I Don't Know Where the Real Pirates Are, But These Guys Can Hit

Five games, 48 runs, 71 hits. For a team that was hitting .235 and a fan base used to watching teams that hit .235, the post-All Star break Pirates have been a refreshing change of pace, with the exception of a toe-stubbing against Chris Capuano and Milwaukee on Monday night.

Last night was the latest example of the New and Improved Pirates, delivering another thorough beat-down to the Milwaukee Brewers, this time by a final of 15-3. It was a dose of poetic justice after the 20-0 thumping Milwaukee delivered to the Bucs earlier this season, which threw the young team into an early tailspin.

Neal Huntington has to be grinning from ear-to-ear, as his plan, at least for a few nights, has been falling into place. Pedro Alvarez homered twice for the second consecutive game, and was one of seven Pirates with multiple hits. Jose Tabata, with the story of his jail-bound estranged wife surely in the back of his mind, delivered two hits and three runs. Delwyn Young hit a two-out, three-run home run (very scarce in the Pirate Universe), had three hits, and drove in five. Even the man Huntington once labeled as a "utilityman", Neil Walker, had two more hits to send his batting average to .314. A decent effort from starter Zach Duke (six innings, six hits, three earned runs) was more than enough with that kind of run support.

Ross Ohlendorf (1-7, 4.62), who couldn't get out of the second inning in his last outing, goes tonight against Yovani Gallardo (8-4, 2.58). It's not practical to expect another 18 hits and 15 runs, but let's hope the Buccos give Mr. Wonderful a little more run support than they've done on most nights in 2010.

Dodgers Interested in Maholm

It's that magical time of year when the Pirates start to shed some veterans, and to that point, Dejan Kovacevic of the PG is reporting that the Los Angeles Dodgers are interested in a trade for pitcher Paul Maholm.

Maholm's salary of $4.5 million is the highest on the team's active roster, and second-highest in the organization behind only the immortal Aki Iwamura at $4.85 million. Maholm is 6-7 with a 4.03 ERA thus far in 2010. 

Kovacevic cited a Yahoo! Sports report from yesterday mentioning the Dodgers' desire to add pitching in advance of some difficult divisional games. They've recently made inquiries on hurlers such as Houston's Roy Oswalt and the Cubs' Ted Lilly.

The Dodgers have a number of financial constraints due to their owner's ongoing divorce, so Maholm's relatively affordable contract should be looked at as a positive for Los Angeles. I have not seen any scenarios mentioning the Pirates' demands in return, but I would expect them to be lofty if they're going to weaken an already-awful rotation. 

As you know, there is a recent history between the two teams, with the 2008 Jason Bay-Manny Ramirez-prospects deal and the 2009 Delwyn Young trade, in which the Dodgers received prospects Eric Krebs and Harvey Garcia from the Pirates. So if you're tossing around potential trade scenarios, I'd call this one extremely viable.

Quick Hits

Today's news features another Pirate loss, Octavio Dotel, Dion Lewis, The Bus, Bryan Morris, Delwyn Young, Daniel McCutchen, Patrick Bailey, and much, much more...

Not a Good Night for Pittsburgh

As the headline implies, last night did not go the way we would've hoped for the various Pittsburgh sports storylines that were in play. 

In Vegas, Sidney Crosby sat by while Henrik Sedin took the Hart Trophy and Alex Ovechkin won the Ted Lindsay Award. Meanwhile, Jordan Staal finished not first, not second, but third for the Selke Award, which was won yet again by Pavel Datsyuk. True, Sid did get a trophy named after Mark Messier as a consolation prize, but that wasn't what we were hoping for. 1-for-4 on the evening was far below our expectations. 

Sadly, 1-for-4 would've looked good for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who self-destructed in a 13-3 loss to the Texas Rangers last night. 

