Pirates 10 Dodgers 6

Ian Snell gave up a home run to Rafael Furcal on the first pitch tonight and I figured we were in for a long night. I was rather mistaken, as instead the Pirates offense proceeded to get to Kuo in the fifth, which lead to Grady Little bringing in Elmer Dessens with the bases loaded to face Ronnie Paulino and Jose Bautista. The Paulino part when all right, but the Bautista part didn't, and Jose lifted a homer just barely out of the reach of Marlon Anderson in left field, who went head first over the fence and nearly caught a ball that landed at least 2 and maybe three rows deep. From there the Dodgers got sloppy and gave the Bucs three unearned runs in the 8th for a 10-3 lead, which Matt Capps nearly gave back in the bottom of the inning.

Beyond the Marte and Capps debacle (5 runs in 2 innings) it was a great night for the Bucs. Snell recovered from the first pitch homer to only give up four more hits and no more runs over six innings to pick up win #14 on the season. Freddy got two hits to keep his average at .342, and Weapon X absolutely crushed a homer, picked up another hit, and scored four times to help him towards breaking out of the slump he's been in. Bautista added another RBI to make it a five ribbie night for him. While we're at it, Milwaukee got thumped 12-2 by the Cards, allowing the Pirates to pull within four games of them for fourth place.