Game 65: Pirates 8 Rangers 1

Before we move on to anything else, let me just say that Ian Snell is awesome. He came out and actually looked kind of rusty through three innings despite four early K's, but then flat out cruised through the last six. It was one of those "didn't get to him the first time around and there was no chance from there on out" type outings that good pitchers seem to have so many of. The only run he gave up was on an error by Jose Bautista or we'd be talking about Ian's first career shutout tonight. Not that it mattered. In fact, I found myself wishing we had a bullpen so that Ian could've taken the night off after 7 innings and 85 pitches, but he got through this one in barely over 100, so things weren't so bad.

Secondly, I love seeing Jose Castillo in the starting lineup. I'm as hard on Jose as anyone, but bear me out on this. The one thing that Jim Tracy (and his predecessor) talk about all the time is that the Pirates will be a hard working team and everyone that plays will play hard. Jack Wilson has been a huge space cadet lately. He's not trying in the field and that makes him worthless. Tracy has actually noticed and addressed this by putting Castillo on the field and guess what? He's playing well. I know we should wait to see him face some pitching other than the Rangers sad staff to assess his bat, but the spark is back in his play in the field. He turned a great double play tonight with such a laser to LaRoche that I couldn't help but think that maybe he is the answer to our bullpen problems.

Another good aspect of tonight? Bay, LaRoche, and Nady weren't great at the plate but we still scored eight runs. We could say the same thing about the Rangers pitching as before, but screw it. We're playing an American League team that we should beat and we're beating them. The Royals series from last year is all to fresh in my mind to not enjoy these two wins.