• Jack Wilson got jacked up tonight.  Diving after a ball hit by So Taguchi, Jack went headfirst into Matt Kata and was immediately knocked unconscious.  He managed to sit up but was taken off the field on a cart.  Jack has been the best hitter in the major leagues since the beginning of August, but concussions can have long term impacts on coordination. He has the entire fall and winter to recover, but this could definitely impact his trade value.
• Next season, I expect the starting lineup to include Adam LaRoche, Freddy Sanchez, Jose Bautista, Xavier Nady, Jason Bay, and Ryan Doumit.  Cesar Izturis will likely be at shortstop after Jack gets traded somewhere for a few non-prospects.
• Steve Pearce and Nyjer Morgan both played very well for September callups, with their averages floating around .300.  However, Pearce started the season at single A for a reason and at 27, Morgan is a little old to be considered a prospect.  I’m not implying anything, but Pearce may be the first person to move from single A to the bigs without a drop-off in productivity at any level.
• Josh Phelps hit .512 for the month of August, but he hit .182 in September.  Ignoring August, he would have hit around .270 this year. However, the team doesn’t have a place for him with LaRoche at first.
• Ronnie Paulino, Chris Duffy, and Jose Castillo have no place in the organization.  Paulino has blown far too many plays on defense, and he couldn’t throw out a runner if his life depended on it.  Duffy is a prima donna who has already stated that he doesn’t like Pittsburgh.  Castillo flat out stinks.  He is fat, but he has no power.  He was originally projected to be a 20 steals/20 homerun guy, but that certainly hasn’t panned out.
• The Great Pittsburgh Pierogie Race n’at is approaching its final running for the season.  The standings are tight, as Cheese Chester, Sauerkraut Saul, Jalapeño Hannah, and the highly intelligent Oliver Onion are tied at 19 wins apiece.  Tomorrow’s race will be fierce, as no one wants to end up like Potato Pete.

• Ronny Paulino’s laziness cost the Pirates a win. It is unacceptable for a player to loaf in the manner that Paulino has recently especially when the margin of error is as low as it is for this team. Paulino should have had a ticket to Indianapolis left in his locker Tuesday night or at least spent a couple of days riding the pine.
• With that said, it seems as if either the fans’ or Jim Tracy’s disapproval have lit a small fire under Paulino, as he has hit home runs in two consecutive games now (the grand slam Wednesday and the sixth-inning solo shot Thursday). It’s highly unlikely that he can be the .310 hitter of last year, but he’s nowhere near as bad as he has shown to this point this season. Of course, he still bunted into a double play Thursday.
• Paul Maholm is the ace of the Pirates staff right now and it’s both a good and a bad thing. It’s bad because it means that Snell and Gorzo (who is hurt, so it’s probably not fair to take that shot at him) are flat-out not performing right now, but it’s good because it means that one of the young pitchers is turning into a consistent option, which this team desperately needs right now. Maholm’s ERA has been on a steady drop from the 5.82 mark it was at after his May 20 start against Arizona to the 4.50 point that it’s at right now. He has also gone at least six innings in his last nine starts and given up three or fewer earned runs seven of those nine times. Consistency. It’s a nice trait for a team to have.
• Tony Armas’ win Wednesday night was a long time coming. Ten months to be exact.
• If Armas’ start can be taken as an indication of Colborn’s skill as a pitching coach, we can assume that he has the ability to rebuild veterans (Armas and Chacon) and ruin young starters (Duke, JVB, possibly overworking Gorzo). That’s not something that a team like the Pirates can afford to have occur to its most valuable assets.
• Jason Bay’s double Wednesday night was his first since June 26. So not only has he been sapped of home run power, but he hasn’t even come close. At all. As if we all needed statistical proof of that.
• Freddy Sanchez looked very good at secondbase Wednesday. That is one of the first times in a while that I can justifiably say that and it’s good to see that Freddy is beginning to develop sort of a comfort level at his “new” position (yes, I know he played it in the minors and that he’s been there all year . . . he’s just looked terribly uncomfortable).
• The Pirates should try to trade for Chris Duncan. Anyone who hits a vendor’s tray with a bat is cool by me, especially when said vendor is known to stand directly in the line of site and scream when action is occurring.
• Shane Youman has the ability to walk as many hitters as he strikes out as he has kept the two numbers within one of each other in each of his starts this season. It is also interesting that Tracy only gave him 88 pitches through five innings in today’s start.
• Jose Bautista returned to the lineup and I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing. On one hand, Bautista probably has the most untapped potential of any position player outside of maybe Castillo on the roster. On the other hand, it would have been very cool to see them put Xavier Nady at 3B and I’m still amazed that they didn’t try it while Bautista was out. At least the return of Bautista means no more appearances for Matt Kata.
• When the Cardinals leave 11 men on base, Tony La Russa says, “We just lost a game we should have won.” When the Pirates leave 11 men on base, Jim Tracy makes excuses, talks about how much better the team will be, and pontificates on wasted opportunities.
• Jose Castillo? Clutch? Um, does anyone else remember a game against the Reds in, I believe, the summer of 2004 when Randall Simon hit golfed a homerun in the the top of the 9th to win the game 1-0? People tried calling him clutch, too.
• Masumi Kuwata walked two batters in an inning of work. He’s not the type of pitcher that should pitch to more than one batter simply because his stuff is so bad that hitters will eventually just wait for a fat pitch or let him walk them.
• Steve Pearce is continuing to be successful at AAA. Let’s keep Jeff Manto away from this guy, please.
• John Van Benschoten had a solid start immediately after leaving Pittsburgh and Jim Colborn, giving up four hits over six scoreless innings.  He still struggled with control, however, as he only struck out three while walking four.  I don’t think that the ability to work out of jams as soon as he escaped Colborn is a coincidence, as JVB is definitely a Russian roulette sort of pitcher who just happened to be firing the wrong chamber during his time in Pittsburgh but was immediately able to pull the proper chamber as soon as he returned to Indianapolis.
• Optimism can be allowed, as winning cures all; but remember, this is still the third or fourth worst team in baseball. They were just able to beat a very beleaguered Cardinals club that they should be able to beat routinely. This is still the Nutting/Littlefield Pirates.

The fact of the matter is that the Pirates have two of the best pitchers in baseball right now and the single hottest hitter, who does the same thing this time every year. There is no question but that Tom Gorzelanny and Ian Snell both belong in the All-Star Game. These two have beaten some of the best teams in baseball while pitching for one of the worst teams in baseball. For proof of just how good the two have been, look at their records (7-5 for Snell, 9-4 for Gorzelanny). Perhaps the most impressive fact about this series, though, is that Gorzo and Snell clearly did not have their best stuff in the beginning of the game, whether it was the Brewers’ three-run first yesterday or Gorzo’s struggling through five or six innings, according to Doumit, today’s catcher. Both pitchers battled through it and got better as the game went on (look at Ian Snell’s final batter/battle with Prince Fielder yesterday; if you need evidence of a pitcher having cajones, there it is) and that is what ace pitchers must accomplish. As good as the two pitchers were the past two days, though, Adam LaRoche and Ryan Doumit have been better.

LaRoche is finally putting the team on his back and becoming the leader that has been missing since Jason Bay started sucking. This was perhaps most evident when LaRoche told the fans to lay off of Bay, as they have started booing the struggling leftfielder on a regular basis. The effort is appreciated, but the message not so much. Bay just doesn’t look right out there and if there is something wrong with him it is his responsibility and that of the organization to make sure that he is okay. He is, after all, the star of the team and should be treated as such. LaRoche, however, seems to be remembering what it feels like to be on a team that plays winning baseball from his Atlanta days and is going to do all that he can to somehow replicate that here in Pittsburgh. His efforts must be given props and, hopefully, with a lot of luck they will turn out to be successful.

