Mike Hampton Beats Pirates For The 4th Time This Year

Mike Hampton has a W in his last 10 decisions against the Pirates. That might could almost be better than Roy's streak against the Reds, because Roy has a bunch of NDs amongst the wins. (I don't guess that I should note that counting the 4 Pirates games, Hampton is 5-5 with a 4.16 ERA/1.35 WHIP and without them, he's 1-5 with a 5.28 ERA and 1.57 WHIP - only 3 of his 7 QS/ 14 GS were not against the Pirates...) And what is most amazing is that the Pirates lineup Hampton faced has only 2 of the same guys on it since the first time he faced their team in April. I mean, that team has almost completely turned over. There is Jack Wilson and Andy LaRoche. Period. I guess their ownership is trying to get rid of any player making more than the minimum, so I guess that by the time this team comes back in September, both Adam LaRoche and Jack Wilson will be gone, seeing as how they both cost like 5 mill or some enormous number. Tonight's pitcher was a guy they just called up a few weeks ago. He was actually waived by the Tigers after his 6th year, picked up by the Red Sox, then waived, picked up by the Padres then waived, then finally picked up by the Pirates - all between Oct 31, 2008 and Jan 27, 2009. He's not bad, either. Had a nice curve and change until he started getting tired in the 4th - had bases loaded, 1 out, after throwing 28 pitches, and Quintero obliged him by hitting the first pitch FB outside the strike zone for a GIDP. Should I note that in 3 different innings, we left men on 3rd? Anyway, Hampton didn't pitch great, went to 3-2 counts on 6 of the batters he faced and went to 3-1 counts on 3 more - but somehow, he got plenty of groundouts and he gave up only one really well hit ball - a double to the RF bullpen, which eventually came around to score. He gave up 3 hits, 3 walks, 1 absolute Web Gem DP (first inning, he walked both batters, who were on first and second, then he caught a bullet back to the mound and whirled and threw out the guy before he got back to first. Should be Web Gem of the night fer SHER, even if it was only the Astros/Pirates - sure nuff gave a thrill to the 10K people in the stands. He also walked and scored a run on Tejada's double. Pitchers doing stuff like hitting and driving in runs and scoring runs are KEWL!!! Which is why the NL ROOLZ and the AL is teh sukc!!! Hawkins got 3 straight grounders for the 8th and Valverde struck out the side after giving up an infield single to second to start the inning. I was VERY relieved to see him pitch an inning without giving up a run. Tomorrow, it's Brian Moehler vs Charlie Morton Moehler (ignoring those April starts when he was injured) has started 11 games over 63 IP: 68 H, 12 HR, 44 K, 19 BB, 30 ER - 4.29 ERA, 1.38 WHIP. Charlie Morton, 25 yo RHP, is the guy the Pirates got from the Braves when they dumped their hellaciously expensive (3 mill a year) CF, Nate McLouth. Morton was picked in the 3rd round of the 02 draft by the Braves, and started 15 games for them last year - 59 ERA+ over 74.2 innings - 1.62 WHIP, 6.15 ERA, 5.8 K/9, 4.8 BB/9. You know what I say about pitchers the Braves don't want/trade away (yes, except for Jason Schmidt, Adam Wainwright and Jason Marquis - and that is 3 guys over the past 19 years.) His minor league stats are nothing to write home about - 4.01 ERA/1.38 WHIP over 618 IP. But I suppose this should actually worry me, seeing as how usually guys like Morton who are AAAA type guys usually shut us out. Espcially seeing as how Carlos, Pence and now Bourn are slumping...