BREAKING NEWS: Nady Leaves Game With Hamstring Injury

The Buccos are currently down 3-1 against the lowly Nats, and Zach Duke is trying to prove that his rookie season was no joke. Unfortunately, X-Man Nady, who opened the season on fire and had a clutch, 4-RBI game last night, left tonight's game clutching his left hammy.

The injury is said to be minor, but the Buccos can ill afford to lose Nady's bat.

Shit, now its 5-1 Nats. Zach Duke is looking more and more like Ollie Perez. Great for one season, then horrible for the next two. We should trade him so he can go be an ace in some major metropolitan area, too.

What Does Ugliness Get You? A 2.39 ERA

He may be ugly. He may not close his mouth. But Tom Gorzelanny leads the team with a 6-3 record, which puts him only one victory behind the National League lead of 7 wins. Plus, his 2.39 ERA, which he lowered in last night's 4-1 win, is good for 3rd in the NL, behind freak of nature Jake Peavy (who the Pirates miss on this homestand) and hottie-dater Brad Penny.

Read that again if you can't grasp the idea. A Pirates pitcher is 6-3. With a 2.39 ERA. And his name isn't Snell or Duke. That was kinda unthinkable before the season.

Last night's win was due mainly to Gorzo's ability to get outs when he needed. He got major help from Jason Bay, who was just named National League Offensive Player of the Week. It was the 4th time that Bay has been recognized for the award. He homered and doubled, which was really all the Buccos needed to beat David Wells and the Padres.

The aforementioned Jake Peavy will not pitch against the Pirates, which might be the greatest thing I've ever heard. The Pirates have been (sorry for the cliche) a Jekyll and Hyde team offensively this year. Peavy's road ERA is 0.33. The Buccos would have no chance with Peavy on the mound in Pittsburgh.

The Buccos have won 4 of their last 5 after their 5 game losing streak. Paul Maholm (2-6 5.43 ERA) pitchers against Chris Young (5-3 2.70 ERA) at 7:05 tonight. Pittsburgh is now 2nd in the NL Central, only 5.5 behind April/May flare Milwaukee.

Buccos Look To Get Back To .500 Tonight

Continuing the roller coaster season, the Pirates are currently on a 2 game losing streak. After taking the first game in the series against the Reds behind a great outing by Ian Snell, Pirate's pitching imploded in the next 2, causing the team's current slide.

Zach Duke is on the mound tonight, and the Pirates can't be pleased with Duke's efforts so far. ZD didn't record a strikeout in 4 of his first 5 starts. That's not a good sign, especially with Rich Hill, who is 1-0 with a 1.26 ERA in 2 career starts against the Bucs, starting for Larry Appleton and Cousin Balki's favorite team tonight.

11-12 is where the Buccos currently stand. I'll update my Reasons to Keep Watching the Bucs This Season list after the Pirates pick up a couple more wins.

The Cubs are currently riding a 4 game winning streak, after winning convincingly against the Cardinals on Friday and Saturday, and the series finale being postponed on Sunday.

Bucs Win in 16, Fully Endorse Adderall

Who knew that ADD Laroche's attention span could last 16 innings? I sure as hell didn't.

Salomon Torres, who opened the season with some "lights-out stuff" but has struggled since, blew a save in the 9th again. After a well-pitched game by Zach Duke (Dude allowed a run in the 1st again and the Bucs still had a chance to win it before Torres came out), the offense added 3 runs in the 5th and 6th to help Duke out. Big Country hit a solo shot to dead center in the 6th and the game was all but won. Until the 9th.

Torres, who blew his 3rd save in the past 5 outings, hardly looked like a legitimate closer. 4 singles in the 9th, along with a throwing error by Jose Castillo (Maybe he needs the Adderall) helped the Astros back in it

After managing only 3 hits since the 8th inning, an intentional walk to Jason Bay in the bottom of the 16th loaded the pillows for ADD. With a home-opening start of 0-18 at the plate, and a game long enough for his Adderall to wear out, Laroche wasn't really expected to do much. Actually, the guy had 318 career RBIs, the most for any active player without a walk-off hit in his career. To prove everyone wrong, ADD hit a walk-off single, and the Buccos prevailed 4-3.

John Wasdin, who pitched the scoreless 15th and 16th, collected his first win of the season.

