Reds 8 Pirates 2

We headed down to the game to see Duke tonight and took off during game 2 of the double header once the rain started coming down, figuring that with Kip Wells and Ramon Ortiz on the mound this game might not be over till 1 AM. The way things are looking I think we made a good choice. Anyways, on to game 1.

First off, the plight of the Pirates currently can be summed up thusly,

"He threw 74 pitches and hadn't pitched in a while, so we just decided to be careful with it," Pirates interim manager Pete Mackanin said. "Not that I wanted to, because we need pitchers to go late in the game. I thought he was pretty good. He had more pitches early than he probably wanted, but he looked very good for a guy who hasn't pitched in three weeks."

So let me get this straight, you put the kid on the mound, he looks rusty early, he's got the rust off by the fourth inning, AND YOU YANK HIM AFTER 74 PITCHES? I'm not sure I see anything reasonable at all about that, espcially since he wasn't due up in the order, he wasn't actually on a pitch count, he was just finding a groove, our bullpen is incredibly overwork, and it was only 2-0. Anyways, it was on to Meadows, White, call-up Matt Capps (who was decent in his big league debut), Josh Fogg, and Jose Mesa. Yes, Jose Mesa, who gave up a three run bomb to Austin Kearns to destroy all hope. Felipe Lopez had 5 hits for the Reds, yadda yadda yadda. Sean Casey also took a forearm to the head from Humberto Cota on a tag play at first base and had to be removed with head and neck injuries. Oh, and the lady who served me my Primanti's sandwich had in the biggest chew EVER, complete with a Pepsi bottle spitter right by the drink dispenser, mm mm good. Batista also played right after his call-up, but didn't really do anything of note (he's playing in game 2 tonight as well). Just an overall pretty dreary night at the park.