D'Backs 7 Pirates 4

This was one of those games that the Bucs managed to lose by only three runs, but it certainly felt like it should've been a lot worse. Between hits and walks, the D'Backs put 23 guys on base tonight. From that view, giving up 7 runs is not a particularly large amount. Maholm danced through the raindrops all night, only giving up three runs in his 5 and 2/3rds innings of work, only to watch the bullpen (Marte, Capps, Torres) give up four in their 3 full innings (Grabow succeeded in the only situation he succeeds in, coming into the game with guys already on base to close out the 6th for Maholm).

There were some positives at the plate tonight, Jose Castillo picked the day that I write a post about how fed up I am with him to rip three hits (including two doubles), though his play in the field was still subpar (he flinched to his left on a ball up the middle, turning a fairly routine grounder into a single under his glove and resulting in a run scoring down the road). McLouth also had three hits, Bautista, Sanchez, and Paulino also had a couple each. Of course Jason Bay struck out three times (he's got a gaping hole low an away right now, I've noticed, opposing pitchers have noticed, has Jeff Manto?) and hit into a DP and Burnitz, well, was himself, including a mighty whiff as the tying run in the bottom of the 9th. Someone told Bob Walk to sing his praises in the field all night, as he ran around making routine plays look difficult and threw the ball kind of hard in the general direction of bases. Also, tonight we managed to have like 5 balls drop in between 3 players at various points of the evening. The guys on BBTN laughed and simply said "They're outta position or something." Yeah, or something.

UPDATE: And I forgot to mention that Tracy played Hernandez at first base again tonight, in Craig's place. Holy hell, if there's anything that makes me want to watch a baseball game less than tuning in and seeing Jose Hernandez at first base, I don't think I've found it yet. He was 0-for-4 tonight, but luckily never really saw anyone on base as Burnitz and Bay ended most of the innings before he could get up. He did give a cagy veteran's lesson in how to pop-up a lot, and that's something those young guys will find invaluable I'm sure (did I say invaluable? I meant non-valuable, sorry).