Game 113 - Two Thumbs Up for Maholm

Paul Maholm continued his dominating August ways tonight by hurling a 5-hitter and allowing just 3 runs while walking six four over 6 innings in Houston. That's not too shabby a performance considering he faced the 7th hottest lineup in MLB the last 7 days and had a 16.88 ERA in his last two outings against them.

Only four balls in play off Houston's bats even left the infield on Maholm - and two of those were in the 6th inning as his pitch count started getting elevated. Maholm's performance tonight would have been even flashier on paper had his defense played a just a bit better.

In the first inning, Maholm had a hard time finding his arm slot and ended up walking the bases loaded. With just one out, Preston Wilson hit a perfect double play ball to Jack Wilson who made a good throw to Jose, Jose made a quick turn and threw a little wide of the bag at 1B where Nady had to stretch, but Nady wasn't able to pick the ball even though it was a play Nady should have made - even with his inexperience.

In the third inning, Biggio hit a deep flyball that was getting ready to hit the upper part of the wall when a fan reached out and touched the ball. Instead of a ground rule double, 2B ump Jerry Lane ruled that it was a home run. The replay shows the fan reaching into the field and Jack Wilson protesting the call.. to no avail.

The third run came from a clutch 2-out double by Everett in the 6th to score a run.

So, two of the runs scored off Maholm were tainted just like in his last performance against the Braves where he gave up two runs, and one of those was tainted.

While Maholm might have a 3.46 ERA in August on the books, it could be as low as 1.38 had he had a little bit better defense behind him the last two games and a sound call by the 2B umpire tonight. That's quite a feat for a starter who began the year with the least amount of experience in the Pirates rotation. Especially when you consider bats are heating up and pitcher's are getting tired - especially young pitchers like Maholm who is just 25 innings away from having pitched the most innings in his professional career.

Defensively, other than Nady's inability to make that one pick tonight, pitch hitter Luke Scott hit a bullet off the left field wall that Bay misplayed and Jack Wilson ended up fielding for him all the way out near the warning track. Scott might have made second on Bay's weak arm anyway had Jason played it perfect, but it would have been close since it was hit so hard.

Castillo attempted a long run at a foul ball that would have made highlight shows for a week had he caught it, but it was a nice try all the same. And Freddy and Jack played solid D on the left side of the diamond taking most of the action in the game.

Offensively, well, once again, we were putrid - stone cold. Of the six Pirate batters that came to the plate with a runner in scoring position, three of them struckout, one walked, one hit a sac fly, and one hit an infield popup -- meaning, only one ball even left the infield. It was a miracle we even scored one run.

To demonstrate just how cold we are, the last six outs were all strikeouts with four of the batters having swung wildly at at least one pitch out of the zone. Putrid. Brutally putrid. Away game batting average coming into this game was second worst in MLB at .248. Maybe Littlefield needs to let the player's wives and girlfriends start flying on the away game charters?

The Pirates better find some bats in the off season because this streaky bunch will never compete in 2007. There simply isn't a heartbeat, unless you call Paulino batting 8th and Sanchez batting 3rd the beat, and you feel they will repeat their performances in 2007. I'm not so sure.

Tough loss for Maholm to have to take -- he pitched great. He and Snell seem to be the two youngsters taking advantage of the experience they are getting with the innings they have worked this year. I tip my hat to them both.

-- Tidbits --

I heard tonight that Matt Capps was converted from catcher to pitcher in high school. In fact, he was even a pretty good catcher.

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Speaking of school, did you know only three members of the current 25-man roster, other than the old dudes in Burnitz and Randa, have a major college background? Most are high school grads. Here is the college list:

-- Duffy - AZ State
-- Maholm - Miss State
-- Nady - U of CA

Maybe Littlefield should be adding some core classes to the player's lives and getting rid of the ping pong table? Hmm..

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Pirates are now 11 - 40 at Minute Maid Park in their career. *ouch*

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Update on Brad Lincoln: The Crawdads said today Lincoln will be out for at least one rotation start and possibly two...

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Anybody else choking on the Post-Gazette's scouting report on the Houston Astros in yesterday's paper? They said:

"The Pirates' key to success: Stay close until Houston closer Brad Lidge pitches. In his past 15 appearances, the right-hander has yielded 13 hits, including three home runs, and 10 runs in 12 2/3 innings."

Lidge, of course, struckout all three Pirate batters in the 9th inning throwing just 10 pitches. Opppsss.. about as good a scouting job as Littlefield gets for the Pirates, huh? *choke choke*

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The Pirates picked up a game on the Royals in the race to the cellar tonight and are now just 4 games out. Geezz.. the fun we look forward to as Pirates fans in August.