Thursday, April 26, 2007

Pirates 4 Astros 3 in 16

Tell me if you ever thought a Pirate win would result on a night when all of the following things happened in one game:

  • BP Chacon and Wayback Wasdin pitched six innings out of the bullpen
  • Pirates get outhit 16-10
  • Zach Duke records one strikeout in seven innings of work
  • Sully blows another save
  • The three through six hitters go 3-for-24
  • Come on, four runs in sixteen innings?
Still, they found a way to pull it out. Chacon got into his share of jams over the four innings of work (two hits and three walks) but worked his way out of them. Wasdin was actually quite effective in his one. Of course they only had to take the field because Torres blew his third save of the season. I know the last two technically haven't been his fault, but he certainly hasn't been helping things out either. Sure there was an error, but someone is letting the other guys on base. Grabow did a nice job getting out of Sully's jam in the ninth. Throw in Duke's seven innings of smoke and mirrors and I'll be honest, I have no real idea how the Astros only scored three runs in this one tonight.

Of course the thing everyone will be talking about from this one is Adam LaRoche. He was off to his usual bad start, 0-for-4 with a sac fly, but managed to single in the winning run in the sixteenth. I saw his post game interview, I think the best word to describe it is "relieved." Maybe he'll stop pressing so much. At least I hope he will.

What else? Somewhere in there Brad Eldred mashed a homer, Chris Duffy had three hits and almost made up the winning run on his own in the sixteenth except for the maddening choice to have him run on contact with one out, and... I dunno. Things run together after sixteen innings. But the Bucs are 9-10 now, and I like that.