PIRATES CONTINUE DOMINANCE OF CUBS

I thought Tom Ricketts now owned the Cubs, but it appears I've been mistaken - they're obviously owned by the Pittsburgh Pirates, strange as that sounds.

After a 10-6 win over the Cubs on Friday, paced by five hits each from Garrett Jones and Andrew McCutchen, the Pirates jumped on Ryan Dempster for three runs in the top of the first on Saturday, and light-hitting Jeff Clement added a much-needed insurance home run in the 9th to upend Lou Piniella's team, 4-3, on Saturday. The win was the Bucs' seventh in a row against the Cubs, and their ninth win over Chicago in their last 11 meetings. I'd try to explain it, but frankly, I'm at a loss.

In this one, Octavio Dotel made it very interesting late in the game, but ultimately blew away Ryan Theriot and Marlon Byrd in succession to earn his seventh save. Paul Maholm gave up eight hits and two earned runs over six innings to raise his record to 3-3 on the year for Pittsburgh. 

The Pirate offense was far less potent than it was on Friday, yet was still efficient enough to pull this one out. Andrew McCutchen and Clement each had two hits for the Bucs, and Ryan Church drove in two on the afternoon.

The Pirates now sport a 16-20 record heading into Sunday's series finale, when Ross "Mr. Wonderful" Ohlendorf (3.00, 0-1) battles Ted Lilly (4.88, 1-3). The Buccos then travel to Philly for games on Monday and Tuesday, when the highly-anticipated faceoff of Roy Halladay and Charlie Morton goes down.

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CHARLIE MORTON AND HIS GREAT STUFF FINALLY WIN A GAME

We've been hearing about Charlie Morton's "Great Stuff" for what feels like decades, even though he hasn't even been with the organization for a year. In his first five outings of 2010, his earned runs were, in order, 8, 6, 5, 5, and 3, all losses. His ERA ranged between a low of 12.57 and a high of 21.60. To say that great stuff was not making much of a difference would be a fair assessment.

Thankfully, Morton appears to have turned it around of late, making some inroads in his previous start and finally getting his first win of the season last night in a 4-2 decision over the Chicago Cubs.

Morton went six innings, allowing five hits and two earned runs while striking out three and walking not a single Cub. His ERA was "lowered" to 10.30 in the process, the lowest it's been all season.

The Pirates are 12-15, and Morton has basically sunk their ship in at least four of those games. He may be just one man, but getting him to be even passable as a starter could make a noticeable difference with this team's results. Plus, there's the added benefit of less stress on the Pirate bullpen, which has logged about 26 innings in Morton's five previous starts. So consider last night a potentially big step, being extremely cautious in that enthusiasm.

As far as the Bucco offense, they had nine hits and four runs off of Cubs starter Ted Lilly in a balanced attack, featuring four players with at least two hits. Ryan Church homered for the second time in the series and Garrett Jones knocked in two to lead the charge.

The Pirates go for the three-game sweep at 7:05 tonight, with Randy Wells (3.45, 3-0) taking on Brian Burres (6.00, 1-1).

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2010 PIRATES RE-ENACTING 1960 WORLD SERIES

I realize the general demographic of the MH audience, but some of you might be old enough to remember a seven-game stretch of baseball known as the 1960 World Series. The games the Pirates won were all relatively close, with finals of 6-4, 3-2, 5-2, and 10-9. The games the Yankees won were decidedly not close: 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0. It was a strange dynamic, and eventually took every last at-bat to decide the series, but things worked in our favor.

One can't help but think of the '60 Bucs series when looking at the early results of the 2010 model, a team that's given up 43 runs in their first four losses while winning games in more dramatic fashion, including a walk-off 4-3 win over Los Angeles last week and a two run ninth-inning to topple the Giants, 6-5, late last night in San Fran.

Aki Iwamura, who homered earlier in the contest, singled to center, scoring Ryan Church for what would be the go ahead run last night in a Pirate ninth that also saw Andy LaRoche go deep. Evan Meek pitched two scoreless innings for the win and Octavio Dotel did his best to make it exciting, surrendering a two-run dinger to Eugenio Valdez in the ninth before closing things out for save #2. Garrett Jones had three hits, two RBI, and the game-ending catch of a scorching line drive to win it for Pittsburgh. 