Paul Maholm pitched so bad that he apologized on Twitter, as he should've for anyone who actually had to watch it. One inning, seven hits, seven runs, four walks, and 55 pitches after he started, the Bucs would be in a hole that they could never get out of in their wildest offensive dreams. Even with the rest of the game to battle back, you knew the way this game was trending. The Pirates are a team that struggles to score three runs, let alone seven (or more). What happened next should be a surprise to no one.

Dana Eveland was called upon to stop the bleeding, and if you consider six more runs over 2 2/3 "stopping the bleeding", then I guess he did the job. The good news is that the Pirates have him under control for a few more years of this. Sorry, I had to say that.

Thankfully, a combo pack of four Pirate relievers shut down the Rangers the rest of the way, but the game had been decided long before they entered the picture. The meager Bucco offense managed just six hits and three runs, paced once again by Bobby Crosby. The shortstop is 8 for his last 11 and picked up two more hits last night, including a double. 

Delwyn Young had the only other extra-base hit, a double, and the Pirates struck out a total of 12 times on the night. Combine no pitching and no hitting and you get 10-runned like it was a Little League game. Unfortunately, they didn't stop this one in time. 

The three-game set wraps up tonight, as Jeff Karstens (2-2, 4.72) takes on the Rangers' Scott Feldman (5-6, 5.16) at 8:05 in Texas. Considering they've been outscored 19-6 so far, we might be best served to plead for mercy from Nolan Ryan's boys before the game starts tonight.

Maholm's career-worst start dooms Pirates, 13-3 [PG]
Crosby loses out on Hart Trophy, Lindsay Award [PG]

REDS TAKE 4TH STRAIGHT AGAINST BUCS

A five-run fourth inning by the Cincinnati Reds did in the Pittsburgh Pirates last night at The Great American Ball Park, culminating in a 7-5 Reds win that was their fourth straight against the Pirates.

Plus-sized Reds pitcher Aaron Harang yielded five runs as he worked into the seventh, but he was matched run-for-run by the Bucs' Brian Burres, who allowed five runs, five hits, and four walks over 3 2/3 innings. 

The aforementioned fourth inning broke things open for the Reds, and was highlighted by the 6'7" Harang chugging all the way from first to score on an Orlando Cabrera double. Cabrera and teammate Drew Stubbs each had three hits on the night, with Stubbs hitting an insurance home run in the fifth against Jeff Karstens.

The Bucco bats actually managed double-digit hits, with Delwyn Young's three double and Ronny Cedeno's home run leading the way. Ryan Doumit also had two hits for Pittsburgh after his big game on Sunday, giving the catcher five hits in his last nine ABs. 1B Steve Pearce left the game after spraining his ankle chasing down an errant throw from Young, and his status should be known today.

The two teams with reverse records (Pirates 19-26, Reds 26-19) meet up tonight for the second in their four-game set. Paul Maholm (4.50, 3-4) does battle with the impressive young Mike Leake (2.91, 4-0), with the first pitch slated for 7:10.

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PHILLIES, PIRATES IN PREDICTABLE BLOWOUT

Charlie Morton's Great Stuff was not enough to get past the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night, as he allowed six hits and six runs in four innings of a 12-2 Pirate loss. 

Ryan Howard, who always impressed me as the kid on your Little League team that everyone backed up for, inflicted the most damage with a grand slam and six RBI. Jayson Werth hit a two-out, two-run home run and drove in four, and every Philly position player had at least one hit.

As one would expect, Philadelphia starter Kyle Kendrick, who came into the game with an ERA perilously close to 6.00, shut down the Pirate bats to the tune of five hits and two runs over eight innings. Delwyn Young hit his first homer of the season to start the game, and the Pirates would reach base only five times the rest of the way: Ryan Doumit's two singles and one walk, a Ronny Cedeno double, and a Garrett Jones single.

