Pirates 6 Padres 4

It was a strange night at the ballpark tonight, with the game being delayed for over an hour and hour and a half even though the skies were blue at 7:05 (the rain did roll in before 8), then the Padres and Bucs erupting for 8 runs in the marathon first inning that lasted nearly an hour before combining for only two runs in the next eight innings, which only took about an hour and a half.

Duke was actually almost dominant tonight after the first inning, allowing only three base runners over the next six (one hit and two walks). If he can eliminated the one bad inning he's had in most of his starts, he'd look just like the Zach Duke of last year, and that would be a very good thing. This start had a very weird symmetry with his last one on Memorial Day, as he gave up some runs in the top of the first, then the Bucs went and got 'em all back in the bottom of the first, with both five run Pirate rallies ending with a key RBI single from Duke himself. Paulino was the key to the offense tonight with a 2 RBI single in the first and a sac fly in the third. The biggest play, however, was probably Jason Bay legging out an infield single on what should've been an easy ground out to Green with two outs in the first. We hadn't scored any runs to that point and his great hustle keep the inning going.

There were also some bizarre plays in this game tonight, starting with Jose Castillo's "single" in the bottom of the first. He hit a ball right at Vinny Castilla, who booted it to Khalil Green, who muffed the pick up (while he still had a shot at Castillo at first). Everyone near where I was seated all agreed that the scorer could award two errors on the play. He chose none. Then, in the 8th Castillo appeared to have second stolen easily (Piazza was catching, they could've sent Burnitz tonight) but was called out by the ump. Castillo stood at second to argue his case, then stalked off the field like a pissed off eight year old. I've never seen a player leave the field of play so slowly, it was fantastic. There was also the final play of the game, Dave Roberts grounder to Jack would've been a double play if just about anyone but Dave Roberts hit it, because of his speed (and the fact that Gonzo had nothing tonight and the game needed to end right there or things would've gotten ugly) Castillo rushed his throw to Casey at first and put one in the dirt. Some moron coaching third for the Padres failed to see the ball bounce straight back to Casey and sent Vinny Castilla home, who even Sean Casey managed to throw out (he made two throws tonight, one as a cutoff man from the outfield and they were the two worst throws I've ever seen a major leaguer make, I think, the man has no arm at all).

On a final note, I went to the game with several of the posters from the OnlyBucs forum as it was their yearly outing and my mention of the Irate Fans stuff generated some interest from WPXI. The shirts made their debut tonight (and there were tons of questions about them) and there will be a piece about the Irate Fans on the WPXI news next Monday at 6 o'clock, for anyone in the Pittsburgh area. Your intrepid blogger gave an interview last night so you can look for that, though I don't know how much of mine they'll use as they talked much more to the guys that are a little more affiliated with the whole movement. And of course, thanks to the OBN guys for inviting me to their outing.