Pirates 8 Rockies 3- The View from 144

Tonight 37,000 Pirates fans got up and said, "We don't need no stinkin' interleague play, we just want to see baseball." And it was a good night for baseball in the Burgh. The Pirates tagged the ball all over the park tonight, every out seemed like it was a laser line drive, every hit was hit hard. Tike's bat is coming alive, Cota had a couple big hits and 4 ribbies, Daryle Ward may have put a foul ball into the river (not that it counted for anything), Mackowiak had a another hit. Good night for the offense. Of course the offense wasn't what was on everyone's mind tonight. Mr. Oliver Perez occupied that space. I was not impressed. He struggled with control issues all night, and I think just about anyone except the out of the thin-air Rockies makes him pay a lot more for that than he did tonight. 57 strikes in 96 pitches is not a good number at all. I was told that on the news that they were saying his velocity was back where it should be, which surprised me. He sat mostly at about 91-93 all night (on the PNC radar gun at least, which if anything I would think would be giving readings that were high to please the fans) hitting 94 maybe a handful one times and once (in about the second inning) hitting 96. He did have eight strikeouts in his 5 innings of work, which is impressive, but I think the 4 walks and all around control problems will cost him against a good team (or say maybe any team that isn't 2-17 on the road this year). So there was some promise, but I wouldn't be dancing in the streets, declaring the return of Oliver Perez just yet. Brian Meadows pitched well out of the pen, and aside from the Salomon Torres scare in the 8th inning (one out, then three straight walks with only one strike thrown among all of them), the bullpen put forth a solid effort. Sure, it's only the Rockies, but then again you're supposed to beat teams better than you, and it's a good sign that we're better than the Rockies.

20 Games in 20 Days record: 2-0