As far as the numerous struggling Buccos went, Aki Iwamura came up with a pinch-groundout in the fifth, meaning he's now 0-for-his-last-27. I'm going out on a limb and guessing he probably won't go down as the best acquisition in Neal Huntington history. Counting the pitcher's spot, seven of the Pirate starters on Monday were batting .254 or worse, with five OBPs below .300. That's tough to go to war with against the Phillies.

The odds don't get much better tonight as Roy Halladay and his microscopic 1.59 ERA battle with Zach Duke and his comparatively larger 5.56 ERA tonight in Philly. If you like contrasts in offensive firepower and tune into the occasional Bucco contest, this might just be the game for you.

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PIRATES FALL HARD IN ZONA

An embarrassing 13-run fourth inning ended up deciding things rather definitively on Sunday, giving the Arizona Diamondbacks a 15-6 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates and wrapping up a three-game series in which the Buccos yielded a mind-blowing 24 runs in their two losses. The Pirates have been outscored 36-15 since opening the season with two consecutive wins against Los Angeles last week, and have allowed an NL-high 45 runs so far this year.

Much like Friday night, Pirate pitching was again a black hole in this contest, with starter Daniel McCutchen surrendering six hits, nine earned runs, and three home runs in three 1/3 innings. He was "relieved" by Hayden Penn, who allowed four runs in an 1/3 of an inning of work, threw four strikes and 15 balls, and grew his ERA in the young season to 30.86. And the bleeding did not stop after another pitching change, when Jack Taschner gave up a three-run double to Chris Snyder and a home run to D-backs pitcher Edwin Jackson in the same inning. Add it up and you have a 13-run frame, tied for the worst in the storied team history of the Pirates.

In the far-outnumbered "positives" column for the Pirates, Andrew McCutchen broke out of his early slump with a single and game-tying homer, Lastings Milledge had three hits, and Delwyn Young drove in two with a triple in the third. Of course, that was all wiped out by the nightmarish fourth inning, but so go the Pirates. There will be many more days like this, I fear to say.

Next up for the 3-3 Bucs is a three-game set with Freddy Sanchez and the Giants, with the first coming late Monday night. The G-Men are off to a 4-1 start and have surrendered just 17 runs in those five games, which is four more than the Pirates gave up in one inning. In other words, things could get interesting, and not in a good way. Ross Ohlendorf, Paul Maholm, and Charlie Morton will face Barry Zito, Matt Cain, and Jonathan Sanchez over the course of the next three days.

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REALITY SETS IN FOR THE PIRATES

So much for the 162-0 season. The Pirates came crashing back to Earth on Thursday (and so did their attendance) with a 10-2 blowout at the hands of the LA Dodgers, whiffing on an opportunity to start the season 3-0.

After more than 70,000 fans crammed their way into PNC Park for the first two games, only 9,352 were in the house for a Thursday afternoon matinee featuring Paul Maholm and Chad Billingsley on the hill.

Even worse, the Dodgers gave a day off to regulars Manny Ramirez, Andre Ethier, Casey Blake, and Russell Martin, and still torched Pirate pitching for 16 hits and 10 runs on the afternoon. 2B Ronnie Belliard did the most damage, with a double, triple, home run, and four RBI, but he certainly had plenty of help from the James Loneys and Matt Kemps of the world.

The Pirates got six innings out of starter Paul Maholm, who allowed four earned runs, but things really headed south when newly-acquired Hayden Penn stepped in and was hammered for six hits and four runs in one inning of work.

The Bucs showed some plate discipline with five walks, but the offense was otherwise meek. Delwyn Young doubled twice, and there wasn't much to speak of beyond that.

Tomorrow night, Charlie Morton tries to get the Pirates back on the winning side at Arizona against Rodrigo Lopez. Gametime is slated for 9:40 p.m. at Chase Field. The D-Backs opened 2010 by taking two of three from San Diego, getting four homers in their Wednesday night win over the Padres.

Loneliness, Thy Name Is Pirates Fandom [Deadspin]

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