Pirates have taken a 3-0 lead in the second inning thanks to Chicago being as laughably inept on defense as I remember them being a couple weeks back when I watched them play Cincinnati at a friend's house.

- C. Snyder walked
- L. Overbay singled to shallow right, C. Snyder to third
- R. Cedeno safe at first on pitcher D. Davis' fielding error, C. Snyder scored, L. Overbay to second, C. Snyder to third
- K. Correia safe at first on third baseman A. Ramirez's fielding error, C. Snyder scored, L. Overbay to third, R. Cedeno to second
- J. Tabata struck out looking
- S. Pearce hit sacrifice fly to left center, L. Overbay scored
- A. McCutchen flied out to deep left center
- End of Inning (3 Runs, 1 Hit, 2 Errors)

Hmm...and I just noticed the score really is 2-0 because Yahoo is full retard today. If you notice from the recap, they have Chris Snyder scoring twice.

Now it's 3-0. McCutchen drew a bases loaded walk to bring in Cedeno. Doug Davis is sucking ass right now. Two outs and one on, he's walked two and hit one. Apparently, he is replacing Volquez as the shittiest pitcher in the Central, now that Volquez is in the minors.

Make that 4-0. Walker with an RBI single. Bases still loaded.

Meth Beimel made things interesting in the ninth, giving up a two-run homer, but Hanrahan came on to seal the deal with three quick Ks for the Pirates.

23-26 now. Hope they can continue their dominance of the Cubs for a couple more days!

Seriously, maybe the Bucs should play all their games on the road.

Through three innings, Maholm and Wells were having a pitching duel. In the fourth, Steve Pierce said "FUCK YOU CHICAGO BITCHES" and hit a two-run single. Hopefully Maholm can keep it up (perfect game through three), as he needs a win sometime. Dude's been very solid, but gets no support.

And just moments later, Ronnie Cedeno said "FUCK YOU CHICAGO BITCHES AND YOUR LESBO MOMS TOO!!!" and hit a three-run homer to make it 5-0. I approve.

More "FUCK YOU CHICAGO BITCHES!" moments in the top of the sixth inning, as both Overbay and Snyder had solo shots to make it 7-0.

No no-hitter or perfect game for Maholm, as he gave up two hits in the fifth, but he's still doing pretty damn well, as it's only taken him 66 pitches to get through 6 innings.

Anyone want to guess what my avatar just said after he hit a two-run homer to make it 9-0 in the top of the seventh.

PROTIP: Read the last three or so posts by me.

In random news tidbits, I saw that after yesterday, Meth Beimel was put on the DL and Daniel Moskos was recalled from AAA. Also, after the fourth inning, Pearce was lifted for Brandon Wood. Since I'm only following on Yahoo, I don't know why, but hope it doesn't involve a serious injury or anything. He was off to a decent start as a back-up last year before injuries derailed him and he's off to decent start as one this year.

Garrett Jones just got into the whole "FUCK YOU CHICAGO BITCHES" fad after hitting an RBI double in the top of the ninth to make it 10-0.

The only negative is the knowledge that since the Pirates have put up 10+ today, they'll likely get two-hit tomorrow while looking utterly inept.

Maholm finishes a three-hit shutout and the Pirates win 10-0.

Maholm is probably wondering why some of this offense couldn't have been handed to him during previous starts, as he is now 2-7 despite having a 3.18 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP.

Pirates lose 3-2. Disappointing but can't complain about taking another series on the road. In other news, the New York Times ranks PNC Park as the best in baseball, but we already knew that. The baseball may stink for the last 20 years but at least we have other things to take our minds off of what's going on down on the field...lol

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/ranking-baseballs-best-ballparks/

GoPens;784733 wrote:Pirates lose 3-2. Disappointing but can't complain about taking another series on the road. In other news, the New York Times ranks PNC Park as the best in baseball, but we already knew that. The baseball may stink for the last 20 years but at least we have other things to take our minds off of what's going on down on the field...lol

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/ranking-baseballs-best-ballparks/

True story. LOL

Two straight losses where they had one two-run inning and jackshit the rest of the way.

