Game 145 - All Duke, Duffy, and Sanchez

The Pirates held a pre-game memorial remembering 9/11 and Mayor O'Connor last night. It was a fitting tribute, of course.

2.3 average runs per game.. that is all Duke has allowed in his last 9 starts while throwing an average of 7 innings per start, and 5 of the 9 teams he faced were in the hunt.

Tonight he was no less dominant throwing a 5-hitter over 7 innings and allowing just 2 earned runs. The only hits off Duke was a Hall solo-shot home run, three seeing eye singles, and a Fielder liner to CF for a single.

Duke can thank Freddy Sanchez for his sparkling defensive work at 3B as Sanchez took at least 3 extra base hits away from the Brewers by handling sharply hit ground balls his way. Overall, Freddy handled 7 of the 11 balls hit into the infield, while 2 scooted past him into left. He almost made me want to say is that Brooks out there? Almost.. hehe

Our offense was putrid once again as we managed just 2 for 12 with men in scoring position.. mostly walks given up by Davis. In the 5th we had men at 1st and 2cd and nobody out and Davis struck out the side of Nady, Paulino, and Bautista. Pretty sad.

But Duffy continues to see the ball well and he hit a clutch two-out rbi in the 4th to score 2. Sanchez gave himself up (ground ball to score Duffy) in the 1st inning to get a run across which I thought was pretty unselfish of him. And Jack Wilson laid down a pretty push bunt passed the pitcher to score Duke from 3B for the third run.

The top of our lineup -- Duffy, Wilson, and Sanchez - went 6 for 12 and had 4 rbis. The 4 - 8 hitters went 0 - 14 and had 5 of our 7 strikeouts. Even Duke went 1 - 2 with a run scored.

Brutal.

Torres almost lost it in the 9th by giving up a run on three hits and got the 3rd out with 2 men on base. His split-finger didn't seem to want to cooperate at times for him as he was leaving it up in the zone and trying to push his straight 96 mph heater past batters, which didn't work for the most part. In the end though, he walked away with his 6th save in a row and allowed Duke to pickup his 9th win of the year.

Duke, Duffy, and Sanchez.. how ironic is it that I am writing about Sanchez' defense and Duffy's offense, huh?

-- Tidbits --

Anyone see Nady's bat laying around? Since the novelty of coming to Pittsburgh has worn off, he has gone just 9 for his last 37 for a .243 clip since September 1.

--

Here is a nice article on Freddy Sanchez that was in the NY Times. And no, I don't talk about THAT stuff while he is in the hunt. It's bad luck.

--

Bradenton is picking up a bit as players will start reporting later this week. One of those will be Brad Lincoln who will be rehabbing.

--

Another nice article on the current status of the CBA talks can be found at this NY Times article. Murray Chass is considered to be the closest source to the talks so if you want to keep up on the talks, read Murray's column.

--

Someone told me a joke today I thought I'd share with everyone. It seems there is a team in the wild card chase that wants to win so bad they are even sending advance scouting reports to the Pirates who play teams they have to move past next week. Today Littlefield was seen scouring over the scouting reports wearing his old Marlins hat when Bob Walk walked past him, stopped, and just stood and glared at him. Littlefield responded to him by saying he was 'reliving the good old times'.

*ouch*