Pirates 7 Cardinals 1

No guest recap yet (most likely because I think my recappers were at the game), but I think I can do a little piece on tonight's game. I'll put the recap up when I get it, though I'll likely be on the road for most of tomorrow.

Duke looked to continue his recent streak of badness by giving up a run in the first, but then settled down and blanked the Cards over the next 8, allowing only 8 total hits and no walks (though he did plunk 2 guys). He threw 75 of his 101 pitches for strikes, which is impressive. Just when I feel like Duke is turning into a left-handed Josh Fogg he manages to come through with an outing like this one. No Cardinal hit Duke hard besides my buddy Mr. Pujols who accounted for four of their 8 hits and all 3 of their extra base hits (all doubles). Still, their lineup is certainly not what it was in 2004 or even in last year and you can afford to let Pujols go wild if you keep everyone else in check, which Duke did well.

On the offensive side of things, Nate McLouth homered and tripled (causing a "Nate McLouth has 7 homers?" reaction). Bay had three hits, Bautista, Paulino, and Duffy (?!?... in the 8 slot) had two apiece. I didn't see it, but it seems like it was all around a pretty good win for the Buccos.

On one side note, I was watching the Reds and Phillies tonight and I derived a bit of perverse pleasure from watching Abe Nunez strike out with runners on second and third and two outs with the Phillies down by 2 in the 7th. The Phillies still won, but I enjoy watching Nunez come back to earth. The people that are raising a stink about our trade of David Ross last year (coughBobSmizikcough) should keep Nunez's return to form in mind.

UPDATE: Guest recap is in, from Jeremy:

The game started out like any other game, falling behind in the first
inning. A Pujols double (one of 3 on the night) followed by an
Encarnacion single gave everyone that old familiar "here we go again"
feeling. These feelings persisted after our 1-3 hitters (including
leadoff batter McLouth, whose .230 average is MUCH better than Duffy's
.168...) struck out, ground out, and struck out. We were waiting for
Duke to implode, the offense to shut down, and Jeff Suppan to have his
way with us.

Duke came back out for the second and looked strong, with a hit
batsman (Molina...can't let him hurt you with that bat) being the only
blemish. Then the offense game to life, as Bay led off the bottom of
the 2nd with a single, Nady got hit by a pitch, and Bautista lined a
(terribly misplayed) ball over Edmonds' head, then over the wall,
scoring Bay. Paulino grounded out, but scored Nady in the process.
Then something happened....Chris Duffy drew a walk. This is nothing
to write home about normally, but we're talking about a guy with an
OBP of something like .045. I mean, he worked the count and drew a
walk. Duke, unable to continue his rash of hitting (multiple hits in
a few recent starts) sacrificed him over to 2nd, but N-Dog (as I
believe it was Wehner called him) grounded out to end things.

Fast forward to the 5th inning, mostly because 3 and 4 zipped by
uneventfully. Something equally as strange as a Chris Duffy walk
happened, a Nate McLouth HR. After a Jack Wilson groundout, Freddy
doubled to the wall in right center, and Bay singled him in. In the
6th, Paulino singled, and Duffy got a HIT, yes thats right, a hit.
Not just any hit, a double, which would have easily scored Paulino
were he not the slowest human being on the face of the earth. A moot
point, because McLouth tripled them both home 2 batters later. Runs
were coming in from all directions, headed strangely enough by
McLouth, he of the 3 RBI. A Paulino single in the 7th that scored Bay
rounds out the scoring.

You may not have noticed much about Duke there. There wasn't much to
say...the guy pretty much shut them down. It wasn't in that dominant,
Oliver Perez way, where you know that you're watching a guy destroy
the souls of his opponents. Duke was keeping his pitch counts low,
101 for his 9 inning CG. 75 of those pitches were strikes....which,
need i point out, is ridiculous. This is also delightful to see from
a guy who's had terrible command lately (like this whole year). The
Cards got just enough hits to keep Duke from looking as good as he was
pitching, especially with Pujols lacing doubles all over the field.
Regardless, if you remove Pujols from the picture, Duke gave up only 4
other hits. He walked nobody. Can I repeat that? NOBODY walked
against a Pirates pitcher over the course of an entire game. I feel
like this hasn't happened ever. I may be wrong.

Crowd was fairly energetic, really giving Bay a lot of love. It was
nice to see him have a 3-hit night, he really needed to get back on
track. Freddy only managed one hit, but it was his usual opposite-way
double. He remains 2nd in the NL in doubles with 39. He remains the
NL batting leader at .340. He remains Fred-ex.

Tracy was not without questionable managing. It wouldn't be a Pirate
game without a move that made 30,000 people collectively yell "WTF?"
After McLouth got injured on his triple, he needed to come out of the
game. Now, logic would dictate that Jose Hernandez would have nothing
to do with a solution to this. Of course logic would also dictate
that your team wasn't paying him to play baseball. So logic isn't
really the point here. The point is, Tracy moved Bautista from his
natural position (3B) to RF, leaving Nady at first instead of moving
him to a natural position (RF) and putting Jose K in a position where
being 90034 years old isn't a defensive liability (1B). Naturally,
the first ball Hernandez fielded bounced off his glove, but he
miraculously recovered in time to throw Taguchi out at first. His arm
did not fall off and turn into a pile of dust. Quite the string of
events, probably what sparked the CG from Duke - Tracy really knows
how to inspire confidence in his young pitchers.

The "Know Your Bucco's" thing between innings was about Xavier Nady.
First question was admittedly hard, something about being the leading
batter in No. Cal. in high school. Could have been a few guys. The
second question, which is not supposed to be the gimmee question, was
about the player being the first person to ever hit a home run whose
name starts with the letter X. I can't fathom what the 3rd question
would have been, probably another "his name rhymes with" like they did
with Matt Capps, which rhymes with "Fat Chapps". Needless to say, the
girl still needed help from her friends, as she couldn't figure out
his last name or how to pronounce it.

Summary in short: Duke excellent but not quite dominant. Offense
potent, with black holes turning into stars (Duffy, McLouth) and
Superfluous J and Nady going hitless. Defense solid (3 DPs) and Tracy
still an idiot. At least he let Duke finish it out, I really was
bracing for the 7-run 9th against our bullpen.

Can't even be satisfied with a win anymore.....sorry about the
lateness of the post, got home at 1:30 last night and worked from
730-4 today. Never get a job...it sucks.