The Cubs’ dominance of the Pirates has been well-documented, so when they took a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning on Saturday night and had the Pirates down to the last out on Sunday, it appeared as if that dominance was going to continue. Both games, however, actually ended on Jason Bay hits and with Pirate victories thanks to some clutch hitting and just a little bit of luck.
Saturday: I was at this game (I had to watch the Pens on DVR, sorry, I really don’t think I missed that much while I was at the Pirate game) and the most surprising thing was probably the amount of people in the stadium. The announced attendance was 29,929 and I would have guessed that there were about 25,000 in the stadium. For people to come out like that shows that, despite the Pirates’ problems, Pittsburgh does want them to be successful. Of course, the bobblehead and the Cubs being the opponent may have had something to do with it. (It seemed like there were just as many, if not more, Cubs’ fans than Pirates’ fans in the stadium at times.)
Phil Dumatrait continued to show why he may prove to be one of the best waiver signings of the 16 Years of Futility as he had another solid outing, going five and two-thirds innings and only surrendering one run. A scout recently classified him as a second or third starter, which he probably isn’t, but to have someone like him serving as a fifth starter is huge for the Pirates and may be the difference between above and below .500. If Dumatrait had been in the rotation instead of Matt Morris, the Pirates probably would be .500 right now.
There were two freakishly bizarre defensive plays on Saturday night. The first came at the beginning of the fifth as Ryan Theriot hit an absolute bullet at Dumatrait. The ball deflected off of his knee and actually bounced all the way to 1B Adam LaRoche who stepped on the base for the out. The play was scary, especially considering what happened to ex-Pirate farmhand Chris Young the other day, but Dumatrait didn’t seem seriously injured by the liner and managed to stay in the game long enough to record two more outs.
The other play came in the top of the ninth inning, which Alfonso Soriano began with a lead off double, making it seem as if the Cubs were going to claim another heartbreaker over the Pirates (the score was 4-4 at the time). Theriot was attempting to lay down a sacrifice bunt and was, apparently, crowding the plate more than Pirates’ closer Matt Capps liked. Capps fired a fastball up and in on Theriot, drawing “ooohs” from the stadium, while Pirate catcher Raul Chavez fired a snap throw down to second base where he picked Soriano off.
Chavez, whose identity people around me were openly wondering about, is an aging journeyman catcher who is known for his defensive prowess. He is currently the Pirates’ backup catcher, even though he started both Friday and Saturday nights over Ronny Paulino. Also, he seems to enjoy snap-throws as he did it several times on Saturday, almost catching runners unaware on a couple of occasions.
Perhaps most interesting about this game was the reemergence of Bay, who slammed a two run home run in the fourth inning, scoring Nate McLouth. He then hit the game-winning single in the fourteenth, scoring Freddy Sanchez and winning a vitally important game that may be vital to their season.
This leads me to Sunday’s game.
There were three vital players on Sunday: Pirate starter Paul Maholm, Bay and Soriano.
Maholm went eight innings and was much better than his five earned runs indicate. He had a rocky third inning, giving up four runs, but outside of that he was very good. By going the eight innings, Maholm saved the bullpen which was clearly weary from the eight and a third innings that it needed to pitch on Saturday night. Also, by striking out seven players, the home-form Maholm showed up.
Soriano’s screwup was one of the worst I’ve seen in some time, as he just lost the ball in the sun and flat out dropped it, allowing the Pirates to score the tying run and Bay to hit the second game winning hit in his career in as many nights in order to give the Pirates the win.
To be able to take a series over the Cubs, who are probably the second or third best team in the National League this season and have dominated the Pirates for some time is a shot in the arm for the Bucs, who are managing to hover just below the magical .500 mark thus far in the season in no small part due to the production from the outfield.
Of course, the magic number rests at 56. Hopefully it stays that way when the Pirates swing into Cincinnati on Tuesday for a series against the Reds at Great American Ballpark.