LaRoche is becoming a more aggressive hitter, something that the rest of the team is already a little bit too much of. Maybe they should take a cue from their newly minted slugger of a first baseman and change strategies at the plate, with LaRoche becoming more aggressive and everyone else becoming more patient.

Speaking of other Pirate hitters, Xavier Nady came through with a three-hit day today and was 4-for-7 over the last two games, further solidifying himself as the team’s most valuable (well, for the moment consistent, player). Ryan Doumit continued to rake, blasting two balls out of the yard over the last two days, both from the left side of the plate. Honestly, why does the dangerous lefty even try to hit right-handed? The difference is so profound that Doumit goes from being a solid starter as a lefty to being borderline as a righty.

This series is certainly something that the Pirates can take pleasure in, but they must set their goals higher than having another winning second half. They should be aiming at the Brewers and that has to continue tomorrow with the second-place Cubs, apparently a dangerous team now instead of the cute little toy that they were before, coming into PNC
Park for a three-game set before the break. Tomorrow, the Pirates will send the possibly resurgent Paul Maholm to the mound against the even more dramatically resurgent Jason Marquis. Seems like bad news, but then again so did the Brewers.

The Pirates came out victorious 7-2 thanks to a six-run second inning. Tom Gorzelanny posted another very good start and Masumi Kuwata showed that he can be a consistent pitcher out of the bullpen. Adam LaRoche also showed signs of turning around with a homerun in the fifth.

-The Pirates did not, apparently, miss Jason Bay, as the loafing leftfielder was left out of the lineup and the team had a big inning for one of the first times this season. Bay’s slacking recently is a serious problem, as his reputation as a “lead by example guy” can not justifiably be upheld if he is hitting .146 as he has over his last 80-something at-bats. Instead, he is just grumpy deadweight, something that this team certainly has enough of.

-Gorzelanny has been awesomely consistent so far, as he turns in pretty much the same solid start every time out, going seven or so innings and striking out six or so batters while giving up two or three runs. He has also, however, thrown way too many pitches in more than a few of these starts, as 115 pitches has becoming the seeming norm for him. Last night, he “only” threw 107, which is not too high at all.

-Masumi Kuwata has a very good glove as is shown by his very well-turned double play in the top of the eighth. The import has become a vital part of the Pirate bullpen by becoming one of two pitchers (along with Damaso Marte) who can get hitters out routinely. The Pirates should be very pleased that he signed with them.

-Nate McLouth is so much fun to root for.

-After last night, Ryan Doumit had 15 doubles. He had 16 rbis. Wonder how many guys are on base when he comes up.

On to today, where the Pirates looked more like the hometown team that we are all used to, leaving 10 runners on base and compiling six hits over nine innings of baseball, wasting a solid start by Paul Maholm, who has now had good starts back-to-back. Are we sure someone didn’t switch the brains of Maholm and Duke?

-Also today, Adam LaRoche continued his hot streak by going 3 for 5, including a single that kept the game alive in the ninth. After that at-bat, I couldn’t help but notice that he was staring into the dugout, seemingly begging for a pinch-runner. I don’t understand this logic at all, as the team needed a run and with its slowest runner at first, that run was obviously not going to happen. Typical Tracy managing.

-On that “homerun,” Tracy stated that Bay said that a fan interfered with the ball. Bay obviously does not care about the team and arguing would not be insulting Bay, it would be supporting the pitcher and the team. Tracy’s responsibility is not to his lackadaisical leftfielder; it is to his team. By not even leading the dugout, Tracy let his team down.

-The Pirates were beaten by a motivational Katie Couric quote, according to CBS Sportsline, as Mike Bacsik stated after the game that, “There’s a Katie Couric book I read to my daughter that she loves. One of the lines is something to the effect that if you never felt bad, you wouldn’t know what it’s like to feel good.” So we lost not only to the worst team in baseball but also a pitcher inspired by one of the most annoying people in America? Wow.

-The Pirates were seriously only able to get five hits in six innings off of Bacsik and his 5.08 ERA? That is truly awful.

-The murmurings are beginning that Bay may have a problem with his knee. In the wake of the Zach Duke announcement, one must wonder whether the Pirates’ rash of injuries is simply a new type of lame excuse or whether they are not doing their due diligence by the players, team, and fan and forcing/allowing the players to play through pain.

-Ryan Church had a huge rip in the left side of his pants, giving all of the left-centerfield bleachers a very humorous sight to look at. In other Ryan Church news, the Pirates’ leftfielder doesn’t try, but Church completely gave up on Bautista’s sac fly. Instead of sprinting back so that he could catch it, crowhop, and rifle it in; Church jogged back, simply made an effort to catch the ball and then looped it back into the infield. It was a lame play on his part.

-Manny Acta mismanaged more than Jim Tracy, but Tracy could have easily been the victim of bullpen mismanagement as well. Acta kept Jon Rauch in even as his balls-to-strikes ratio was 1:1 after five or so batters. At that point, you realize that a guy simply doesn’t have it that night and pull him, you don’t leave him out there to lose the game. Tracy’s nuttiness stemmed from his decision to throw Capps in the top of the 9th, as he was totally counting on winning in the bottom of the innning and probably would have brought in Gopherball Wasdin if they hadn’t scored in the 9th. That would have almost certainly resulted in a Pirate loss.

-The bottom of the 7th was one of the most electrifying innings of baseball that I have seen at PNC Park in some time, despite the lame opponent and awful baseball that the home team has been playing. If you were one of the over 32,000 people that was there last night and weren’t completely pumped when McLouth hit his triple, you just don’t have a pulse or are named Bob Nutting. Pittsburgh again proved why it is one of the best baseball (or sports) cities in America.

-The fireworks after the game were awful. The “grand finale” would have been dominated by the middle of any random suburbs’ Fourth of July ceremony. Maybe the team is getting cheap here, too, eh?

-Chris Duffy is going to the DL with a badly sprained left ankle. I’m willing to bet that the Pirates receive about 3x as much production out of centerfield with the platoon of Davis/McLouth than they would have out of Duffy. Two decent players who go all out every night or another slacker? This team needs the two decent players, especially if they are two of the most exciting players that the team has.

-From where I was sitting, it looked like Jason Bay came within six inches of a homerun, but I never saw a conclusive replay of the shot.

-Jim Tracy quote Analyzation of the day:

“We know there are areas where we’re a hell of a lot better than we’ve showed, but we’re not giving up. We’re not quitting.”

Has he seen his leftfielder play lately? Or his catcher? Or Chris Duffy? Or, well, most of the guys who they were counting on to produce? Outside of about five exceptions, they’ve already quit.

-Ian Snell is a very good pitcher right now, maybe the best I’ve seen this year outside of Randy Johnson. He displays tenacity, excitement, and a will for victory that this club needs. This is the type of guy who the manager makes be a leader in the clubhouse because not only is he one of the team’s best players, but he’s also the most passionate. Last night, it seemed as if he had pretty good stuff, but was not always locating the ball correctly (see the Langerhans homerun). Snell did not quit, however, and led the team to victory.

-The pitch speed thing was broken again, so I couldn’t get a read on his velocity all night. Someone needs to tell the Pirates about this; apparently they are too busy checking out their Bob Walk bobbleheads to notice that an integral part of the only thing they have going for them isn’t working.

