Brewers 5 Pirates 2

This one, like most of these stupid afternoon games (see: huge first inning lead blown to the Reds, bases loaded no outs in the 9th of a tie game against Arizona), was so pitiful that its pretty tough to write about. Let's just say that last night, 99% of Pirate fans would've told Jim Tracy that batting Joe Randa cleanup was a bad idea if they were given the chance. Tracy elected to keep the same strategy today and Randa stranded 8 men on base, including leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th of a tie game. Seriously, what did he think was going to happen? The pitiful lineup wasted a gutty start by Duke, in which he somehow made it through 6 and 2/3 innings with only 2 runs on his record despite giving up 9 hits (though the key stat there is zero walks). The pen looked like they would be able to hold things down until we stumbled into a run, but leaving Damaso Marte out on the mound for a second inning is never a good idea. Today it lead to 3 runs and Marte's 7th loss on the season. The fateful thirteenth was also marked by the curious choice to intentionally walk the light hitting Damian Miller in order to load the bases to face David Bell, he of three hits on the day. Maybe Tracy figured that Bell sucks (he does) and he'd never get 4 hits on the day. If that was what he figured, he figured wrong. It was just a stupid, painful baseball game for everyone involved (except for the Brewers, who won, and Jim Tracy, for obvious reasons).

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