Astros 5 Pirates 2

In continuing the "inmates run the asylum" theme of this week tonight's guest recap is brought to us by Mark.

After last night's disappointing (I can think of better words, but Pat is a choir boy who hates swearing) loss (editor's note: It is quite rare that I'm called a choir boy); it was nice to see thePirates play competitively tonight.The night didn't begin well, starting with the lineup. McClouth and Jack leading off with their OBP's of .292 and .309, followed by Burnitz protecting Bay in the 5 slot, X-Man hitting 6th, and Castillo batting 7th. WIth Paulino finding himself back in the 8 hole, because apparently he can't handle hitting anywhere else in the lineup. Adding to this pain; we also had John Wehner in the booth, being subjected to video of Bob Walk singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas", and Roger Clemens as the opposing pitcher.

Gorzelanny struggled through the first 3, walking 5 and giving up a run. He got his head on straight after that inning; not allowing another walk, and only giving up one more run, because of an infield single and another cheap single back up the middle by Ausmus. The Astros did not hit him well at all tonight; Gorzelanny continues to improve as the season goes along. He was a tough luck loser tonight as Clemens was simply Clemens.

Our offense was meager tonight, managing only one extra base hit (I refuse to count the Jack Wilson double, Luke Scott had it bounce off his shoe, and probably should have caught it). The Pirates squandered good oppurtunities to put up runs in the all of the final 4 frames; in the 6th (2nd and 3rd with 1 out), the 7th (bases loaded with one out), the 8th (2 on with 1 out) and the ninth when we put the first two guys on, only to get a run on a ground out by Paulino. Our other run came on a Freddy Sanchez sac fly in the 6th.

The Pirates appeared to be getting out of a jam in the 7th, after putting 2 on with 1 out, Grabow got Huff to strike out, but Matt Capps served up an 0-1 breaking ball right in the middle of the plate to Morgan Ensberg, who crushed it for a 3 run HR. That homer was the deciding factor in the 5-2 loss tonight. A note to Matt Capps, I know you are proud of only having 6 walks this season, but there was another pitcher I remember that used to groove a lot of balls to avoid walks. His name? Josh Towers. You're asking who is he? Exactly my point. It's OK to throw the ocassional ball now and then.

On a final note, I witnessed Matthew McConaughey in the stands tonight watching the game. It's fitting he was there, seeing as how much of his work seems to fit our team. The list (partial thanks to imdb forsome help on this):

  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Dazed and Confused
  • Angels in the Outfield (Can we have a young boy wish that we win the pennant and have it come true?)
  • Submission
  • Frailty
  • Failure to Launch
  • How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (A stretch I know, but think of the RuleV draft, our trades, wasting our talent, trades that weren't done, andfree agents that left Pittsburgh)
  • A Time to Kill (I'm sure sometimes this team makes us all want to kill)
  • The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (DL being Leatherface, andour team being the helpless teenagers)
During the liveblog of the KC-Pitt game (editor's note: Ugh, must we still talk about that scarring experience?) I recommended Pat take a vacation to clear his head, and that us commenters could take over I'm glad to see he listened to me. It was good to fill in for Pat and I hope you enjoyed my take on the Pirates.

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