LaRoche Beats Astros in 16th

You know things aren't going right for you as a batter when you are hitting cleanup for a team, it's almost the end of April and you have more strikeouts than total bases, and three of the team's pitchers have a higher batting average than you do.

Meet Adam LaRoche.

With two outs and two on in the 15th inning with Jason Bay at the plate, LaRoche's troubles were what Phil Garner was thinking about as he intentionally walked white hot Jason Bay to load the bases for LaRoche.

Talk about being humiliated.

And despite the fact the entire Pirates team had only hit .164 all night long off Astros pitching, and the fact LaRoche is the team's worst clutch hitter, Garner put on his typical infield shift moving shortstop Adam Everett almost on top of second base and LaRoche hit a little grounder to straight-away short.

And the ball went under Everett's glove into center allowing Jack Wilson to score to win the game.

Adam LaRoche was finally a hero.

Never mind that is was perhaps the weakest groundball single LaRoche has ever hit in his career.

Never mind that the game should have been long over because Salmon Torres blew another save opportunity.

Never mind that Jack Wilson, the team's second worst clutch hitter at the start of this game, had been up at the plate with the bases loaded just two innings prior and didn't produce.

Never mind that the Astros wailed Pirate pitching for a .291 batting average all night long and had more men left on base than the Pirates had hits, walks, and rbis combined in this game.

No, this night belonged to Adam LaRoche as his team mobbed him after the winning hit and didn't stop mobbing him until he started swinging fists to get out of the mob. They were that excited.

776 pitches, 123 plate appearances, 116 at bats, and 82 balls in play later, LaRoche walked off the field with his head hung high to be interviewed for the first time as a Pittsburgh Pirate for something he had done productive.

Amen.

Zach Duke started for the Pirates and was the beneficiary of what seemed to be a twenty-four inch wide strike zone from home plate umpire Randy Marsh. Pitch after pitch well outside the zone to right-hand batters was called a strike. Duke knew it and took advantage of it forcing the Astros to swing at pitches out of the zone most of the night.

Duke was very hittable as balls in play off him were crushed, especially early in the game.

Matt Albers started for the Astros and pitched like most AAA pitchers do - coming right at batters. Despite extremely flat off-speed pitches, the Pirates couldn't square up on him and managed just four hits, including a Brad Eldred solo shot home run.

And even though the Astros had the fourth best batting average with runners in scoring position in the NL entering this game, they left 18 men on base. The Pirates, who hit below the Mendoza line with RiSP, left 9 on - four by Jack Wilson alone.

You have to tip your hat to Shawn Chacon for this win because Chacon tossed four innings of two-hit baseball despite the fact he already had thrown 52 pitches in the last 7 days, and after the 58 he threw in this game, that gave him a total of 107 for the week. But it's not just 107 - he pitched in four games during the week so add in all the bullpen work and Chacon's pitch count was off the charts.

To be fair to Salomon Torres, this blown save wasn't the typical run of the mill blown save. It was an unlucky blown save.

Although he gave up four hits in the inning, two of them were infield singles, one was legitimate hit, and one was a Biggio ground ball between Wilson and the second base bag. In other words, he did his job - he induced four ground balls. They just all found holes.

Let's be honest - a year ago this team would have given up in the 11th just wanting to go home. To their credit, they didn't tonight. They certainly didn't look hungry, but all that matters is the W.

The win puts the Pirates in third place in the division just three behind the Brewers. And the loss puts the Astros in 5th place but, more importantly, you have to wonder how much energy they will be able to muster for the final game of the series that starts in about 12 hours.

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Freddy Sanchez was a late scratch in this game because he went to an eye doctor who removed "debris" from his right eye.. after tonight's game, Jack Wilson is now known as the team's 'anti-clutch' batter with just three rbi's with 47 men on base for him.. Eldred is expected to continue playing for Xavier Nady through Friday's game that will honor Jackie Robinson, as the Pirates will all wear #42 jerseys.. Bay was 10-22 before going 0-6 in this game.

It looks like Thursday's game will be a rainout, and you have to believe Jim Tracy hopes it is to rest his pen and to skip Tony Armas.

But if it isn't, Armas has given up 14 earned runs in just 6 innings of work in his last two starts, and six runs in 10 innings in his last 2 starts against the Astros. This will be his first start at PNC where he has a career 6.43 ERA, but he holds a career 3.69 ERA against the Astros. So something will break.

In four career starts against the Pirates, Thursday's starter for the Astros, Wandy Rodriguez, has allowed four runs or more in every game but one - the one he pitched at PNC where he allowed just 1. Rodriguez is not known as a good road pitcher however, so perhaps the momentum from LaRoche's big hit (no pun intended) will carry over to our bats Thursday?

Trivia time - if Armas had to be taken out of Wednesday night's game as the last available pitcher, who would have pitched? Cota, Nady, and Sanchez were the only players left.

You have to wonder if Cota or Nady would have taken over at 1B and LaRoche taken the mound.