Continuing "let's give it a try" week, here are some very brief links on a number of different stories in the news today. No commentary, no one-liners, just the news.
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.
The Duquesne Dukes played their last home baseball game ever on Sunday, an 8-3 loss to Temple.
The school announced in January that it was dropping the program due to financial reasons. Duquesne has had a baseball team since 1888 and has seen the likes of "The Chief", Art Rooney, and former big-leaguers Joe Beimel and brothers Dick and Dave Ricketts wear the Dukes uniform. Their season concludes with a weekend series at Fordham. [PG]
Charlie Morton (1-6, 9.19) and Kyle Kendrick (1-1, 5.89) take the mound tonight in Philly as the Pirates take on the defending NL Champs.
The 23-13 Phillies have won 11 of their last 14 and could active Jimmy Rollins from the DL prior to the game. Philadelphia swept Milwaukee in a three-game series over the weekend. [PittsburghPirates.com]
Ron Burkle, secretive money man behind the Pittsburgh Penguins was profiled in depth by the PG on Sunday despite his not agreeing to be interviewed for the article - further proving their point that he's a pretty under-the radar guy for a billionaire. [PG]
Ray Shero has been hearing his share of criticism in the wake of the Pens' disappointing conclusion to their season, and here's a brief history of his moves while at the helm. [KDKA]
A successful senior send-off: It was Senior Day at The Pete, and the Panthers sent their elder statesmen off in style with an 83-54 blowout of Rutgers. Pitt closes the regular season with records of 24-7 and 13-5 Big East, good enough for a #2 seed and a coveted double-bye in the upcoming conference tournament at Madison Square Garden. This one was never in doubt, as Pitt led by 24 at the half and had leads as big as 32 in the second half.
Gilbert Brown rebounded from his off night against Providence with 19 points, only two off my half-joking prediction of 17. Ashton Gibbs contributed 13 points, Brad Wanamaker had 12, and freshman Dante Taylor added 11 points and seven rebounds to the Panther cause. Jermaine Dixon, one of the team's two seniors, scored 10 points in 12 minutes and was lifted early in the second half with an ankle injury which he insists is not serious. Let's hope not.
Pitt will be off until Thursday, when they face the survivor from a pool of the 7, 10, and 15 seeds in the Big East Tournament, which looks to be Notre Dame, Seton Hall, or Providence. The bad news? Pitt was 1-2 against those teams, and the only win was courtesy of an Ashton Gibbs miracle against Providence on Thursday night. [ESPN]
The Comebacks: Quite an effort by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday at the Igloo, digging their way out of a 3-1 second period hole to defeat the Dallas Stars 6-3.
With the Pens up one early in the third, they killed off a 5-on-3 Dallas power play and got a shorthanded goal from King Crosby to boot, extending their lead to two goals and basically ending the game for all intents and purposes. The Penguins would get one more score, from newly-acquired Alexei Ponikarovsky, to close out the day.
Crosby would score twice in the game, while Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis also had goals for Pittsburgh. Marc-Andre Fleury bounced back from a poor performance against the Rangers, stopping 27 of 30 Dallas shots and clearly outplaying the rusty-looking Kari Lehtonen in goal.
It was a chippy affair between the teams, with two fights on the card: Krys Barch vs. Mike Rupp, and Steve Ott vs. Craig Adams:
Those bruises will have to heal soon, though, as the Pens are back in action on Sunday afternoon against Boston. [ESPN]
Your Daily Ben update: SPORTSbyBROOKS has some new photos from the night in question, including a shot of Willie Colon behind the bar. And TMZ has some photos of females flocking to Ben at the Capital City Club.
Regarding his current whereabouts, Roethlisberger has left Georgia, and investigators plan to talk to him at some point over the next few days. [SbB, TMZ, WPXI]
Pirates tie, Pirates tie: The Buccos and Phillies played to a 3-3 draw in a game that started with a National Anthem performed by Andrew McCutchen's mother, Petrina McCutchen. Andrew responded with two hits, and Ryan Church homered in the first inning as the Pirates touched up Joe Blanton for three runs. But as usual, the Pirate offense was limited beyond that, scoring no runs after the first inning. [By Gosh, It's Langosch]
Tuesday night's Pirates-Phillies game ended with Andrew McCutchen hitting a walk-off home run and following that with his best imitation of Michael Jordan at the 1988 NBA Dunk Contest as he crossed home plate:
Wednesday night's game? It had some Pirate heroics, including a game-tying home run in the ninth inning from Brandon Moss and Joel Hanrahan getting out of a bases-loaded jam earlier in the frame. Unfortunately for the Buccos, the biggest moment of the evening came from Ryan Howard, who pretended not like he was Michael Jordan, but himself at the 2006 Home Run Derby, when he made PNC Park look like a Little League field. Howard blasted a 10th inning Phil Dumatrait offering into the Pittsburgh night for a three-run blast, the difference in Philly's 4-1 win over the Pirates on Wednesday.
The Pirates' normal lack of offense wasted seven quality innings from Paul Maholm, whose only real mistake was a gopherball to Chase Utley in the first innning. Cole Hamels scattered seven Bucco hits over eight shutout innings, including two Lastings Milledge singles and doubles by Steve Pearce and Ronny Cedeno. A blown Ryan Madson save gave Madson the victory, as he closed out Pittsburgh in the 10th for his fifth win of the season in front of a Pittsburgh crowd with a heavy (and unfortunate) Philadelphia influence.
The two teams play the rubber match on Thursday night at 7:05, with J.A. Happ (10-2, 2.59) facing off against Charlie Morton (3-6, 5.21).
Here's the photo we've all been waiting for: the Stanley Cup and the Lombardi Trophy, united at last. This took place in Harrisburg, where they met up with a third pal, the Phillies' World Series trophy. Yeah, you could definitely say Pennsylvania solidly owns pro sports these days.
