Game 49: Steelers Pirates 14 Reds 10

OK, seriously, what's going on here? Where are the Pittsburgh Pirates? Today, they piled five runs and seven baserunners on Kirk Saarloos before he managed to record an out. Of course, being the Pirates they managed to never actually pull away from the Reds and kept everyone on the edge of their seat all afternoon. They had leads as big as 6-0, 11-5, and 14-9 while the Reds pulled as close as 7-5 and 11-9 while attempting to drive me completely insane.

Zach Duke sucked again today. He started off well, but got into some serious trouble in the fourth inning, allowing five hits in six batters, with the only out being a sac bunt. He's just so freaking hittable right now and I don't know if he's capable of doing anything about it. From him, things just got scarier as Tony Armas, Jonah Bayliss, and John Grabow took the mound with the specific goal of giving up as many homers as possible. Our bullpen is a terrifying, terrifying thing right now.

Lucky for the pitching staff , the offense is killing the ball right now. Jason Bay is on another planet and added three more hits, including his first inning three run homer, today. If he played for the Reds, he'd bat .320 with 40 homers and 130 RBI every year. He loves Great American Ballpark. LaRoche and Freddy kept up their recent hot hitting as well with two hits apiece and six RBI between them (four for Freddy). Every regular had at least one hit. Things were going so great that even Jack Wilson hit a home run. The Pirates have scored 33 runs in the past three games against the Reds. I am unsure how to process this piece of information. It just seems kind of unfathomable. I am fully expecting a no-hitter from Kyle Lohse tomorrow.