA is down to 4.04, meaning that he is pretty close to the average major league pitcher, but the sentiment that Duke isn’t just the luckiest pitcher in baseball still can’t be avoided.
Freddy Sanchez’s clutch hitting out of the leadoff spot was integral to the victory in the first game as was Adam LaRoche’s continued success at the plate. Hopefully both players can remain hot, even though LaRoche is extremely streaky and Sanchez may need a cortisone shot to decrease swelling in his shoulder.
The whole entire offense except for Xavier Nady did nothing off of Hudson in the second game and, when combined with Van Benschoten’s collapse, the game was just a failure overall that is better off not being discussed.
This home stand was extremely productive, as the Pirates somehow managed to go 6-1, meaning that the current magic number is somehow only 62. I had thought that it would at least be in the high 50’s by now, but these Pirates just continue to surprise me. Hopefully they can keep it up.
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