Giants 7 Pirates 6- "God told me if you give the saxophonist enough money the Pirates might win."

The Good:
6 runs
Cota homer
Freddy Sanchez playing and killing the ball
The Pirate Parrot's flying body slam of Lou the San Francisco Seal to let Cheese Chester win the Pierogie Race

And that was about it. The one night of the year the Pirates decide to draw walks we score 6 runs but still manage to leave 10 people on base. And Lloyd decides that Rick White is both his setup guy and his long relief man, which means that Rick White took the mound for the fourth consecutive game tonight. Seeing as how he hadn't given up any runs in the first three performance, there was a general feeling of unease in the ballpark when he took the mound tonight with two runners on base and a one run Bucco lead. On the second pitch he gave up a double and the lead was gone for good. He then gave up two runs of his own, you know just for good measure. Why Rick White needed to pitch for the fourth straight game when Torres, Grabow, Gonzalez, and Vogelsong all hadn't pitched in just about a week is beyond me. To add to the "I can't believe I paid to come to a baseball game and then Lloyd goes and does THAT" file, with a runner on base and two outs, he brings David Ross up to pinch hit. Felipe Alou counters with a right handed reliever, so Mac calls Ross back, which is good because Ross can't hit at all. This is a perfect place to bring Bobby Hill up, thinks all 23,000 fans in attendance. Instead, Lloyd decides that it's a perfect place for Tike Redman, while 23,000 fans in attendance wonder if they can charge the Pirates with theft, because forcing paying fans to watch Tike Redman bat in key situations with alternatives is probably a felony theft in some states.

One other positive from the night (besides the hilariously drunken man behind us screaming to his female friend on his cell phone about her large, ummm, chest area and the little redneck kid in front of us that looked EXACTLY like Chunk from Goonies... man I love Pittsburgh) was Felipe Alou's pitcher management. Somehow, one night after stretching Brett Tomko out for nine innings, he used all seven pitchers in his bullpen. One time he changed a pitcher ONE PITCH INTO AN AT BAT. With a righty on the mound (no idea who it was, there were too many pitchers to remember), Mackowiak comes up to the plate. He takes ball one and Alou comes out of the dugout to switch pitchers. The best we could figure was that Alou fell asleep in the dugout and forgot Mackowiak batted left handed. By the time he woke up it was one pitch into the at bat. We also wondered if when Felipe walked out the mound he told the umpires (in his best Yoda voice, of course) "A double switch we need. Hmmph. Bring in Alfonzo at third and Christiansen to the mound I will."

Bottom line: Yet another game the Pirates could have won with just one more key hit. Last year in 12 games in person I saw the Pirates go 7-5. This year so far in 5 I've seen them go 1-4.