Maholm came back from a shitty start to give 7 strong innings. Meek (easily) and Hanrahan (a bit less easily) finished it off.

Brandon Wood, in his first Pittsburgh game, tried to shake his "one of the worst MLB hitters ever" label by putting up a two-run double to highlight a four-run inning that was the world for them in this game.

Nice. At least one team from the 'Burgh won today.

It's up to the Pirates to win a championship for the city in 2011!

2-0 win over San Francisco tonight

of course, that's after blowing the lead late Tuesday in a 3-2 loss

series wraps up Thursday with an afternoon start

Non;752469 wrote:It's up to the Pirates to win a championship for the city in 2011!

2-0 win over San Francisco tonight

of course, that's after blowing the lead late Tuesday in a 3-2 loss

series wraps up Thursday with an afternoon start

LMAO. Finishing with a .500 record or better will do.

Crap. Anywhere close to .500. Something that hints at being competitive, instead of being a joke, will make me happy.

Tonight was a good effort. MacDonald finally had a good start and the relief got the job done. Offense did just enough. Should have done more, but left a good number of guys on the bases. Still did enough to win.

Pirates took a 1-0 lead on the Giants today. And now Karstens is having a meltdown inning. Giants up 2-1 with runners on second and third and no one yet out. You'd hope they can match the scoring, as Ryan Vogelsong is a horrible pitcher, but they also tend to bizarrely be dominated by guys who, on paper, suck.

So far, Neil Walker is 2-2 with an RBI double against Vogelsong. The rest of the team is 0-13 with two walks and five strikeouts. And an error. Since only one of the four charged runs to Karstens in the third inning seems to be earned, that's kinda big... FFFFFUUUUUUUUU!!!

Ah. An RBI groundout by Doumit to make it 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth. At least some signs of life are being shown.

Not enough signs of life, as they lost 5-2 to drop the series 2-1. Crud.

that was pathetic today

I watched on MLB.TV

freaking Ryan Vogelsong shuts em down

some costly mistakes by Overbay, including a dropped foul, opened the floodgates

Yeah. It was one bad inning that was made bad by defensive fuck-ups leading to Karstens having a mini-meltdown. Other than that, he was rock solid.

2-0 Pirates over the Rockies

middle 6th

Cutch and Garrett with solo HRs

Hopefully they can hang on and win this one.

Correia is looking like a nice pickup

Pirates take the opener in Denver, 3-0

Correia strong again

this was their first shutout in Colorado in 74 games

The Pirates are looking like the Pens in the playoffs...can't win at home and looks good on the road.

This year, so far, has been full of surprises.

Offense has been much worse than I'd expected. Walker's doing good, but guys like McCutchen and Alvarez have not been good at the plate, Tabata's slumping after a very good start and, in general, it seems like either most guys are on and the team scores a lot or most everyone's cold and they get held to 0-2 runs. Hell, tonight, they got three runs on four hits (they had more than 4, but that's what it took to get the three with two solo shots followed by a single/RBI triple combo).

Starting pitching has been a pleasant surprise. Correia has been much better than the 5+ ERA in a pitcher-friendly stadium guy I thought we signed. Maholm has been better than anytime since the last half of what...2008 or 9? Morton has been the polar opposite of what he was last year. Karstens has been a suitable replacement for Ohlendorf. And after sucking during his first few starts, MacDonald gave a great showing in his last start.

Other than Meek, relief pitching has been a pleasant surprise. Hanrahan is perfect through (I think) eight save opportunities. Dan McCutchen is having a GREAT start as a middle/long reliever. For a guy who was considered organizational filler, Crotta has been at least adequate. And guys like Vera, Garrett Olsen (before being DFA'd) and Resop all have done very good jobs in their roles. If Meek gets back to forms, this could be one of the better bullpens top to bottom in the majors.

Oh yeah...and defense has overall been abysmal. I've seen some great plays made, but they make a ton of errors and, especially in the infield, just seem prone to utter retardation at times.

The bullpen has the 2nd lowest ERA in all of baseball. Very pleasant surprise.

I think the bats will come around. The question is, will the pitching still be there when they do. If so, the Pirates may have a surprisingly decent year.*

*Understand that "surprisingly decent" when the standards have been so low the last 2 decades isn't much.

They've been up and down.

But that's better than usual.

Usually it's just down and down lol

Meek is on the DL, Hurdle is going to give Tabata a few days off.

Pirates win 8-4.

And take 2 of 3 from the Rockies.

Fourth road series win.

I have a question for the Pirate faithful:

I listen to FM 104.7 WPGB out of Pittsburgh, and they seem to call the Pirates "The Bucko's"?

Is this a Pittsburgh nickname? What is the story behind this?

coyotes22;756994 wrote:I have a question for the Pirate faithful:

I listen to FM 104.7 WPGB out of Pittsburgh, and they seem to call the Pirates "The Bucko's"?

Is this a Pittsburgh nickname? What is the story behind this?

Buccos (or Bucs) is short for Buccaneers, which is a synonym for Pirates. With the way the team's been the last couple decades, if I wanted a catchier nickname for them, I'd change Pirates to LOW-rates. But that's just me.

Up to 14-15 after tonight. It wasn't the prettiest win as they watched an early 4-0 lead (two first-inning two-run homers against Harang) turn into a 4-3 game. That they won after Hanrahan put runners on 1st and 3rd with two outs.

Wins are wins, though. I'll gladly take it.

Thought that one was slipping away.

Hung on after the four-run first.