-Bob, you clearly miss the point. If you appreciate the passion of your fans so much, why do you allow two completely unpassionate dolts to hold the crucial positions of manager and general manager? Why do you count on gimmicks and promotions to draw people to the ballpark? Why do you think that this boycott tonight is the only time the Pirates have been recognized by the national media this season? Why do you think fans booed last night when they heard that it was a fireworks night? Why do you think that Irate Fans t-shirts were more common last night than ever before? Why do you think that no one believes you when you say that your main focus is winning? The answer to the last question, by the way, is that you have never, NEVER, in your stint as owner showed a commitment to winning. It is just phenomenal that the Player’s Association hasn’t filed a grievance against you, as your team has shown no willingness to sign free agents, no willingness to wrap guys up to long-term contracts (outside of Bay and Wilson and those were clearly for marketing purposes), and no commitment to the farm system. Your team, my good sir, is a joke. A joke of your own making that has you laughing all the way to the bank. Yes, Pittsburghers will keep coming to the stadium because they love baseball and sports. If this were almost any other market in the country, you’d be damn lucky to draw 10,000 a night. Just don’t think you can trick fans into believing you are actually committed to winning, Mr. Nutting. There is only one group of people that you care about, and it is not the fans. It’s the Nutting Family. I’ll leave it up the The Who to say it for me.

-If you are at tonight’s game and don’t at least leave your seat after the third inning, shame on you.

June 26: Pirates 3, Marlins 2

-The Pirates hit Miami like a dying hurricane, with a record of 31-44 and in the midst of a five-game losing streak. That streak quickly became history, as Paul Maholm had one of his better outings of the season. This is Maholm’s second good start in the month of June, which is odd considering that Maholm tends to have about one good outing a month. Maybe he’s just getting a jump start on an awful July.

-Dan Uggla is quietly having one of the best seasons in the game. The second baseman has a .260 average, but has hit 16 homers and has 48 rbis. That, my friends, is an All-star worthy season.

-Maholm works very fast, but needs teams to be aggressive in order to be successful. If a team feels as if it can wait on his pitch, it whacks him straight out of the ballpark. When it is trying to hit everything, it hits everything straight into the ground and the Pirates end up victorious.

-I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Josh Phelps. The kid seems like he could be a decent ballplayer, but unfortunately he plays positions where the Pirates already have guys with confidence issues. They should attempt to install him somewhere on a semi-permanent basis while someone like Paulino heads to the minors to regain his confidence.

June 27: Pirates 7, Marlins 5

A victory put the Buccos on a winning streak (or something like that), if two games can ever be called a winning streak. The Pirates saw something of a power outage, a bizarre pitching performance, and an attempt by the bullpen to lose the game all lead to an oddly entertaining victory.

-Xavier Nady further solidified himself as the team’s MVP, as his second homerun regained the lead for the Pirates in extra innings and his first homer kept the team in the game. This guy has been the most important position player on the club, as Jason Bay continues to look lethargic and uninterested.

-For further proof of just how anemic the Pirates’ offense has been, Nady’s multi-homer game was the first of the season for the club.

-John van Benschoten’s outing was extremely bizarre, as he coasted through three innings then suddenly hit a wall with his control in the fourth, putting the Pirates in a dangerous spot. I’m not really sure what to make of it, as he just stopped finding the strike zone at some point. Oh well, it happens to the best pitcher. Even Roger Clemens goes a game without getting a strikeout sometimes (but not very often).

-Ryan Doumit had two passed balls. Anyone think he’s an everyday catcher? Anyone?

-This was easily Kevin Gregg’s worst outing of the year, as the closer by default had been very good to this point.

-Winning streak? Ha.

June 28: Marlins 9, Pirates 7

The Pirates lose a difficult one as they manage to keep clawing back into the game, only to eventually fail in their attempts to create an actual winning streak out of this series. They leave Miami with a 33-45 record.

-Scott Olsen found a team to reacquire his form against as he struck out his first five batters. The young lefty has struggled some this year without the tough guidance of Joe Girardi, but he had a very good season last year and displayed a lot of talent. It’s only a matter of time until he regains that form.

-Why don’t the Pirates have promotions like Camp Day? The Marlins got 21,000 to buy tickets at a group discount rate. Why don’t the Pirates just sell every ticket at the group discount rate? “Long-suffering fans of an awful team.”

-Adam LaRoche hit an impressive long-ball and raised his average to .218. He’s still an interesting fantasy player as he either gets a hit, walks, or strikes out at this point.

-Zach Duke and Paul Maholm seem to have reversed roles as Duke has become the victim of one big inning in each of his starts and a bunch of decent innings otherwise, while Maholm has shown potential to get guys out. It’s all about confidence, folks, and Duke has none right now.

The Pirates host the Nationals for the next three days in a series in which they have no right losing a single game. The boycott is scheduled for Saturday. If you hold tickets, participate, please. This franchise is a laughingstock.

10:01 – The Pirates switch it up a little bit tonight, with Ryan Doumit catching and batting fifth, Freddy Sanchez DHing from the three-hole, Xavier Nady playing RF from the seven-hole, and Jose Castillo playing second from the penultimate spot in the batting order.

10:07 – If the Pirates lose tonight, they will have the same record as the Baltimore Orioles. If Sam Perlozzo is worth firing, isn’t Jim Tracy?

10:10 - A wee-bit difference in velocity as Felix Hernandez is jacking it up to 97 and 98 while Jeff Weaver threw two pitches over 90 last night. This could be really ugly.

10:13 – 1-2-3 for Felix. Remind anyone of last night?

10:14 - Uh oh. JVB is not throwing strikes tonight. He managed to get a flyout, but he is still struggling to find the strike zone. A rather dubious start.

10:16 – Jose Lopez just hit a very long flyball. This guy is essentially Jose Castillo, but he plays for the Mariners. He’s a righty with a ton of power who is also an extremely slick fielder. He can jack the ball when he needs to, like he almost just did.

10:18 – An eleven pitch at bat for Lopez, as Van Benschoten is already up to 16 in the inning. He desperately needs a quick out here.

10:20 - 21 pitches after one. Not a good sign, as the bullpen needs some more rest.

10:24 – The Mariners’ ball girls are much better fielders than the Pirates’ ball boys.

10:27 - Of course Jose Guillen is the first person to get a lucky-looking hit on a blooper.

10:30 – Jack Wilson flashes a little bit of leather, helping out JVB in the process. This is the type of defense Van Benschoten needs behind him.

10:34 – JVB manages to get out of the inning. He’s showing a Gorzelanny-esque knack for creating a jam for himself and then somehow escaping without damage.

10:36 – Xavier Nady charges a ball, but it falls into Jose Guillen’s glove on the warning track.

10:37 – I’m really happy that I started Felix Hernandez on my fantasy team. Ok, now I’m not. Double for Jack Wilson on a shot down the LF line. I’m still glad I started him.

10:43 – JVB all of a sudden looks very good. His control and movement have picked up and all of a sudden, this guy looks like the #3 pitcher (Dave’s words, not mine) that the Pirates picked with the #8 overall pick in the draft. Of course, Ichiro just hit a double.

10:47 – It’s scoreless after three and both pitchers are getting outs, as each guy has only struck out one hitter so far. JVB has thrown 50 and the King has thrown 22. Which one do you think has been better?

10:50 – Wow, a hit for Nate McLouth as the ball headed up the middle. Time for the sparkplug to start running.

10:52 – For the second consecutive night, a fielder’s choice occurs as a runner is stealing a base. McLouth heads to second just as Sanchez hits a grounder to SS. Betancourt gets the out at 1st, so McLouth is on 2nd with one out.

