OK, so the last two games have been brutal. After the fun 2-0 start, the Pirates have been outscored 17-3 in their last two and are staring down the barrell at Dan Haren, perhaps one of the most underrated starters in the National League. They’re countering with Zach Duke, in hopes that he can make a stronger start than the one he did in the opener and help stem the tide a bit.
It’s easy to look at the last two games and get the Same Old Pirates feeling, but it’s way too early in the season for that kind of despair. A win against Haren would go a long ways towards countering that feeling for now, but maybe I’d just settle for a starter pitching strongly past the fifth or sixth inning for once. Baby steps.
Clemente or Cangelosi update is after the jump. Remember that the first pitch tonight is 8:10 PM (ET).
Not sure what this is? Check here and here. Short version: in the comments pick the Pirates you think will be most and least valuable in today’s game. If you haven’t jumped aboard yet, it’s been a lot of fun through so far and now’s as good a time as any to join in.
Last night’s Clementes were Akinori Iwamura and Garrett Jones, who combined for four of the Pirates eight hits. Only UtesFan89 tabbed Iwamura, though a bunch of people had Jones for the one point. The big Cangelosi was obviously Charlie Morton, who was only picked by Joek, while ndbrian took the hit for picking him as his Clemente. The runner-up was Ryan Doumit, who was 1-for-4, but his two early inning outs with runners on base before the score got ridiculous cost him. Here are the April 10th standings:
- IndianaJohns04, dboz – 4
- Woodward, TomKaikis LRNeub, Joek, UtesFan89 – 3
- PatrickHealy, Wizard of Woz, brian2 – 2
- FSU Bucs, Nate, dafletch, Christy – 1
- Everyone else – 0
- bwzimmerman, MattB, NSN, Mr. Ando, CoryR, WHYGAVS (me)- (-1)
- ndbrian- (-2)