Josh Harrison had a debut he won't forget in the big leagues. 2-4 with an RBI single that tied the game at 1-1. The Mets' manager deciding to keep the starter in although he seemed gassed allowed them to get two more runs that inning and they added two more the next to win 5-1. The overall very good pitching continued as James McDonald only gave up one run in six innings and the trio of Meek, Veras and Hanrahan delivered three perfect innings.

Pittsburgh has been solid thus far. What are your guys' expectations for the rest of the season? Can this team challenge the .500 mark?

I'll believe it when I see it. The sad truth is that Pittsburgh has had multiple years during their long streak of losing seasons where they were competitive in the early months and then faded horribly down the stretch. Hell, I read that they currently are only four games better than they were at this point last year (was it 55-107 or 57-105?).

The pitching has been better than expected. The offense has been worse than expected. Law of averages says this team CAN continue being competitive, as you'd have to expect the underperformers on offense to get better if the overperformers on the mound start to falter. But during that late July period, the team seems to repeatedly collapse after trades. If they take the mindset that say, Joel Hanrahan is utterly FILTHY and can get them a supposed can't miss prospect at a weak spot like shortstop and it won't hurt in the long run because they have a good number of hard-throwing relievers, well that's the same ol' same ol'. Or if all their free agent signings like Correia, Veras, Overbay, Diaz, etc. are just there until it's trading time...which is a yearly deal.

At some point you have to stop playing for 2-3 years down the road. They're close enough to that point to where I'll be MAJORLY disappointed if July results in them trading a third of the roster for future prospects like usual. Unless they completely collapse in June like they did last year when they went 6-20 that month. Right now, they're one of a large number of mediocre teams that hover either a bit above or below .500 (Hi, Reds fans!!! 5-1, amirite?!). There are only a couple teams truly doing good and only a couple teams doing truly bad. The key is to keep on keeping on and not surrender for dreams of a better future if the guys you have are showing you're taking a step forward.

Pirates beat the Mets 9-3, coming from behind and scoring in the late innings just like last night.

It's June 1st and they have 17 wins on the road, the exact same number they had for the entire season last year.

Their starters have been on an incredible roll over the past dozen-plus games. Every game has either had a quality start or the only thing preventing a quality start is that pitch count or potential sixth-inning trouble prevented them from making six full innings.

When you consider that:
Correia was poor last year in a pitcher's park.
Maholm has been inconsistent his whole career.
Morton was horrible last year.
McDonald started the year horribly.
Karstens is one of the starters (he's a "jack of all trades, but master of none" kind of guy who tends to be exposed as mediocre-at-best over the long haul...but he still is giving 5-6 solid innings when it's his turn).

...their performances deserve respect. All of them are currently doing good to excellent. After last year's starting pitching debacle, who'd have thought that would happen? Hell, with eight wins, Correia just needs one more to equal the team high for last year!

Pirate starters haven't given up more than 2 runs in the last 13 games.

The pitching has been unbelievable compared to last year. I thought this team would hit this year and would have to hit a lot in order to make up for poor pitching. Imagine if the bats ever get going.

Maholm getting good offensive support for the second straight start. Through four innings, they're up 7-3 on the Mets. Maholm gave up a three-run homer to Beltran in the third inning (three straight hits with two outs), but has been strong other than that period. Pirates kicked Pelfrey around big-time in the first two innings. He's been solid since falling behind 6-0 after two, but hopefully enough damage was done and they can take 3/4 and move to only one game under .500.

Pittsburgh's streak of good starts by their pitching staff has come to an emphatic end. Right now, it's 7-6 in the bottom of the sixth, as Maholm is melting down big-time. First and third with two outs, so it could get worse before the inning ends.

And now, the Mets have taken an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the eighth. Spectacular! Motherfuckers...

And the bases are now loaded with one out on two walks and an intentional walk. SMH...

9-7 after Veras walked in a run. Entering the top of the ninth with Paul, Harrison and McCutchen up. At least it's three guys who've combined for six hits so far, although most of those hits came in the first couple innings and they (as well as everyone else) haven't done much of anything since then.

That walked-in run wound up costly. They scored once on a triple by Paul and RBI single by Walker, but needed two to tie.