10:54 – Well that wasn’t cool. LaRoche swings at a ball and there are two outs with Jason Bay coming to the plate and McLouth still on second.

10:56 – Yup, I am very glad that I started Felix tonight. He just got Bay swinging to escape the first “threat” of the game.

10:59 - JVB gets another K, as he sends Ibanez back to the bench disappointed. At the moment, he’s just getting a ton of routine outs. This is the way a pitcher needs to pitch.

11:01 – That is, of course, followed up by a single on a liner to CF by Kenji Johjima. I’m off tonight.

11:02 - Wow, this is the only game going on right now. I’m thinking that this is one of those nights when the addict who buys the MLB Extra Innings package feels as if MLB completely ripped him off.

11:05 – Now Felix is beginning to strike guys out, as he just set down “hometown favorite” Ryan Doumit.

11:06 – Jose Lopez just made a distinguishably Jose Castillo play, as he booted a ball behind the mound on a play he probably should have made. These two guys are interchangeable. Xavier Nady is on first with one out.

11:08 – Speaking of Jose Castillo, he just hit a solid liner to RF, moving Nady to second. There are now runners on first and second with one out and Jumpin Jack Flak coming to bat.

11:09 – Jack managed to force Jose Castillo out on what should have been a double play ball to Betancourt at SS, but the shortstop had problems removing the ball from his glove and there are runners at 1st and 3rd with two outs.

11:11 – The King walks Bautista, loading the bases for Nate McLouth with two outs. This could be dicey.

11:15 – Felix comes through huge, striking out Nate McLouth to end the inning and move on. There is a reason this guy is the King (even if M’s announcers aren’t allowed to call him that anymore).

11:18 – Van Benschoten looks questionable again, as he surrenders a four-pitch walk to Sexson. Just because the guy mashes once in a while doesn’t mean he’s capable of doing it very often.

11:20 – Just as Jose Lopez is the equivalent of Jose Castillo, so is Yuniesky Betancourt a better-hitting version of Jack Wilson. Both are extremely slick fielders who can make even the most ridiculous play look mundane. Both are slap hitters, both are important to their organizations. Speaking of Betancourt, he just hit a single to LF. Runners on 1st and 2nd with Ichiro coming to the plate.

11:26 – Ichiro just had a six-minute, 11 pitch at-bat. This at-bat is the perfect example of looking for a pitch with which to make something happen, as Ichiro patiently waited, fouling pitches off to virtually the same place, until he could drop a ball into LF and bring a run around. 1-0 Mariners. Why don’t the Pirates have a hitter even remotely capable of that?

11:29 – Jose Lopez hits a double down the left field line which, with some aid from the stadium, scores two runs. 3-0 Mariners and, all of a sudden, this game looks like a totally lost cause instead of a half-hopeful game, like it did before.

11:31 – JVB has essentially lost all confidence right now, as he just walked Raul Ibanez to put runners on first and second with one out. This at bat could define JVB’s season, whether he has the guts to fight through adversity or he will surrender to the seemingly stronger team.

11:36 – Van Benschoten induces two pop-ups (ok, one was a flyout) to escape the inning. This is huge for the young righty, as he kept the Pirates sort of in the game and prevented them from falling too far behind. He also figured out how to get outs instead of completely letting the game get out of hand. 3-0 Mariners and I’m searching for positives after five.

11:41 – Hernandez continues to dominate, as he gets LaRoche to strike out again for the second out of the inning. When LaRoche has a bad game, he has a really bad game. Like the Pirates, he has a few peaks and a ton of very deep valleys.

11:44 - Like all aces, Hernandez seems to amp it up when he feels the situation demands it. This last at bat to Ryan Doumit was a perfect example of that, as he managed to nip a corner to sit the Pirate catcher down.

11:47 – Kuwata on for the Buccos, as Tracy decides to take a young pitcher out for an ancient one. I’m guessing Tracy is doing this so that one of his extremely long quotes can be translated into Japanese after Kuwata faces Ichiro.

11:49 – Kuwata manages to strike out Beltre.

11:51 – Jose Castillo just attempted the Castillo-to-Wilson flip which they perfected two years ago. It was (unsurprisingly) unsuccessful.

11:54 – Kuwata has now struck out Betancourt, his second in the inning. That’s impressive for him, as he isn’t a pitcher who strikes hitters out a whole lot (Positive? Sure.)

11:58 – The new goal of the game is Felix reaching the 10 k plateau. It would be fascinating if he could simply because it would help my fantasy team further dominate. In other words, this game is over after another easy inning for Felix. 3-0 M’s after 7 and a half.

12:02 – Japanese media is going utterly crazy right now. Kuwata vs. Ichiro is bigger in Japan than Godzilla vs. Mothzilla. KUWATA WINS! After this at-bat and the almost certain word orgy in Japan tomorrow, I am now convinced that there’s life without Mothzilla.

12:04 – Kuwata has another 1-2-3 inning. Apparently he really wants to play for a contender in late July/ early August. It is never too early to start thinking about the trade deadline, especially when you’re a Pirate fan and they’re about to be shut out for the 8th time this season.

12:11 – Sanchez manages to get something out of this miserable game as he loops a ball into CF. Damn you, Freddy. You’re hurting my fantasy team.

12:12 – Surprise, surprise, Adam LaRoche (known as Pepe LaSuck from now on) strikes out again.

12:15 – Jim Tracy, in an effort to extend the game and prevent me from going to bed, brings in Jonah Bayliss to pitch the bottom of the eighth. Yes, the score is still 3-0 Mariners.

12:16 – Bayliss has gotten two outs in a row. This hasn’t happened to him since AAA (or at least it seems that way).

12:17 - Knew that was too good to be true, as Beltre drives a ball to the wall for a two-out double. Wow, ever since midnight I have been exceedingly bitter. Apparently I’m listening to too many Jim Tray press conferences full of pretend optimism.

12:20 – Apparently Ken Macha is associated with the organization somehow, as he is appearing at a team event. The real question is why is he not managing this team? He was the logical choice when they hired Tracy and would be a solid choice when they fire Tracy.

12:22 – JJ Putz is on. We’re not scoring tonight.

12:25 - Apparently Ryan Blowmit is worse than Pepe LaSuck as he just struck out for the fourth time tonight. I want someone to make it rain, like they did in the Orioles game. It would seem to fit Seattle better than any other city.

12:27 – Ballgame. 20 innings without a run. The last two nights have totally sucked. This is a team that we should have beaten, no question, hands down. Tomorrow the Pirates head to LA to face that team with the really long name that screams of silicon more than Pamela Anderson. The Pirates will send Zach Duke to the mound and the Angels of the City of Angels will send Joe Saunders in place of Jered Weaver. The Bucs are now 31-41 and 5-7 in interleague. I wonder what the record for most scoreless innings by a team is, because this club is very capable of breaking it.

I apologize for the bitterness. I guarantee that there will be happier posts ahead, but these last two games have been so utterly terrible for the Pirates. Hey, at least my family team is doing better.

9:55 – Tracy is throwing essentially the same lineup as last night against Jeff Weaver, with the only difference being Jason Bay starting in LF instead of Xavier Nady. I’m not sure how wise this is, as Bay had a solid game last night while he was just focusing on his hitting and it seems as if it would be wise to allow him to maintain this focus for a few more days, so that he can re-enter one of his extremely hot streaks.

10:04 – Jose Bautista was apparently hit in the face with a ball during batting practice, brining some questions to his participation in tonight’s game. It is expected that he will be the starter, though.