The two teams close things out at 3:45 today, with Charlie Morton and his 21.60 ERA taking on Jonathan Sanchez and his 6.23 ERA. Judging by recent (and 50-year-old) history, it's either going to be a shootout or a blowout, since we got the requisite win out of the way last night.

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THE PIRATES ARE PERFECT

The Pittsburgh Pirates started the 2010 season on the right foot, crushing the 95-win Los Angeles Dodgers by a final count of 11-5 at PNC Park. The sellout crowd of 39,024 at PNC Park was the fourth-largest in the stadium's history.

OF Garrett Jones was the story of the day, with two home runs and three RBI in his quest to prove that his 2009 season was no fluke. The Buccos, using a lineup with pitcher Zach Duke in the 8th spot, belted Dodger starter Vincente Padilla for six hits, seven runs, and two home runs in four 1/3 innings. They also got a double, home run, and three RBI from catcher Ryan Doumit and a three-run pinch-hit double from Ryan Church to pace the offense.

Duke limited L.A. to two hits over five innings, and five Pirate relievers managed to keep the team's 8-2 fifth inning lead mostly intact, save for a Manny Ramirez-led three run Dodger 7th. 

The Pirates have gotten off to good starts in the past and we all know how those seasons have ended; but there's no law that says fans can't at least celebrate a nice win over a playoff team on a picturesque day in the Steel City. 

The two teams meet up again on Wednesday night, with Clayton Kershaw and Ross Ohlendorf taking the mound for their respective teams at 7:05 PM ET.

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TODAY'S HEADLINES

Wild 4, Pens 3: The Penguin power play was 0-for-6, and Marc-Andre Fleury gave a shaky effort with four goals on 24 shots to contribute to the team's latest loss, their seventh in the past nine games. Geno Malkin also continued his struggles, with a minus-2 and two giveaways. He is scoreless in 12 of his last 13 games.

The Pens had a 2-1 lead in the second period, with goals coming from Sidney Crosby and Pascal Dupuis. That lead evaporated 51 seconds later when Martin Havlat knotted the game at two and then grew to a 3-2 deficit with Cal Clutterbuck's ninth of the year at 12:03 of the period.

Crosby would tie the game at three in the third period with his 29th goal, but Minnesota's Guillaume Latendresse scored at the 6:13 mark, giving the Wild all the offense they would need.

Clutterbuck, who was on the receiving end of a Sergei Gonchar elbow that resulted in a major interference penalty in the third, had this to say about the usually gentleman-like defenseman: "He better hope he retires before the end of the year. Someone's going to hurt him." Unfortunately for Mr. Clutterbuck, the teams won't meet again in 2009-10. But it's good that you got that on the record.

The Pens continue their road trip on Wednesday night at 26-14-6 Calgary. [Trib]

"There was no groping":That's the headline that sticks out in the clearance of Pitt WR Jonathan Baldwin in an indecent assault charge yesterday. However, Baldwin did admit to slapping a nursing student's buttocks on a campus shuttle bus, and the going rate for that offense is apparently 10 hours of community service. [WPXI]

That's Church: The Buccos appear to have found their fourth OF in free agent Ryan Church, who agreed to terms yesterday pending a physical.

Church hit .273 with four HR and 40 RBI in 111 games last season for the Mets and Braves, who swapped Church and Jeff Francoeur on July 10. Church's career bests came in 2007 with Washington, when he hit .272 with 15 HR and 70 RBI in 144 games. [PG]

April interviewed by 49ers: Free agent special teams coach Bobby April, who interviewed with Mike Tomlin this weekend, is meeting with 49ers coach Mike Singletary today. April has also been linked to the Washington Redskins. [49ers Blog]

Shipley to Eagles: Center AQ Shipley, of Moon HS and Penn State fame, has joined the Philadelphia Eagles. A seventh-round pick of the Steelers in 2009, he spent the entire year on the practice squad and was the only member of that unit not to re-sign for 2010. [PG]

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