Game 84: Pirates 5 Brewers 3

Ian Snell is a beast. That's all there is to it. He's becoming one of those guys that if you don't get to him the first time around, you don't get to him at all. The first three Brewer hitters got to him today, and he slammed the door shut after that. That wall he used to hit after the fifth or sixth inning is gone and he cruised through eight today, giving up nothing after the three-run homer to Ryan Braun in the first. I'm practically gushing. He gets better every time out. I can't believe he's not an All-Star.

Of course he couldn't do it by himself. Once you give the other team a 3-0 head start, someone has to step up the bats and get the Buccos some runs. Ryan Doumit and Adam LaRoche provided the fireworks (see what I did there, it's the Fourth of July and I called home runs fireworks, I'm so clever) at the plate with a two-run homer apiece that made a 3-1 Brewers lead (we scored once on a Nate McLouth triple and Jose Bautista sac fly) into a 5-3 Pirates win.

And let's talk about LaRoche. After the June 27th game against the Marlins, LaRoche was hitting .211. He's now hitting .235. He's just killing the ball right now. His slugging percentage is over .400, his OPS is over .700, and it's still rising. I know those numbers aren't great, but when you factor in his terrible April, I think it's pretty impressive. His numbers are going to match Bay's pretty soon if Bay doesn't wake up. Can you imagine how cool it would be if they both got hot together? Nah, that's too happy of a thought for Pirate baseball.