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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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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UPDATED: SANCHEZ TRADED TO GIANTS

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the San Francisco Giants are "definitely getting Freddy Sanchez." This comes on the heels of a Dejan Kovacevic report in today's PG that "...a deal in which Sanchez would be sent to the San Francisco Giants seemed the greatest possibility." So the immediate dismantling of MLB's worst team over the past 16.5 years continues in earnest.

I've gotta give it to Neal Huntington. When he tears down a house, he tears it down all the way.

Pirates Rumors: Sanchez Next To Go? [MLB Trade Rumors]

UPDATE:

Freddy is officially a member of the San Francisco Giants,
having been dealt for AA pitcher Tim Alderson,
the #3-ranked prospect in the Giants' system.

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