Slide Continues as Bucs are Hammered

We’re now 0-3 since THAT damning play and we continue to be lazy, inept, and play futile baseball on all sides of the diamond since.

Jim Tracy had the guile to start Nady in center and Doumit in right knowing full well he was putting a poor defensive team on the field behind Zach Duke and it cost him dearly.

With the score 1-0 Pittsburgh in the bottom of the second, Duke gave up singles to Molina and Miles and got Edmonds to pop up. Up came the pitcher Wainwright and he hit a fly ball to deep center that Nady started in on and, by the time he retreated, it was over his head and two runs scored.

Whether or not Duffy would have run it down is debatable – I thought so, as it came down and hit the base of the wall near the ground. It’s a play Duffy routinely makes at more spacious PNC.

In either case, the Cards were still up 2-0 in the 3rd when Pujols led off with a single, Encarnacion hit a sharp line drive single to Bay, and Pujols saw Bay taking his sweet time and rounded second and headed to third. Bay stood flatfooted, lofted an extremely lazy relay throw to 3rd, the throw was offline yet barely beat the sliding Pujols and he was called out.. but Bautista dropped the ball.

Rolen then hit a sac fly to score Pujols and the score was 3-1.

The Pirates scored one run in the 4th to make it 3-2 Cards and in the 5th, Eckstein hit a line drive single into center, Duncan crushed Duke’s first pitch into the right center field gap for a double, and Eckstein went to third.

Pujols then hit a fly to Doumit who threw home and nailed Eckstein trying to score, Duncan took third on the play at home, and things started to look up.

For one second, anyway.

Encarnacion hit a little flair into center that scored Duncan, then Rolen hit a line drive to shallow center that Nady bobbled which allowed both Encarnacion and Duncan to advance an extra base.

Still 4-2 at this point with two outs, Jim Tracy orders an intentional walk to Molina to load the bases, and up to the plate came Jim Edmonds. After fighting off several pitches, Duke walked Edmonds scoring a run and leaving the bases loaded.

The score was now 5-2 Cardinals, no thanks to one fly ball over Nady’s head, one lazy relay throw by Jason Bay, one bobbled liner by Nady that forced Tracy’s hand to walk Molina to load the bases, and a walk by Duke.

Just unbelievable stuff.

So who does Tracy go to the bullpen and get to replace Duke who was removed with still two outs and the bases loaded? Tracy brings in none other than Brian Rogers.. my-oh-my.

Two pitches later Miles hammered a Rogers heater into right to score another and, if not for a base running error on the play by Jim Edmonds, they might still be batting.

The score was 6-2 after that inning.

Tracy went to the pen to get Saturday’s starter Shawn Chacon and he hit Ludwick leading off, got Eckstein to bunt but then got in the way of LaRoche trying to tag him, and then Duncan crushed the first pitch he saw into the right field bleachers to score three more.

Cardinals 9-2.

For the fourth time in the game, the Pirates loaded the bases in the 8th and managed to get two runs from a sacrifice fly and a routine groundball Eckstein booted. In the first with the bases loaded and one out, we managed one run on a Nady single. And in the 4th we scored another run with the bases loaded and one out thanks to a Bay sac fly.

Game score 9-4 Cardinals.

Yet another Quad BS game in the books.

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Chacon pitched in relief but he probably was scheduled for bullpen work tonight anyway so I don’t think it wall affect his start Saturday. But the way the Pirates front office has been making decisions lately, who the heck knows what they are going to do.

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Todd Wellemeyer who pitched the later innings for the Cardinals looks like Josh Towers on the mound with straight heat running in the mid to upper 90′s. He was very hittable except to our guys whose heads are in the bucket right now.

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Don’t expect a sure fire win from Snell Wednesday night. Snell has allowed a .341 OBP and has a 1.42 WHIP over his last 3 games, having allowed 24 hits in this 19 innings. And this isn’t the same Cardinals team he faced earlier in the year – they have a fire going now.

So does Kip Wells against the Pirates. However, Wells threw 125 pitches in his last outing so I don’t expect he will last long. Plus the Pirates are seeing the ball very well right now.

But the way things are going, we’ll probably have Nady in center and Doumit in right and we’ll give up 5 runs with bad defense.

Ughh..

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Who cares if JvB got rocked – bring him up. We’re not going to win the wild card – let’s start getting these guys some innings under Colborn. What are we waiting for?