Sunday, September 30, 2007

Game 162: Cardinals 6 Pirates 4

In a strange bit of symmetry, the Pirates opened 2007 at PNC Park (and I know they had already played a weeks worth of games by then, but bear with me) by losing a game to the Cardinals started by a career reliever and they ended it in exactly the same way today. Of course they lost that home opener to Braden Looper, who the Cards were legitimately (OK, that's up for debate) using as a starter this year and they lost the season ender to Troy Percival throwing one inning while Tony La Russa had his "I'm Keith Hernandez" moment in what's probably going down as his last game in the Cardinals' dugout.

Because of La Russa's fiddling with the pitchers, the Pirates and Cardinals actually set a major league record for pitchers used today. La Russa ended up using ten, which tied a record for one team, and Tracy used eight because, well, he had the Pirates' bullpen to work with. When the Orioles gave up 30 runs in one game, they only used four.

Anyways, today was loss #94 for the Pirates on the year. It was five more than I expected, but when I guessed 73-89 before the season started, I would've told you they'd go five games in this direction much easier than five games in the other direction. Year #15 in the canyon is officially complete. Congratulations on making it this far, guys. In one year, MLB history will be ours.