Pirates @ Cubs 6/7 2:20 EST GDT

[HammerDown]

Liriano was the difference today.

 

[HammerDown]

I'll take any pressure on the Cardinals you guys can keep up!

 

[sychmd]

liriano came up big.
we needed a win.
we needed at least 6, and ideally 7.
we got no runs and were never behind.
it was a great shot in the arm to turn the momentum around. it will be interesting to see what we do with it.
hopefully cutch can get going.
if marte can get somewhere between april and may, that would be great.
liriano has done really well, and remember he isnt even in full throwing shape yet because of his injury.

 

[HammerDown]

Liriano impressed, no doubt.

 

[stillmatic32]

Soriano is definitely a guy you can get some feedback from in left field. He's very animated and obviously cares what the fans have to say toward him.

I can barely remember a very "besotted" evening in left field of Petco when me and about a dozen other fans gave Soriano hell. We had chants going that had fans from as far as down the 3rd-base line and the terraces getting in on. We were good enough that he actually turned around and just looked at us a time or two.

 

[Darkstone42]

We are hitting Samardzija today. We just need to get some more runs out of it.

 

[steelparrot]

4-0 Pedro 2 run HR, avg up to .209

Burnett has a low pitch count, maybe we can get a win with Grilli, Melancon and Wilson getting a day off.

 

[Darkstone42]

Day game Pedro is good Pedro.

 

[Darkstone42]

He didn't even get all of that. His power is so easy. I really hope he gets his OBP up, though, and keeps it up for the rest of the season. It would be nice if he would assert himself as our cleanup hitter.

 

[Darkstone42]

Pedro is having himself a day. What a play that was to rob Soriano!

 

[HammerDown]

Getting it fired up right now. Looks like a good score. If the Reds can't keep pressure on the Cards, you guys are gonna have to.

 

[Darkstone42]

Martin's heating back up. That's very good for the Bucs. That home run was very well struck.

Pedro had three strong at bats today, as well. Really struck the ball well three times. He even battled in the strikeout.

And AJ will come out for the 8th, which is nice.

 

[Darkstone42]

And he finished the 8th pretty easily.

Maybe he'll try for the complete game?

 

[Darkstone42]

Burnett will come out for the 9th it appears. Very nice. Great stuff from our ace.

 

[Darkstone42]

Well, no shutout, but 8.1 innings and a four-run lead is nice for our bullpen.

 

[steelparrot]

Wins with the end of our bullpen getting the day off are gold.

We need to start scoring early, so we get the other teams bad relievers, not getting their best all the time.

 

[sychmd]

Wins with the end of our bullpen getting the day off are gold.

We need to start scoring early, so we get the other teams bad relievers, not getting their best all the time.

we get their crappy ones.
we have a better chance of winning the series as they go to their pen early.
our good ones get to rest.
our starters are able to relax, throw strikes, get outs, and not have to work on being so fine.
our low leverage BP guys get opportunities to work out the kinks.
we have a lot of confidence this year when we are ahead.

i think the cards are the class of the NL, maybe the majors if their young pitchers hold up. with that assumption, i hope the cards pummel the reds so we can be the top WC team, then face the braves and hope the dodgers beat the cards with all the pitching the dodgers can bring when everyone is healthy to make their run in the weakest division in the NL (not counting the marlins effect on the east).

 

[Etrius24]

Not going to worry about the cards and reds in the dynamic of the post season just yet...Too much baseball left to play.. As long as the bucs keep winning they will be fine.

As much as I loathe Al Davis

Just win Baby!

 

[Etrius24]

Pedro is so much fun and frustrating to watch... You see a game where he is locked in for every at bat and you think this guy looks like a bonafide star! Then the next game he strikes out 4 times and never comes close to hitting a baseball... And then it is like you are watching that guy in Major league try to hit a curveball ( Cerrano? )

I wish that Pedro would be a little more consistent and show us more of the good pedro and less of the bad pedro..

Pedro at the next level is 40 homeruns a batting average above .260 and a OPS close to .900! If we could only have that kind of bat after McCutchen this offense would be worthy of praise and it would be good enough to get them into the post season.

Right now we have to hope for brilliant starting pitching for 7 innings and then it is smoke and mirrors with the bullpen until our closer or our set up man have their arms fall off.

 

[Etrius24]

And the best thing about the win without using Either of our bullpen aces is that Monday is a day off... So they got a day of rest on saturday which means that come Tuesday they will have had 2 of the last 3 days off...

We need all the help we can get keeping Melancon and Grilli rested.

Here is hoping we can give them sunday off as well.. ( so they would have 3 days off in a row!!! )

Playing the cubs maybe were just what this Pirates team needed...We needed to win a series and we needed to be able to give the bullpen a rest of sorts.