The Pirates are on a 3 game win streak, and have now opened the season with 5 straight wins against the 'Stros. During the start of the season, I mentioned how the Pirates' early season success against Houston was kinda like the Penguins' season success against the Flyers this past year. 5 straight wins against Houston will do nothing to change that. Hopefully that equals a playoff run for the Bucs (That would be crazy) this year.

Gorzo Gets 3rd Win as Pirates Beat Dodgers 7-5

Go ahead and cheer, Pittsburgh fans. Your Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Dodgers yesterday, 7-5, in Los Angeles. No extra innings here. No walk off grannys. Just good, Pirates baseball. Chris Duffy had 3 hits, scored 3 runs and swiped a pair of bases, while ADD Laroche (I've quit calling him Adam) hit a solo shot. I hope the Pirates offense is coming around, because we can ill afford to get stuck in the Central cellar again.

Before the season started Tom Gorzelanny was the last Pirate pitcher I would've expected to start the season with 3 wins. Ian Snell, if he could find his location, would've been my 1st pick. Zach Duke, if he could keep the opposing team from scoring 8 runs in the 1st inning, would have been a close 2nd. I probably even pictured Tony Armas Jr. with a couple of wins of his own. Paul Maholm...yeah I don't think I even figured him into the equation. But it is impressive that Gorzo leads the team in wins. No other young Pirate arm even has 2 wins.

The team's record is 7-10, which is still 3.5 games behind Milwaukee. I'm just happy that the team didn't lose again.

Paul (great...) Maholm (0-2) is on tap to pitch Tuesday in Houston against Woody (maybe we will have a chance) Williams (also 0-2). Both pitchers are sportin' ERA's over 6, so maybe the Buc's offense will be able to keep the momentum and really tee it off in Houston.

One more thing. Why are the seats behind home plate at PNC called the Lexus Club? Do you have to own a Lexus to sit there? And if the "Lexus" refers to preferred, or exclusive seating, then shouldn't the general admission bleachers be renamed the 1993 Plymouth Duster Club? Just a thought...

Barry Bonds Shows No Respect For Ruth's Records

Several important happenings from last night's Pirate's travesty. The Giants, who many experts picked to finish last in the NL West, beat the Pirates 8-5 behind the longball(s) of a former hometown hero. First off, the Pirates wore their new sleeveless red unis.




Also memorable, was Barry Bonds. In what could be his final professional trip to the city where he started his career, Bonds hit career home runs number 736 and 737. it was the 70th multiple homer game for BB, moving him within 2 of Babe Ruth's record of 72 such games (pretty good for a pitcher). Bonds also moved into 5th place on the all-time total bases list with 5,802, passing Ruth yet again.
Zach Duke, who matched the shortest outing of his career, became the 436th different pitcher to allow Bonds to go yard. By comparison, only 35 players have ever hit 436 home runs in a career. For all the Bonds-haters in the world, read that last sentence again. That could be one of the most impressive stats of Bonds' career.
The Buccos dropped their 4th game in a row, and now sit at 4-6. Oh, and Russ Ortiz (remember him?) won his first game since 2005, after going a combined 0-8 last year with the Diamondbacks and the Orioles.
Enough Bonds-banter, its time to look at tonight's playoff game between the Pens and the Sens. After game 1, I agree with Coach Therrien that the Pens can't possibly play any worse than they did in the series opener. Honestly, while watching game 1, I was having flashbacks of Kris Beech, Aleksey Morozov, Hans Jonsson, and any other former Penguins underachiever. Today's game 2 starts at 3 P.M., and the Pens need to come out with way more energy than they did in game 1. This is no longer the playoff debut for the bulk of the team, and Pittsburgh cannot afford to let the Senators set the tone during the opening shifts again, or the team will be back at the igloo staring up at a 0-2 deficit.
I've been impressed with Ottawa's first line all year, but it was their role players who did the most damage against the Pens in game 1. Pittsburgh's defense needs to play a lot more physical against the Ottawa role players before anything can be done against their superstars. I think the Pens will come out with more energy and life in game 2, and will even up the series with a 3-1 win. (However, if the Pens are backpedaling like they did in the opening moments of game 1, this could easily be another Ottawa blowout.) I'm going to stay positive, and expect the Pens to take a tied series back to the igloo.