Bush and Maholm

And so the Pirates are looking to bounce back from yet another ugly loss, with yesterday's being so bad that it got Tom Gorzelanny demoted to AAA Indianapolis in it's aftermath. The Brewers have been streaking for a while now and with a win, they'll probably move into a tie with the Cardinals for the NL Wild Card lead (the Cards are losing late 4-2 to the Cubs right now ... UPDATE: Cards came back and won 5-4). That's a long cry from the team that floundered around .500 early in the season with Ned Yost's job on the line and people wondering if Prince Fielder's vegetarian diet was the problem. Dave Bush had strung a couple good starts together (including a near no-no) before his last one, but he did get knocked around pretty good last time he took the mound. Paul Maholm's been considerably worse on the road this year than he's been at home, but he looked OK at Great American last week. The one aspect of this year's Pirate team that I enjoy is that they've been able to avoid prolonged ugly slides. They've been teetering on the brink of one for about a month now and games like today are the ones they need to win to keep mediocrity alive.