Cubs 7 Pirates 5

Today's guest recapper is Rory, author of Bleacher Blogger and holder of the distinction of being the first person outside of my family to ever e-mail me regarding WHYGAVS (I don't know if even he knows that). Without further ado:

You could say that this game went back and forth, but it really only went back and then we'd hold it still for a while. Zack Duke failed to build off his last start and continue the string of quality starting pitching we've seen. He gave up four runs in the first inning and allowed six straight runners to reach base, only getting out of it because Ronny Cedeno was thrown out on a Mark Prior single trying to make it from first to third. This was two batters after Angel Pagan was almost thrown out doing the exact same thing. The Cubs played pretty sloppy and I'd almost feel sorry for them, if you know, I didn't already root for the Pirates.

You know how after a guy makes a great defensive play it seems like he's always leading off the next inning? Well it must work in reverse if you end the inning on a cruddy play because in the top of the second Cedeno jumped off of second base while trying to make the double play turn on a Nady ground ball. Everyone was safe and Bay would go on to score on a Castillo single. Then with runners on first and second, Bautista struckout and Paulino grounded into a double play. This would foreshadow the next inning when we'd squander a Zack Duke leadoff double. You can thank the one-two punch of Chris Duffy and Nate McLouth for that one.

Lots of solo homers in the game, with Paulino and McLouth hitting one each for the Bucs and Matt Murton and Pagan one each for the Cubs. Murton's was absolutely roped to left field so fast that I think it actually landed moments before he hit it. That one came in the bottom of the sixth, one inning after Mark Prior walked in a run and then Jim Tracy left Zack Duke in the game to bat with the bases loaded and already sitting on 90 pitches. How can you leave a guy in down by one run after a so-so outing, but you'll pinch hit for him after 75 pitches in a 1-0 game? Unbelievable.

The teams exchanged runs in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings with the Bucs getting one and the Cubs getting it right back. Once it became routine itwas pretty boring. We ended the game without any noise in the 9th with the same two run deficit we had when Duke batted in the sixth. During that time Grabow's scoreless appearance streak ended at 12 and Freddy went 0 for 5. Bah.