Pirates 9 Reds 2

Sorry this is a bit late, but I'm still at home for the holiday weekend and computer time is tougher to get at home (by default of course, when I'm at school I'm in a tiny room with my computer in front of me all the time).

All of the pregame posts about Eric Milton rang true (from Rowdy, Jeremy, and myself) as we crushed Milton around the park last night. We stomped Milton, lighting him up for three homers, one apiece from Bay, Cota, and our piggly third basemen, who moonlighted at first yesterday. Lloyd ignored baseball karma by bencing Mackowiak, but to no ill effect as his "I smoked rocks before today's game" lineup actually put some runs on the board. OK, that's a bit harsh. I actually like Sanchez leading off, he gets on base a ton and really needs to play more. Lawton's been in a pretty harsh slump lately, so putting someone else in the leadoff slot is a good idea. And Ward has been struggling with lefties this year, so playing Wigginton at first at least has some sense behind it, though I would argue that batting him cleanup doesn't (but of course he hit a homer yesterday, and I really don't know who else would've batted cleanup yesterday, so I won't argue that point at the moment). Dave Williams was great again, pitching seven strong while only giving up one hit and one run to record his team leading fifth win. We even pitched Mesa and still won yesterday, though he did enter with a seven run lead and still put two people on base before retiring the side. We should probably also be taking note as Humberto Cota's bat comes alive. Last night was his second consecutive big Saturday game (4 ribbies against the Rockies last Saturday) and his average is up to .253 from around the Mendoza line. Over half of his hits this year have been for extra bases (10 out of 19). As much as everyone loves David Ross, I think we have to make sure the Cota is getting the great majority of the starts behind the plate. One more game in Cincy before the real fun starts.

20 games in 20 days: 4-5