Nate McLouth Rules

Aren't the Penguins playing tonight? Then why the Pirates post?

Despite my love for the Penguins (especially during playoff time), I gotta show love for what Nate McLouth is doing in this young season.

In last night's 9-1 win over the Reds, on what was hardly a clear black night, Nate Dogg regulated the game (sorry) with two runs, two walks and a hit, pushing his career-long hit streak to 12 games.

Also, his 22 hits on the season accounts for nearly 1/4 of the team hit total. He's also batting .400, good for tops on the team and 32 points above Chris Gomez, who sits in second on the squad with a .368 average. This doesn't take into account P Franquelis Osoria's .500 average in 2 plate appearances. Looks like Franquelis needs more ABs.

Honestly, I didn't expect this outta Nate. I'd like to find someone who did (whoops, turns out a lot of people did). Still, I was hoping Nyjer Morgan would have been the go-to-guy in CF after the show he put on after his call-up late last season. Now, this doesn't mean Morgan won't eventually replace Nate.

I mean, McLouth still has about 44 games to go to make some real noise.