10:07 – Another late start in Seattle and the Pirates’ announcers have now noticed it. They are “lingering romantically” until the first pitch is thrown. That’s not an image I wanted in my head.

10:08 – The crowd is cheering, so it sounds as if the Mariners are taking the field. At last.

10:10 – Bautista is coming to the plate, always good news for Pirates fans. Phil Cuzzi rules the first pitch a swing by Bautista.

10:11 – How bad is Chris Duffy’s hamstring really? The Pirates are obviously a better team when he is not in the lineup, so perhaps they are exaggerating his injury so that sparkplug Nate McLouth can see some more playing time.

10:14 – Sanchez drops a ball into shallow L-CF for the first Bucco hit of the game, preventing Jeff Weaver from having a painfully easy top of the first.

10:16 – Some observations about Jeff Weaver; the guy only threw two pitches at 90 mph in the first inning. That’s pathetic. In order to be successful with such a total lack of velocity, Weaver must really learn how to pitch. It was unintelligent for him to take the money from Seattle and run instead of returning to St. Louis for another year with the very impressive Dave Duncan, who would have made something out of what is rapidly becoming nothing. In other words, Duncan would have taught the notorious thrower how to pitch.

10:20 – Maholm induces a routine hopper to Ichiro and gets the out, but Freddy Sanchez made things sort of interesting as he bobbled the ball, probably because of the pressure that the speedster puts on the infield. Oh, and the first pitch was a ball.

10:21 – Jose Bautista (the only person with any variation of that last name playing tonight) makes a very good throw across the diamond to get Jose Lopez at first. For anyone who wants to move this guy away from third, turn in your Pirate fancard immediately. He is a borderline gold-glove fielder.

10:22 – Maholm gets three groundball outs, a very good sign for the pitcher who must get guys out with guile instead of overpowering them.

10:26 – Bay gets on with a walk, showing that Weaver is vulnerable, as always, due to a lack of control.

10:28 – Bay has moved to third after two groundouts (Nady and Doumit), with him running the first time in a situation where he would have easily been safe. At least he saved the double play.

10:30 – Ronny Paulino hits a lame pop up just beyond the infield. The Pirate catcher has lost all confidence in himself and could seriously use a stint in AAA to regain the confidence that made him a .310 hitter last year. The Pirates need the catcher to succeed if they plan on ever being competitive, as he comes up in one of the most important spots in the lineup as the guy with the opportunity to drive in Bay/Nady. In this situation, he failed. For the team to be successful, he must relearn how to succeed.

10:32 – Apparently Sammy Sosa hit his sixth hundredth homerun. Apparently Derrick Rose is bigger news.

10:33 – Four groundouts for Maholm. The groundout is Maholm’s version of the strikeout. I have always thought, though, that a groundout would be more frustrating than a k, as you would feel that you could have done something with the pitch but just failed miserably. As a hitter, it would be easier to rationalize and be proactive about battling strikeouts than groundouts. Five grounders, by the way, but Bautista’s throw goes over LaRoche’s head and into the stands. Johjima on 2nd, one out.

10:37 – Another ugly play, as Beltre gets a single into LF, but Bay hits Johjima with his throw at home. The run scores and Beltre gets to third. 1-0 Mariners, Beltre on third

10:38 – Wow. Richie Sexson gets an infield single as Jose Bautista messes up again. Beltre scores, 2-0 Mariners

10:39 – Paul Maholm may be the unluckiest pitcher ever. Every single Mariner batter has hit a grounder, but the Pirate defense has not capitalized as of yet. Bautista is taking way too many chances right now.

10:41 – Single by Jack. Let’s see if Jack Flash can make something happen. Bautista owes us anyways.

10:42 – Apparently not. Jack is picked off.

10:45 – The Mariner middle infield is one of the best in baseball in terms of fielding, an issue which I will address some point in the very near future. Probably later tonight.

10:47 – A scoring change: Johjima’s infield hit became an error. Maholm is no longer accountable for the two runs.

10:50 – Speaking of infield hits, Ichiro pulls of a nice one. It was a valiant effort by Jack, with a bare-handed grab, but not quite enough, And before I can finish typing, Ichiro steals while Maholm throws what will go down as a wild pitch.

10:52 – Ichiro now steals third, with a poor throw by Paulino. Paulino had him beat, but the throw went off the bag.

10:53 – Bautista’s diving stop made a nice out, but didn’t stop Ichiro from scoring. 3-0 Mariners.

10:56 – With a double by Johjima following a walk to Guillen, the score is now 4-0. Maholm is definitely having an off night, but thats how his whole season has gone anyways. He may be headed to the minors if he doesn’t pick up.

10:59 – After a mound visit, a nice diving catch by Ryan Doumit playing right field to end this terrible inning.

11:00 – How can the Milwaukee Brewers be running away with the NL Central? They are already up on the Cubs 7.5 games, but worse yet, the Pirates are only out 9 games. This division is crumbling.

11:04 – The Pirates go down 1-2-3 with a trio of flyouts…it’s not looking good for the Buccos tonight.

11:06 – Sexson hits a monster home run for the second straight game. Isn’t he supposed to be washed up this year? 5-0 Mariners. Maholm might not make it through the inning.

11:08 – Maholm is getting hit hard. Each of the last 7 batters have hit it deep into the outfield. I would expect to see another homer before he leaves.

11:11 – Fortunately, Maholm forced two flyouts and a weak chopper from Ichiro to end the inning with minimal damage.

11:12 – Wow. The giveaway for this Sunday’s game is a baseball that is stamped with the entire teams autograph. Thats got to be worth at least 75 cents.

11:13 – Nady gets struck out. Even the announcers are noticing that Pirates’ pattern of getting destroyed by pitchers with sky-high ERAs (Kameron Loe last week). Weaver has only let up two hits this game.

11:16 – Doumit flies out and Paulino gets caught looking to end the top of the 5th inning. The Pirates are getting beaten 5-0, and it looks worse than the score shows.

11:18 – Haha. “Wow…this is starting to look really disturbing,” says one of the Pirates announcers as Lopez grounds out to second.

11:20 – How many times are they going to mention that Bay’s family and friends attending this game? We get it. They drove 411 miles over 7 hours through Ryan Doumit’s hometown to attend this game.

11:22 – The Mariners go down quickly, but the Pirates better get on the board now. Apparently, Seattle has only lost once this season when leading after 5 inning.

11:25 – Jack Wilson needs to learn how to count. He started walking to the bench after only his second strike. In the end, it didn’t matter, with Wilson striking out on the next pitch anyways.

11:27 – Another Pirate goes down on strikes, with Bautista being the latest victim. That makes four on the game, but all within the last 5 batters.

11:28 – A nice tumbling stop by Lopez to get out McLouth. Is it too much to ask for an errant throw?

11:30 – Johjima gets his second infield hit/error of the night and probably the fourth for the team. Maholm should have made the play, but he missed the ball. Sanchez nearly saved it, but was a tad too slow.

11:33 – Beltre goes down on Maholm’s first strikeout of the game. He looked like he was swinging for the stars.

11:36 – Consider me impressed. Paulino, not exactly a defensive expert behind the plate, managed to throw out Johjima. That may be one his first throwouts all year. To think, he was my sleeper fantasy pick at the start of the year.

11:52 – More of the same for an inning, as the Pirates go down in order and the Mariners make things interesting. Maholm managed to get out of the inning this time, though, which is unnecessarily impressive. He also struck out Seattle’s version of Jose Castillo, Jose Lopez, for his second k of the night.

