Game 11: Pirates 3 Cardinals 2

Sweet merciful crap this team makes everything difficult. Reyes had nothing on the ball tonight and we managed to touch him up for three runs in the first inning and then attempt to coast on Snell's arm. How bad has the offense been this year? Greg Brown and John Wehner repeatedly referred to that three run first as a "big inning." We scored three runs. That's not a big inning, especially not when you had bases loaded, one out, and a run in already at one point in the inning. It's a decent inning. It's a could've been better inning. But I digress.

What in the hell has gotten into Ian Snell? He cruised through six and through three starts... I don't even want to say. He's like the only thing we've got going for us this year. I don't want to jinx it. Anyways, he cruised through six, allowing only a hit and two walks, before hitting a huge rough spot in the seventh. I'll be honest, I have no idea how Tracy kept him in the game with bases loaded, one out, and a two run lead, and I don't frankly care that Snell got out of the inning without any of those runs scoring. That was insanely stupid. Still, Snell did get out of it and what the hell, Tracy would've likely used Wayback Wasdin anyways.

Having managed to escape that inning, I hoped the heart attacks were over for the night. WRONG. In the eighth, Tracy decided to play "lefty-lefty matchup" with Jim Edmonds for the second time this year. This time, Tony LaRussa let Edmonds hit against Damaso Marte (remember in the opener LaRussa countered Juan Perez with Preston Wilson, who hit a two run double) and Edmonds singled in a run, making it a one run game and setting the stage for the 9th.

Oh, the 9th. We remember Mike Williams and how unfun he was as closer, right? And we remember Jose Mesa and how well that worked out for everyone, right? I remember, because Salomon Torres is giving me similar cold sweats so far this year. I mean, sure, Adam LaRoche's error put one runner on, but Torres also gave up a single and hit David Eckstein, loading the bases up with only one out. That was the point that I was certain things were over, but somehow Sully managed to get two pop-ups from Chris Duncan and Albert Pujols (!) to preserve the win for a very deserving Ian Snell, and helping at least 2,000 Pirate fans down off the ledge.

It was ugly, but it sure is nice to win once in a while.