Pirates 9 Padres 8- Quite a view from 143

Looks like Lloyd has been reading the blogs lately because in the car on the way down to the game tonight we were delighted to hear that Eldred and Doumit would both be starting tonight, and it was a good thing too. Some observations from the park tonight:

• Jody Gerut might not be as bad as we feared. He does have a pretty strong swing, but the knee brace he wears on his left knee is ENORMOUS. He left around the 5th or 6th tonight with what's now being described as "irritation" in the knee. Hopefully this isn't another Rios situation, because I think he might be better than we think if he's healthy (big IF).
• If Chan Ho Park is an improvement for the Padres' rotation, they are in huge trouble. He was throwing batting practice tonight and we teed off. I said in the car on the way to the game we should score 7 tonight by default with him on the mound, and we scored 7 off him in 4 and 1/3. Of course Dave Williams wasn't a whole lot better tonight. Both starters were just serving up balloons tonight.
• The ball seemed to be dying in the heavy air tonight, but Jason Bay's homer was an absolute mammoth shot. It was a high arching blast that went over the North Side Notch. On a less humid night it would've had a shot to clear the Padres bullpen. San Diego hit three homers, but they were all laser shots that couldn't have gotten higher than 20 feet off the ground and didn't have a chance to get caught up in the humidity.
• Only one hit for Doumit tonight, but it was a big one, a two RBI single. He really needs to play more.
• I finally understand the Brad Eldred hype, and not only because of his 4-for-4, 3 double, 3 RBI night. When he hits the ball, he hits it HARD. All four of his hits tonight were rocket line drives off of his bat. I would attribute this to the Chan Ho Park phenomenon, but the last two hits were off of Linebrink and Otsuka, two very good relievers. The guy was in the zone tonight and he came up with two HUGE hits for us. And he is a beast of a man. One of the many times he lead off second tonight we were commented in the stands on how it looked like he could eat Khalil Greene if he wanted to. Lets hope Lloyd makes good on his promise to let him play.
• Me and the commenters here aren't alone in our disdain for the All-Star logo. The guy next to me tonight commented on how Giles launching a foul ball through the giant logo above the right field stands would be a definite improvement. His quote, "What's with all the purple? I don't get it."
• Honestly, Jose Mesa works slower and slower every time he gets on the mound. Tonight his laboring put both my dad and the woman next to me to sleep by the end of his inning (in which only 4 batters came to the plate and only 9 pitches were thrown).
• Two wins in three days in which guys like Duffy, Duke, Eldred, Castillo, and Doumit lead the way. I was more excited to see Eldred play and hit tonight than I was that we won in the last at bat (which was just gravy of course). The more at bats these guys get now, the better we'll be next year.