11:53 – Nady looks silly striking out. Jeff Weaver is making this game really fun for Mariners’ fans and rather dull for Pirates’ fans. Imagine that, the Pirates getting owned by a journeyman righty at a time when they could really have used the offensive boost.

11:56 – The Pirate announcers are beginning to discuss the games where the Bucs failed to hit the ball this season and where Jeff Weaver was “dominant,” meaning he was probably way better than he was tonight, over the course of his career.

11:58 – A double by Ronny Paulino ties the Pirate mark for fewest hits on the year. Well that’s good. At least they won’t set a new mark for futility tonight. Of course, Wilson promptly pops the ball up just to make sure that a run won’t score.

12:02 – Jim Tracy finally asks for a reliever in Dan Kolb, mercifully removing Paul Maholm from the game. I’m not sure how proper this move is, as the bullpen has a long trip in front of them and this game is obviously not winnable. Maholm should have gone another inning simply because the Pirates have nothing to lose.

12:03 – Raul Ibanez hits a Sexon-like shot to right field, giving the Mariners an even larger lead. Forget everything I’ve ever said about Dan Kolb. The guy simply can not get major league outs anymore and has reverted to a AAAA (yes, that’s four) pitcher. 70 Mariners

12:08 – Kolb just continues to let up hard-hit balls. This guy is simply not a major league pitcher anymore, but is instead just another white flag for the bullpen.

12:11 – Alas, we move into the ninth inning of this awful game. If last night revealed much of the good about this year’s Pirate club, tonight’s game reveals much of the bad. Shoddy defense, inability to make contact, struggling starting pitching, terrible strategy, lack of talent in the bullpen, and an inability to remain consistent.

12:14 – Wow, the Pirates are rallying. A walk by Bautista followed by a one-out single by Sanchez puts runners on first and third for Adam LaRoche. Hopefully he hits the ball solidly somewhere, as it would simply be embarrassed to be shut out by Jeff Freaking Weaver.

12:15 – Of course LaRoche comes up short, fouling out to Adrian Beltre.

12:17 – Oh my God. We just got shut out by Jeff Weaver. This is awful. More news and notes to come.

More notes: Ichiro hit into a double play, which is extremely uncharacteristic for him. So far this year (before tonight), he had hit into two double plays. Whether it’s striking out Johjima or getting Ichiro in a double play, the Pirates seem to like making the Mariners’ Japanese stars do things that they normally do not.

-Why does this team react so adversely to success? Just when it seems as if they are finally righting the ship, they pull a stunt like being shut out by the worst starter in major league baseball.

-I am not backing off of my stance that Jeff Weaver is terrible. The Pirates’ lineup could have been beaten by a AAA team tonight.

-The Pirates need to play better or else the pitchers will begin to quit on them (see Perez, Oliver last season and the season before).

-The hitters panic and swing more whenever they fall behind. Maybe the terrible announce team is onto something when they talk about scoring first . . .

-The Pirates dropped to 31-40 and to 5-6 in interleague play. Tomorrow they will see the most enigmatic pitcher in the American League as they will face Phenom Felix Hernandez. The Pirates will send John Van Benschoten to the hill. Hopefully he can continue being a positive addition to the rotation as a #3 or 4 starter.

This game was very disappointing, folks. Come back tonight for liveblog #3 in the West Coast series. It should be a fun one . . . Maybe Jim Tracy will say something like, “Well, you know, the guys put out all of the effort they had last night. Jeff Weaver saw Jimmy Colborn in the dugout, though, and simply remembered all of the great little tips that he taught Jeff. These are the same tips he’s teaching our staff. It’s just a shame they aren’t understanding them as well as Jeff is. I mean, you see a start like that and you think bona fide major league starters. Our guys, I’m not so sure. I mean, they’re putting all of the effort in. We’re just not seeing results. And that’s unfortunate . . .” and he would continue for five more minutes with that question. I am convinced that his pregame show goal is to answer two questions at the most.

9:44 – Jim Tracy’s wife is going to have a very large cell phone bill this month. Boo Hoo. Also, I am annoyed that the Pirates took the bad Tracy brother instead of the successful one (Chad, who is hitting .281 with 5 HRs and 55 RBIs), who was available last year and would have been a much better 2nd round pick than Shelby Ford (.239, 3, 29).

9:47 – Bay is DHing? That seems like an okay idea by the Pirates and Tracy in particular. I’m not used to them having good ideas. Wow.

9:48 – The Pirates’ medical commercials on the radio are always about leg injuries. I really want James Andrews to come on and discuss Tommy John surgery.

9:50 – Willie Bloomquist is Ryan Doumit’s second cousin. This helps explain Doumit’s occasional complete lack of hitting ability. Ok, that wasn’t fair considering that he’s been one of the three or four most important position players on this team.

9:56 – A couple of interesting pitching performances tonight, in particular Johan Santana’s and Tim Linceum’s. Santana had a fantastic start, going the whole game while surrendering no runs and only four hits. The interesting item in the line, however, is that Santana only struck out one hitter. That is the mark of a fantastic pitcher. Tim Lincecum, however, was not pitching, as the young starter failed to live up to the hype for the second consecutive start by giving up six runs in four innings. Lincecum reminds me of Cole Hamels, who also struggled when he came up originally in part due to the massive hype that was put on him. He, however, turned it around and became the ace of a solid Phillies staff, something that the Giants are hoping Lincecum can accomplish.

10:01 – Tonight the Pirates bring Tom Gorzelanny to the mound at Safeco Field. Gorzo has been fantastic so far this year, but struggled with the homerun in his last start as he gave up three gopher balls to a struggling Texas Ranger lineup. The Mariners will pitch Miguel Batista, who has struggled significantly this year (5.10 ERA), but is one of the best inning eaters that the game has to offer.

10:03 – Bob Walk just pronounced Raul Ibanez’s name as Eyebanez. He also had fun with Yuniesky.

10:08 – The game is very late in starting, which is irking me because Bob Walk and Greg Brown are having a very boring discussion about Ichiro Suzuki and how to pronounce “Steel.”

10:10 – Five minutes late and it sounds as if the game is about to begin.

10:13 – Nate McLouth did what a hitter early in the order is supposed to do, as he had a long at-bat and found a way to get on base (albeit by an error on Richie Sexson). This guy really should be in the lineup more.

10:18 – A little bit of clutch hitting by Adam LaRoche, who sends a grounder through the right side of the infield to score McLouth. This is the second such incident in the last two games as he hit a ground-rule double on Sunday. Could he be regaining his confidence? Is it worth even thinking about that? Maybe. LaRoche will hit eventually, but it will happen when it happens and isn’t really worth worrying about.

10:20 – Base hit by Bay to move LaRoche to second.

10:23 – Questionable walk for Xavier Nady, loading the bases for hometown native Ryan Doumit. Batista has had problems locating pitches the last few batters and is going deep into counts right now. That wildness just forced a run across as Batista walked Doumit.

10:26 – Yeah, Kenji Johjima is one of the best catchers in baseball. Batista just threw what should have been a wild pitch to Ronny Paulino, but Johjima made a sick save. Apparently Bobby Valentine was right when, in response to being asked why Johjima was platooning, he responded, “Because his manager’s an idiot.”

10:28 – The Pirates get out of the first with two runs, giving them an odd 2-0 lead after the first inning.

10:30 – Home plate umpire Brian O’Nora seems to be calling a very tight strike zone tonight.

10:33 – Jose Guillen just got the Mariners’ first hit of the game after the necessary mention of the Jose Guillen – Humberto Cota/Joe Oliver trade.

