Tigers 9 Pirates 8

Tell me if you've heard this one before. The Pirates fell down by a large amount, then battled back only to fall one run short. New stuff, huh? Today the suspects were Ian Snell (bad start before a strong finish), John GraBLOW, Jose Castillo (rallying killing DP with the tying run on third in the 7th, then a K with the bases loaded an one out in the ninth), and Humberto Cota (game ending groundout off of Todd Jones after Castillo's K). Here's fun fact, using the Win Expectancy Finder at walkoffbalk.com, the home team has historically won 56% of games that they trail by one run with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth. I suppose when you're 28-55 you need more than a 56% chance against a team like the Tigers.

On a sidenote, congratulations to Jason Bay and Freddy Sanchez for making the All-Star team. If two guys from a 28-55 team deserved, it's definitely those two. I'm especially happy that Freddy is getting the recognition he deserves (not that Bay DOESN'T deserve, because he does even after being down the last couple weeks, but he's been more or less a lock for the team since the end of May). Hopefully someone from ESPN will mention that no one in the Pirates organization thought that Freddy Sanchez was even a starter for this team in April, and here he is in the All-Star Game in July (then carry on to say that by extension, perhaps decision making like that is why we're so freaking bad).

UPDATE: Holy cow, I didn't even see this until I saw it posted at Romo Phone Home, but in the article I linked to above about the All-Star team, Jim Tracy actually admits that he was wrong about something!

"Shame on me for saying Freddy Sanchez is a utility player for what this guy has
done," said Jim Tracy. "Freddy Sanchez is a winner."