Raise your hand if last February you believed Jeff Karstens would be the Pittsburgh Pirates potential stopper. I see Josh Fogg raised his hand.. anybody else?
What a great job of commanding the baseball by Karstens against a solid major league hitting team. And how about his competitive nature in the 6th.. up 5-3 with runners at first and second and one out, John Russell went to get the ball and Karstens wasn’t exactly a happy camper. Hat tip to Jeff Karstens.
But this game was lost when John Russell set his lineup for the day placing Milledge in right and Crosby as the DH. I mentioned the other day that Crosby’s defense had been saving us a lot of runs and I can’t help wonder if he would have done the same last night. Hamilton hit a routine fly ball to right center Milledge not only ran a poor route on getting to the ball late, but once there failed to catch it allowing Hamilton a double. He would eventually score. In the 7th, Young hit a fly ball down the right field chalk line and Milledge seemed to have a bead on it, then pulled up and dove and missed the ball. Young might have had a chance at an inside the park home run but he pulled up at third with a triple then later scored.
The Bucs scored four in the first which nearly caused me cardiac arrest. The big hit came off the bat of Alvarez.. first and second and two outs, the score was 1-0 at that point, and Alvarez swung late on a fastball away somewhere around 88 MPH I’d guess and he punched it just inside the third base bag for a two-rbi double. It was a major clutch at bat for the young man considering the short time he’s been up, the game running so fast around him, and his very poor approaches on pitches away he’s had since he’s been up. Doumit eventually picked him up with a single after Alvarez reached third on a wild pitch.
Lots and lots of poor fundamental baseball by the Pirates on the field – Crosby let a slow ground ball eat him up, the two miscues by Milledge, Tabata picked a ground ball off the turf then bobbled it only to nail the batter trying to stretch a single to a double, and then there was John Russell misfiring all night long.
Karstens was at the 87 pitch mark when he was removed from the game and, imo, it was his game to lose and I was surprised Russell went and got him. It worked out fine in the 6th but that move cost Russell two relievers as he used Donnelly and Lopez to get through the sixth. Meek pitched the 7th and was hit pretty hard (the Young triple was a pitch Meek threw) but could have got out of it had Milledge caught the ball. Hanrahan pitched a 1-2-3 8th and then Russell shocked me bringing out Steven Jackson to pitch the 9th — I expected to see Hanrahan again since he only needed 8 pitches to get through the 8th.
Had Russell given Karstens a little more rope in the 6th – and had a little more faith in the young man, he might have saved a couple of relievers and been able to play out the rest of the game much differently than he did.
But no matter which side of the fence you sit on about John Russell’s managerial decisions, he clearly deserved an “F” grade in this series. Of course, I think he’s deserved an “F” grade since last year, but I’m a bit biased because of what I hear around the players and coaches.
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It was nice to see Alvarez with a little clutch hit. Good stuff there. His swing is still way too long for my liking and I still think he should never have been brought up, but since he’s here…
Crosby’s bat has been red-hot and I can see why John Russell wants to play him, but his range is so poor, his glove so fringe, you have to wonder what Cedeno did to deserve the cold shoulder from Russell. We simply can’t out slug other major league teams – we have to pitch and catch flawlessly to beat them. Crosby, Milledge, and Doumit are three lead weights around our ship dragging us down. Walker, Alvarez, and Tabata also have some problems but at least they are a part of the future – the others aren’t. Well maybe I better back up on Doumit since I’m not sure Huntington will even deal him anymore.
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Garrett freaking Jones. This cat’s been unbelievable the last month. All he needed was stability it seems and he’s found it knowing he’s on the card each night at first. Hat tip to him – he’s certainly made me a better believer.
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Neil Walker is starting to get pitched to and I suspect we’re going to see his average tank. Just a guess.. we’ll see.
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Off we go to play the A’s and while it appears this series pits two losing clubs, I think Pirates fans are in for a bit of a surprise. The A’s starters are groundball inducing machines.. we’ve been squaring the ball up nice lately but against fly ball pitchers. This is going to be a different task. The key is to chase the starters out of the game and get to the A’s pen and then rake baby rake.
Ben Sheets is a tough cookie at home, but he’s hittable. Unfortunately, Lincoln is also hittable - too hittable. The odds in Vegas are starting to run away with the A’s but, even as easy as it is to sit on Lincoln’s fastball, the A’s have a roster of complimentary pieces who don’t add up to much of a threat.
Except when they play at home.
It’s a tough first game to call because our streaky bats are finally hitting the ball hard but we’re not getting many to fall in. I think if Russell puts Lincoln on a short leash and yanks him as soon as he sniffs trouble, we might have a chance of taking game one. Might.
The other two games aren’t pretty for us on paper, especially with McCutchen throwing Saturday night. I’ll just say that. Pity Ohlendorf as the third straight right-handed – up in the zone – starter. He’s likely to get mauled.
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Everybody was talking about Huntington dumping Eveland. I think everyone missed the boat – Huntington knew this guy was going to get hammered and let him get hammered – he wants to get him to 3A (hoping nobody claims him) to keep around hoping the guy comes back to form. Uviedo was nothing special no matter what he is doing right now, so everyone needs to just move on. Huntington has had quite a few failures but this one doesn’t pass the sniff test.
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Moskos to triple-a. Good for him.. a well deserved promotion. He’s getting primed for a September callup as he should. Two scouts I’ve had watching Moskos said he still needs some work but 3A is a great place to finish that off. I just question if he’s going to do as well in Indy as he did with the field staff and peer group he had in Altoona. Hmm..
Best wishes to the guy.
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Cutch – Cutch who? Little dude always seems to go into a slump this time of year and snaps out of it when his mom and pop come see him around the 4th. Every year it’s the same thing.. you can set your clock to it.
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Did someone say John Russell needs to be fired? I’m sure I heard that..
Original Story:
http://newbucs.com/2010/06/24/yet-ano...
