Game 162: Pirates 6 Padres 1

And, it's over. The Pirates managed to go out in 2008 just the way they came in, with a win. That they only sandwiched 65 other wins in the intervening 160 is the problem here. This last win came with a mammoth home run by Adam LaRoche that the Padre's announcers said may have been the first ball to reach the upper deck in Petco's right field. Steve Pearce added a home run behind him to give him three in the final week of the season. I've been advocating sample size vigiliance with Andy LaRoche, so I won't brag about Pearce's homers. Instead, just remind how badly lost Pearce looked at times during the year and contrast that with how he looked in the last week and remember that young players do eventually tend to stop being overwhelmed.

At least we got to close the season with a fun little scorer's nuance. Ross Ohlendorf struggled with his control again and couldn't make it through five innings, which means he didn't qualify for the win. At that point, it's up to the scorer's discretion to decide which following pitcher deserves the win. Whoever was at Petco today decided that Tyler Yates' 12 pitch, 3 strikeout eighth inning was the winner, which meant that all the guys that pitched ahead of him got credited with holds, technically for preserving the lead for the guy that pitched after them. Seems like an appropriately muddled end to a muddled season.

Anyways, I want to give a special thanks to everyone that came by WHYGAVS this year, whether you comment or came to WHYGAVS Night or disagree with every last thing I say or just read along. I think I say this every year, but knowing there are so many Pirate fans out there like me that refuse to throw away their old pair of shoes (and I've got to thank reader Andrew C. for making that perfect analogy in an e-mail a couple weeks back) somehow makes it all a little easier to take. You readers all mean more to this site than I think you know. Someday this team is going to turn things around and we'll all look back on these years and think, "totally worth it." If you don't believe me, talk to a Brewers fan today.

Of course, just because the season ends doesn't mean that WHYGAVS is stopping. I'll be doing tons of playoff work at FanHouse over the next few weeks, but I'm still going to do a season review and keep up to date on things that happen here. There's about 150 days until the season starts and there will be a new post of some sort here on most of them. I think this year, the reviews are going to be a lot more forward-looking than in the past because I feel like we have a GM that's finally doing the same thing. Maybe that doesn't make them reviews at all. If you wander off to watch football and hockey for a while, I'll still be here tapping away at the keys in December when the Winter Meetings happen and in February when pitchers and catchers report and we gear ourselves up to do this again. Unless someone has me committed first. I guess there's always a chance that happens. Thanks again.