Pirates 6 Cubs 0
Sounded like I missed quite a game today, I caught lots of it on the radio but I no longer am sure how accurate that is as Greg Brown called Castillo's home run as "There's a flyball to left field. Murton back... and it's WAAAAAY OVER THE FENCE!" and a Freddy Sanchez flyout as "FREDDY CRUSHES ONE TO DEEP LEFT FIELD! THAT BALL IS DEEP! And Murton makes the catch in front of the warning track." Still, it's hard to screw up describing Gorzo's 8 innings of 2 hit shutout ball. As promised, the guest recapping starts with this game. Today's recap is brought to us by frequent commenter Gavin:
Tom Gorzellanny's homecoming was nothing short of outstanding as he silenced the Chicago Cub bats for eight innings, striking out seven hitters and only allowing two hits. Gorzy looked a little jittery in the early going, but settled down after walking two batters and hitting another and cruised through the middle innings. Josh Sharpless pitched a scoreless ninth, looking much sharper than he did in his debut outing. The Bucco hurlers were aided by some outstanding defense, as Xavier Nady saved a run in the fourth inning with a diving stop of a Matt Murton grounder to end the inning with runners on first and third. Chris Duffy made several nice running catches, including a highlight reel diving snare of a Ryan Theriot line drive in right center in the eighth.
The Buccos did manage to score enough runs to win off Cub ace Carlos Zambrano who had won nine straight decisions, but were very fortunate to do so. XavierNady broke the game open in the third inning on abloop double to left field with two outs that fell infront of Murton and skipped by him, plating two runs. Nady went 4 for 5 with three doubles and two runs scored in addition to those 2 RBi in what was clearly his finest performance in his early Pirate career.Ronny Paulino and Jose Castillo both added solo home runs and RBI infield singles, both of which were very borderline plays by the Cub defense. The Bucs did have some excellent at bats all day, going deep into counts and making Zambrano and the other Cub pitchers labor on a hot afternoon. Paulino's home run came on a 3-2 count after he fouled off about three or four pitches, Sanchez saw about ten pitches in one at bat where he eventually lined out hard to center. All in all, this game was one of the more complete performances from a Pirate team that I can remember this season. Hopefully this outstanding run of starting pitching from our young arms will continue this way for the remainder of the season.
Tom Gorzellanny's homecoming was nothing short of outstanding as he silenced the Chicago Cub bats for eight innings, striking out seven hitters and only allowing two hits. Gorzy looked a little jittery in the early going, but settled down after walking two batters and hitting another and cruised through the middle innings. Josh Sharpless pitched a scoreless ninth, looking much sharper than he did in his debut outing. The Bucco hurlers were aided by some outstanding defense, as Xavier Nady saved a run in the fourth inning with a diving stop of a Matt Murton grounder to end the inning with runners on first and third. Chris Duffy made several nice running catches, including a highlight reel diving snare of a Ryan Theriot line drive in right center in the eighth.
The Buccos did manage to score enough runs to win off Cub ace Carlos Zambrano who had won nine straight decisions, but were very fortunate to do so. XavierNady broke the game open in the third inning on abloop double to left field with two outs that fell infront of Murton and skipped by him, plating two runs. Nady went 4 for 5 with three doubles and two runs scored in addition to those 2 RBi in what was clearly his finest performance in his early Pirate career.Ronny Paulino and Jose Castillo both added solo home runs and RBI infield singles, both of which were very borderline plays by the Cub defense. The Bucs did have some excellent at bats all day, going deep into counts and making Zambrano and the other Cub pitchers labor on a hot afternoon. Paulino's home run came on a 3-2 count after he fouled off about three or four pitches, Sanchez saw about ten pitches in one at bat where he eventually lined out hard to center. All in all, this game was one of the more complete performances from a Pirate team that I can remember this season. Hopefully this outstanding run of starting pitching from our young arms will continue this way for the remainder of the season.