10:34 – Trouble brewing in the bottom of the first as there are now runners on second and third with the .198-hitting Richie Sexson coming to the plate. Sexson is the American League version of Adam Dunn, but paid much better. I can never tell if he’s underrated or overrated.

10:37 – Gorzo gets the out on a routine chopper to SS Jack Wilson, showing the ability to get an out when he has to. If he gives up a liner here, the game is tied and all of the work the Pirates did in the top of the first was for naught. Instead, he simply gets out of the inning.

10:41 – Batista seems to be going right after Jose Bautista tonight, as he has thrown 7 strikes to the Pirate leadoff hitter in two at-bats tonight, getting the righty to strike out twice.

10:45 – With Adrian Beltre’s coming up to the plate, I can not help but wonder why the Mariners signed Richie Sexson (along with Beltre) to monster contracts after the 2004 season. Neither guy has paid off quite as well as they were expected to. And, of course, Beltre gets a hit, moving Johjima to second, just to tick me off.

10:52 – Ichiro puts a ball through the infield, scoring Johjima and bringing the score to 2-1. Vidro is now up. Gorzelanny is beginning to pitch like Batista, running deep into counts and then having trouble getting out of jams. Gorzo must throw more strikes at the moment if he hopes to have a decent start tonight. Warning signs of a really terrible start are certainly becoming evident.

10:56 – Gorzelanny has 36 pitches through two innings. That is way too many pitches for a starter, especially when the bullpen is one member short after Matt Capps received his three game suspension yesterday.

10:59 – Batista has five strikeouts after three, which is scary considering that he only had 50 coming into this game. The Pirates really need to learn how to make more contact.

11:03 – Gorzelanny gives up a huge leadoff double to Jose Guillen, which probably should have been a triple. The Mariners are hitting Gorzo really hard right now.

11:05 – Xavier Nady just made a diving catch in LF to prevent Guillen from moving to third and another runner from getting on base. It’s Sexson time (sorry, I just really like typing that).

11:08 – It is apparently not Sexson time, as Gorzo strikes out the big guy, moving his K total to 2.

11:09 – Gorzo gets out of another jam. He is still worrying me with this start tonight, as he seems to be inching closer to the razor’s edge with his pitch counts and how hard Seattle is hitting the ball right now.

11:13 – Doumit just lined two balls wickedly foul, but ended up striking out. Pirates radio announcers are already discussing Batista reaching his career high of 11 K’s, as he has 6 right now.

11:15 – Ronnny Paulino hits a two out double which he ripped down the LF line. This looked sort of like the Ronny of last year as opposed to the guy we’ve been seeing recently.

11:18 – Jack can’t bring Paulino around, but the double accomplished the important goal of knocking Batista off of the dominant game he had been throwing to that point.

11:23 – Gorzo gets another k, this time of Adrian Beltre, who had only struck out 34 times in 215 ABs coming into this at-bat.

11:25 – Gorzo at last has an easy inning, something which he has desperately needed all night. Through 4, it’s 2-1 Pittsburgh.

11:27 – First of all, Greg Brown finally caught onto the fact that Batista has thrown nine strikes and no balls to Bautista all night. Jose, however, manages to loop a single into the outfield to get himself on base for the first time tonight. Batista is very interested in keeping Jose at 1B.

11:30 – Batista gets another strikeout (7) and Greg Brown finally confuses Bautista for Batista, a mistake I have risked making all night and don’t think I’ve done yet. Jose, however, steals second and is 4 for 5 on the year.

11:36 – Freddy Sanchez continues his clutch hitting of late, dropping a fly ball into CF to bring Bautista around and expand the Pirate’s lead to 3-1.

11:38 – Both Adam LaRoche and Jason Bay ground out, ending the inning with only one run coming around. This is definitely a disappointment, as a runner on second when the heart of the order comes to the plate should always come around to score. It’s why those (or these) players are paid the big money.

11:40 – Ichiro chops a ball up the middle for a single. The speedy superstar on first with Ronny Paulino behind the dish should be interesting. Gorzo will definitely try to keep him close.

11:42 – “Well it looks like they have another good one from Japan, too. That catcher. Johjima?” Wow. Our excellent announcing team.

11:44 – Gorzo strikes Vidro out and Ichiro goes. Surprisingly, Ronny unleashes a perfect throw. Unsurprisingly, Ichiro receives a safe call for evading the tag. The Pirates announce team disapproves of this call.

11:45 – “I just, um, noticed that Ichiro has Ichiro on the back of his uniform.”

11:48 – Adam LaRoche makes things interesting, but the Pirates get out of another inning, stranding yet another runner at second base. Seattle has left 14 men on base through five innings, a ridiculously high number which still indicates some luck on Gorzo’s part.

11:53 – A walk by Xavier Nady followed by a single to right by Ryan Doumit gives the Pirates runners on first and second with no outs and Ronny Paulino at bat. Nady’s walk was especially strong, as it pushed Batista closer to his limit, where the Pirates can exploit him more.

11:56 – Xavier Nady takes a risk and just gets away with it, as Ronny Paulino flew out to right field where Jose Guillen and his dangerous arm were calmly waiting for the ball. Nady made it to third, but Ryan Doumit did not move, as he should have, to second on the play. This mistake left the double play possibility open for the Mariners, possibly allowing them to get out of the inning with no damage done. A bad baserunning error by the Pirates.

11:59 – Jack Wilson proves to be the last batter for Batista, as he walks the Pirate shortstop on four pitches (the last pitch to Wilson is his 106th of the night). Sean Green will come on for the Mariners. The righty is a decent reliever (2.82 ERA, 20 Ks through 22.1 innings this year), but could have trouble here as he is coming in to face Jose Bautista with the bases loaded.

12:02 – Bautista hits a dangerous chopper to 3B, but Beltre chooses to go to first with the ball instead of home and Nady scores. 4-1 Pirates.

12:04 – Sean Green does a better job than I thought he would as he induces the grounder and a Nate McLouth flyout to prevent the Pirates from making too much out of the bases loaded situation.

12:09 – Gorzo gets another K, his fifth of the night, and probably gets a call. It is an impressive feat to strike out Kenji Johjima, who had only done so 17 times in 205 ABs before this one.

12:11 – Sexson, who got to third when Ronny Paulino lost the ball, goes to third on Adrian Beltre flyout to RF. Why do fans freak out every time there’s a fly ball? Sometimes it’s understandable, but others it is obvious that the ball is going straight up and is going to come straight back down into an outfielder’s glove. The fans, though, will be cheering this development as if there was a grand slam. Wow.

12:12 – Gorzo forces Jose Lopez to fly out to LF, his fifth flyout of the night with the last two batters hitting two of them. Jim Tracy should make the decision and pull Gorzo now, as he has thrown 102 pitches. The Pirate skipper seems obsessed with piling pitches onto the young arm, which is healthy for neither pitcher nor team. It won’t be a problem if he sends Gorzo out for one more inning, but at the first hint of trouble he should have a reliever ready.

12:16 – Freddy Sanchez is looking more and more like last year’s Freddy Sanchez.

12:20 – The Pirates have manufactured another run, as Yuniesky Betancout throws a ball past Richie Sexson, allowing Sanchez to come around, LaRoche (walk) goes to 3rd, and Jason Bay, who hit the grounder, goes to 2nd.

12:24- The Pirates only get one run out of a runners on second and third with no out. This is the biggest downfall of what has, to this point, been a rather well-played baseball game, as Xavier Nady struck out and Ronny Paulino (of course) grounded into a 6-2-3 double play.

