Game 32: Pirates 12 Giants 6

I meant to write this up earlier, when the game was fresh in my mind, but between finishing up my last final of the semester and churning out a 1,000 word Pens/Flyers preview for FanHouse, this recap kind of got lost in the mix, and I apologize for that (mostly because this was actually a game with some positive signs coming out of it).

Nate McLouth is insanely on fire right now. I don't think he'll slug .600 or hit 40 homers this year, but it's just hard to envision him cooling off right now. He ripped two more homers tonight to give him nine on the year, as well as 28 RBIs. At this rate he'll set career highs in just about every key category by June 1st. He must like reading his name in the paper.

Also, and this is worth noting: ADAM LAROCHE'S BATTING AVERAGE IS OVER THE MENDOZA LINE. In fact, he finished Sunday at .202, but his homer tonight is proof that perhaps his average did not see it's shadow and there won't be six more weeks of slump. We can only hope. Once he gets going, it's going to be like these five weeks never happened. Well, except in the standings. They happened there.

I thought Zach Duke looked decent through seven tonight, but it's beyond me why Russell put him on the mound for the eighth. Doing that ensured that ran up another fairly high pitch count (104) early in the year for a guy with arm trouble last year. Still, Duke was certainly not great tonight. The Giants offense really sucks and he again struggled to fool hitters, matching his walks and strikeouts at 3. I suppose everything has to start somewhere and Duke definitely looks better now than he did during last year's debacle. Baby steps.

Oh, and Sean Burnett re-debuted tonight, and promptly served up a three-run jack to Jose Castillo. THAT Jose Castillo. Umm ... first night jitters? I hope so. At least he didn't cost us the game or anything.