Game 66: Pirates 3 Nationals 1

I think that it's pretty safe to say that the Pirates missed Ryan Doumit while he was gone. After four hits last night in the Pirates' ugly loss, he chalked up three more tonight, including his third homer in the two-game span, and helped the Pirates to the 3-1 win. That was possible because Ian Snell and the bullpen actually made the Pirates' early lead stick.

Snell had his second straight start that I think we could classify as "not completely awful," by throwing six innings and holding the Nats to one run on six hits, 3 walks, and 6 K's. It's not a great outing because of the three walks and the fact that it's the Nationals, but remember, we're looking for baby steps. I'm fairly certain that with the same outing from Snell last year, we'd have been callin this "one of those nights where Snell didn't have his best stuff, but managed to find a way to shutdown the other team anyways. If only he could find those nights with his best stuff again.