12:26 – I don’t know what’s worse, that Bob Walk wants Tom Gorzelanny to have another 117 pitch outing, or that Gorzelanny just gave up a leadoff double.

12:32 – Gorzo gives up another run on a sacrifice fly to Jose Vidro, decreasing the Pirate lead to 5-2. Tracy is letting him go too deep into this game and, even if the effects of him going so deep into starts are not seen immediately, he will have problems later in the year.

12:34 – Gorzelanny strikes out his sixth, and probably last, batter. A very good start for the young southpaw despite his pitching into and out of more than a few jams and his throwing 123 pitches.

12:40 – McLouth bounces a ball up the middle for a single, with Sanchez coming to the plate next. McLouth shows more of the fiestieness that marks him as a guy who should be playing more. After 7 1/2 (Sanchez grounds out), it is 5-2 Pirates.

12:43 – Grabow is on to get maybe one out, which he successfully gets. If Tracy uses more of the Kerosene Corps . .. Uh oh. He is going to Jonah Bayliss after Grabow gets one out. Let’s see if the Amicable One (Tracy) can manage to not lose this game for his team by mismanaging.

12:46 – Surprise, Surprise. Bayliss surrenders a monster shot to Sexson to decrease the Pirate lead to 5-3. This one’s on you, Jim.

12:49 – Wow, Bayliss catches Johjima looking (his second strikeout tonight . . . wait, how come the announcers are just figuring this one out). I’m amazed he didn’t launch one to bring this game even closer.

12:50 – Jack’s arm fails as Beltre’s grounder deep into the hole forces Jack to throw awkwardly. The fielders should know better than to give opposing hitters seven outs when they come in thinking that they will need six.

12:54 – After Bayliss walks, Masumi Kuwata comes on. His motion is maybe one of the most fun to watch in baseball, but let’s see if he can get pinch-hitter Ben Broussard to make the third out of this inning. I’m not sure if this is a good move or a bad move on the part of Jim Tracy, but I’m thinking he should have done this at the beginning of the inning if they were going to do it.

12:59 – Kuwata induces a chopper to LaRoche at 1B, surprisingly getting out of a difficult inning. It is nice when the Pirate bullpen succeeds (three more outs). 5-3 Pirates after 8.

1:02 – Greg Brown just asked, “Do you know what Saturday, June 30 is at PNC Park?” Apparently he doesn’t know about the planned boycott.

1:04 – JJ Putz is dominating the Pirates, as he caught LaRoche looking at strike three and Bay swinging at a pitch in the dirt. Two strikeouts on two batters. How did this guy go from being a bum to being one of the most dominant relievers in baseball?

1:08 – Another k, of Xavier Nady this time. He just totally owned the heart of the Pirate order. I don’t care how bad they can be, that is impressive.

1:09 – Damaso Marte will come out to at least pitch to Ichiro, with Chacon waiting in the ‘pen. Here we go . . .

1:11 – Marte starts Ichiro out with two high fastballs, hopefully just to show who the boss is. That third pitch could not have been on purpose, though. Crap. Why do the Mariners fans think this game is so winnable? I mean, I know the answer, but that’s not a good sign.

1:13 – Jim Colborn is coming out. It’s time for the two run homerun.

1:14 – Fly out to Nate McLouth in CF, time for ex-Pirate Jose Guillen to come up to the plate, but the Pirates are going to make a pitching change and bring in righty Sean Chacon for the save. This inning is ridiculously tense (maybe it’s the .261 opposing BA).

1:18 – Chacon starts Guillen out with a strike quickly followed by a ball way inside. A fastball inside (all three pitches have been in so far) brings a foul ball. Guillen stares at a 1-2 pitch right on the outside corner. A very well-pitched at-bat for Chacon, as he was setting up for that pitch the entire at back

1:20 – Chacon goes to 0-2 on Ibanez AND IBANEZ WHIFFS ON THE 0-2 PITCH! The Pirates WIN! Their record moves to 31-39 and they are now 5-5 in interleague play. The star of the game is undoubtedly Sean Chacon as a loss felt imminent until he entered the game and got the heart of the Mariners’ order (Vidro and Ibanez) to go down swinging.

RAISE THE JOLLY ROGER!

I may be back for detailed analysis . . . I may not. Whatever happens, I will also be liveblogging tomorrow night’s game.

Thank you for reading this, if you did. Good night.

• Jack Wilson is reacting very well to his benching. He made at least three very good defensive plays today and proved to be a catalyst in the victory, as Zach Duke needs a shortstop of today’s Jack’s caliber in order to be successful. Jack also went 2 for 4 at the plate, showing an effort that had been missing on the Washington- New York road trip. Just as Duke needs Jack to be good in the field, the team needs Jack to be energetic in the clubhouse and on the field. He is the intensity of the team and that showed today.
• Jose Castillo may be feeling comfortable again, as he went o for 4 with two strikeouts and made a boneheaded defensive play that nearly cost the Pirates the game. When Castillo feels secure in his position, he plays like this, takes crazy risks with his swing and tries to make flashy plays in the field. It seems as if when he is insecure in his position on the team he just gets the job done and is clutch at the plate.
• Thank you for making that catch, Jason Bay.
• Does Major League Baseball hate the Pirates? This ridiculous roadtrip combined with Chad Fairchild’s godawful umpiring today and the questionable calls last night are beginning to make me a fan of a conspiracy theory. The Pirates just seem to be seeing a lot of calls going against them right now. Also, Fairchild should be fined for walking towards LaRoche in the first inning. An official should never escalate, which is what Fairchild seem to be trying to do.
• If Zach Duke could have avoided the one big inning today, he would have had a very good start. The young starter is obviously good when he has confidence and is terrible without this confidence, as he began to just throw instead of pitch in that terrible fourth inning. When he is on, though, Duke is pitching and pitching effectively, hitting his spots and forcing batters to ground out.
• It is annoying that we don’t see Nate McLouth more. He always seems to be effective when he starts, much more so than when he is coming off of the bench. His four RBIs today and his clutch double in the fourth, when a great opportunity seemed to be about to come to waste, are an example of the skill of NDog to just get the job done.
• The Pirates now have two players on their active roster that can only be used in case of emergency, in Chris Duffy and Freddy Sanchez. The problems with these two severely limit Jim Tracy/ Jim Lett’s options.
• Speaking of injuries, Ryan Doumit was originally scheduled to start in rightfield today, but was benched after the team deemed the thumbing at the base of his right thumb, which came off of a foul tip last night, was too detrimental to his play to let him make the start. That was fortuitous for the Pirates, as Xavier Nady got the start instead and had a very good day.
• Xavier Nady is proving to be one of the more important players on this team. No matter how much flak Dave Littlefield is receiving for the Oliver Perez trade, it was not a bad trade at the time. Remember, Oliver was never going to turn it around under the direction of Jim Colborn. Nady, however, is proving to be one of the more important players in the lineup not only today, but overall as his 42 RBIs are the second-most on the team.
• Capps is becoming a master of the Mike Williams save, where you make the situation as dramatic as possible. That is worrisome.
• Jose Bautista really likes the leadoff spot.
• Bautista’s leadoff homerun was the only run scored that did not come with two outs. I’m not sure if that is good or bad, as it shows an ability to make things happen with two outs that the Pirates did not seem to have last year. It also shows, however, that the Pirates were not scoring before they reached two outs, referencing the Nady situation in particular where it seemed as if two runners were going to be wasted.
• Ian Snell apparently burned his finger in a kitchen accident and will miss a start. That’s exactly what this team needs right now . . . maybe if the Pirates are lucky, Chad Fairchild will be the home plate umpire in his comeback game.