Game 83 - Fogg, er, ummm.. Snell Loses

Ian Snell looked like the 2005 version of Josh Fogg on the mound today.. a home run allowed here, a ton of walks there, a hit or two just about every inning, and the balls in play that did go for outs were generally hit hard. The one exception was that Ian took the bat out of five Tiger batter's hands by striking them out where Fogg might have given up another hit or two.

At this point in 2005, Fogg had a 4.37 ERA having allowed 44 earned runs in his 15 appearances and 90 innings of work. Ian Snell so far in 2006 has allowed 52 earned runs in his 17 appearances and 93 innings of work.

Fogg was non-tendered. Snell continues to pitch.

That being said, The Pirates faced Zach Miner today who seemed to give us fits the first time through the lineup, which is typical of a team that hasn't seen a rookie pitcher before. The second time through the lineup, Pirates batters started getting a bead on him and balls put in play were hit sharper, but we still didn't score any runs.

In the 6th, and the 3rd time through the order, we had a bullseye on Miner's release point.. Bautista singled, Jack Wilson hit into yet another double play in the series, then Casey and Bay singled, and Sanchez golfed a double into the right centerfield gap to score them both. Miner was then yanked, Ledezma came in and Burnitz lined out to end the inning.

In the 7th, Leyland put Rodney back on the mound who had yet to record an out against the Pirates, and he hit a batter, allowed a single, and walked the next batter to load the bases for Bautista who hit a little rbi flair single.

With the bases still loaded, Jack Wilson then K's as the only out Rodney will ever record in the series, walks to the dugout, and then proceeds to hammer away at the dugout bench with overhead swings until his bat shatters, taking out his frustration.

Casey then hits a grounder that Guillen boots allowing another run to score, Rodney is lifted in favor of Colon who then walks Bay, and Mr. Clutch Freddy Sanchez then stroked a double down the right field line to score two more. Paulino then singled home yet another, and Castillo comes to the plate with one out and men on 1st and 3rd, and hits into a DP to end the inning.

In the 9th inning with the score 9-8 Tigers, the Pirates attempted a rally on Todd Jones with a Bay double, an intentional walk to Sanchez (his first of the year btw), and Burnitz walks to load the bases with one out. Castillo comes up and K's (why not squeeze Tracy?) and then Cota, the guy Tracy has had sit on the bench like a light fixture since Paulino came up, hits a sharp groundball that is headed up the middle but Jones gets enough glove on it to deflect it to Polanco and the Buccos lose.

Unbelievable.

Despite hitting .400 with men in scoring position, despite getting three free walks and an intentional pass with a runner in scoring position, despite a Tiger error with a man in scoring position, we just couldn't come up with that one extra run to tie the game. But we had our chances as four Pirate batters made the third out with 5 men in scoring position.

I think most fans that saw the game would say Tracy was too long to pull the hook on Grabow who came in the 6th and retired three batters, but was sent back out in the 7th which is not typically good for him. However, when two of the first 3 batters he saw in the 7th hit him hard, you would have thought Tracy would have made the move to the pen - but he didn't, and Grabow gave up a double and a walk and another run scored.

But then, for some reason, Tracy sent out mop up man Bayliss again who was commandless the other night and the kid promptly gives up a double and a single and three more runs scored. Just where is Vogelsong, anyway? Geez.. send Bayliss back to Indy Tracy.. the kid is obviously not ready for the bigs.

Defensively, Cota had a passed ball in the first which isn't untypical of a rusty backup catcher, and the rest of the troops played a pretty good game overall. It's nice to see progressively better D, even though we know it won't last.

We head off to NY to play four games and this series could spell disaster for this club because many of these kids have never seen the caliber of fans the Mets have to offer or the atmosphere of playing at Shea. We'll see how it all holds together.

-- tidbits --

Stealth bombers made a few impressive flyovers during the game perhaps as a message to anyone considering disrupting the all-star game.

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I was going to add a poll to tonight's game log asking the following question:

Which is faster?

1. Stealth Bombers
2. A Zumaya fastball
3. The Pirates comeback in the 7th inning tonight
4. Kevin McClatchy leaving PNC when his team is losing

The answer would have been McClatchy, of course. Kevin took off for parts unknown (maybe a stealth bomber ride?) after the top of the 7th inning when the Pirates gave up a 5-spot and the score was 9-2. Maybe that is was ignited the Pirates rally?

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DL Watch: 3-16 since Littlefield announced June 12 he was a seller.

CS Watch: Pirate batters had 17.7% called strikes of all pitches thrown tonight.