Thursday, May 15th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
.500 just out of reach
The Pirates squandered an opportunity to reach .500 for the first time in a while on Wednesday night. The starting pitching, however, bombed the game and squandered this latest opportunity for that not-so-magical number that seems to remain just out of reach. Paul Maholm, who does not pitch well on the road, was the pitcher and, as per usual in losses, he was at fault tonight.
As the starting pitching goes, the Pirates go, so when Maholm allowed 14 baserunners in six innings and basically had the Pirates out of the game from the second inning on. You just can’t allow that many runners to reach base and still expect to have a successful outing, even if you are throwing the ball well, as Maholm claimed he was.
The lineup seemed a bit odd tonight as it featured Luis Rivas at SS in the second spot in the batting order, messing with the seeming success found by John Russell recently. Russell needs to learn that you don’t fix a good thing, particularly when it’s the best you can hope for like the Freddy Sanchez-Nate McLouth top of the order has been for the Pirates. Rivas is a walking double play and immediately mitigates any advantage represented by Sanchez’s leading off.
Todd Wellmeyer took advantage of this, somehow continuing to be an effective pitcher despite his journeyman status. He went seven innings tonight and only gave up one run, an RBI by Nate McLouth. The most impressive Cardinal, though, was Rick Ankiel, the OF who made a full-out snag of an Adam LaRoche likely home run ball, stealing an RBI off the suddenly hot, it’s-not-April-anymore LaRoche.
In a couple of notes, Ryan Doumit is out for at least four weeks, meaning at least six weeks in reality, with the fractured thumb that he sustained last night. Doumit’s loss will be a major one for this offense to deal with and a significant amount of pressure will fall on the hefty shoulders of Ronny Paulino to take his place.
The Pirates also retained hard-throwing, ineffective reliever Evan Meek, paying Tampa an undisclosed amount of money for his rights. That is probably a solid decision that allows another power arm to possibly be available for the bullpen someday.
The magic number is now at 61, much higher than it should have been without the recent success of the club.
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