Maholm Dominates Marlins to Halt Skid

I swear Paul Maholm needs to pitch in Puerto Rico next December and January so that by April his arm is toast and he tosses games like Tuesday night's manhandling of the Marlins.

As I mentioned yesterday, Maholm has been very strong his last three outings and has now dropped his ERA to 3.33 over his last four with this three-hit, two run game.

So did Maholm pitch that good, or where the Marlins that bad?

The funny part about the Marlins is that they wanted to go deep with everything instead of simply putting the ball in play the other way. I mentioned earlier they had an average per game .477 SLG their last 7 with an OPS of .700, meaning they only had a .233 OBP, and the reason why is obvious - swing, swing, swing.

Thank you very much for keeping the ball out of our middle infielders hands most of the night Marlins.

Poor approach at the plate = a poor game plan.

Don't get me wrong - when Maholm only walks one batter in 7.2 innings you know he is confident on the mound. Indeed, he pitched a very nice game.

But the Marlins at bats were as pathetic as Maholm was good.

The Pirates scored a couple in the second on four straight singles (mostly soft stuff), the fourth being Wilson's who brought home Nady. Then Davis managed to get a ball in the air to score Phelps. And in the 4th, Wilson went deep. That's all there was to it.

Chacon and Capps came in and shut the door and the Pirates inched away with another one run win.

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When I originally saw the lineup card posted I was a bit concerned seeing Phelps at first and Davis in center because neither one of them grade out even average defensively, and Maholm typically allows a lot of balls in play. Davis showed us how rough he is on several routes and even Phelps looked a bit uncoordinated at first.

But in the end everything worked out ok. I just pray we don't see this card very often, especially with Sanchez also at second. Man - a good team would have severely exploited us.

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JVB Wednesday. Hmm.. he tossed 35 pitches in his last inning of work last game - the highest in his career. It is going to be very interesting to see how his command and control hold up over several innings, as well as his arm after this start. Look for the pen to be working early in this game.

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I mentioned Sunday that the Pirates should go after Jeff Clement and I've spoken to a few of the beat reporters and bloggers in Seattle and the consensus thought is that he is probably blocked right now and might be available. He would be a very solid addition for the long-term.

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I don't EVEN want to get another email about how well Oliver Perez pitched Tuesday. Ughhh..

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Speaking of red flags, Bullington pitched his first game back the other day and threw 38 pitches in the first inning and came back out and threw another inning plus. That's a lot of abuse on the young man's arm.

He also threw 37 pitches in one inning and was made to go back out the next inning three starts before he tossed 26 pitches and was put on the DL.

I think it's fair to question whether Bullington is in Littlefield's long term plan.

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Interestingly, I received a lot of email from the Deadspin visitors sending their condolences like I was burying my long lost puppy or something. Most asked how I could continue to blog about the Pirates.

It's not easy being a sounding board for all the fan's depression, especially this year. I'll be traveling to Bradenton here shortly and the first thing I plan to ask the new players will be how is all this affecting them mentally? I'm sure 99% will give me the stock answer that it isn't. But you know the kids in the farm have to be as depressed as the fans.

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Just in from a reader: the Bradenton Herald had a very nice article on the Pirates fourth round draft pick Quincy Latimore the other day. Check it out.