Game 113: Pirates 13 Giants 3

The Pirates' whole "confuse the living crap outta me" stunt continued into day 2 and I'm now becoming more certain that the Giants have a whole lot to do with it. From what I could tell, Lincecum was awesome through three innings, then hit the wall that sprightly little guys that throw really hard seem to be wont to hit, as anyone that watched a lot of Ian Snell last year can tell you. Freddy continued his insane second half power surge (before today's game he was slugging .526 since his last trip to San Francisco ... I'm talking about the one the team didn't make with him ... and he's now got five homers since the break which is only one less than he hit all of last year) and Adam LaRoche followed that up with the furthest homer hit by a Pirate this year, I think, in the form of a bomb into Bonds territory in the Bay. Then the Pirates piled on two more than inning, then had their third huge inning in two days with a six run ninth to provide the ten run margin of victory.

Tony Armas again made a competent looking start (six innings, six hits, three earned runs, only one walk) and I'll be honest, he's starting to make me nervous. I hate to actively root against any Pirate, but if Armas keeps pitching like this I'm very afraid the Pirates will think seriously about picking up his $5 million option for next year and no matter how good the guy has looked since the break, I do not want to see that happen. With another decent start, he might get his ERA down below six.

From what I could tell from Greg Brown's radio account, the Giants were again butchering almost every ball hit to them (Ryan Doumit has two triples in two games, Rajai Davis should play centerfield against us all the time) and their bullpen definitely leaves something to be desired, but I'm just happy to see a pulse in the Pirates again. Watching them play like they were playing is just plain depressing.