Pirates Take Series From Phillies

This past Easter weekend Pittsburgh showed Philly a little something..... on the ice and on the diamond.  Not only did the Penguins beat the Flyers but the Pirates..... yes the Pittsburgh Pirates after dropping their home opener took the last 2 games of the 3 game series from the Phillies.

Lets be honest did the Pirates look like they could win the World Series? No, but what gave me more hope than I already had (and as you all know a few weeks ago I declared we will have a winning season) was that they continued to fight and won both games by coming from behind.  Yet another positive take on this is that they faced some pretty dominant starting pitching and yet came out on top.

I also liked what I saw from our entire pitching staff.  The guys that came in for relief threw some great innings to carry on solid outings from the starting rotation.

I was also impressed with a few young guys who came through in clutch situations, Matt Hague, Alex Presley, and Yamaico Navarro.  Although Hague's Major League debut was nothing to brag about, his pinch hit appearance in a sticky situation allowed him to single in a game tying run.  Presley hit an RBI broken bat single that scored a game winning run, and Navarro stood strong in the batters box and didn't swing at pitches that weren't good.

I should mention that Pedro Alvarez also finally got a hit.... it happened to be a beautiful homerun which temporarily made me forget how strongly I feel against him being in the big league right now.  It was nice.....

If these young players can continue to step up when needed and can get a bit more backup from the rest of the team we may have some seriously exciting games on our hands this season. This very well could have been a horrible start to the season but I think the Pirates showed that they aren't going to just lay down and let everyone walk all over them, they are going to put up a fight!

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Pirates Drop Opener 1-0

The Pirates lost their Home Opener today to the Philadelphia Phillies, but in my eyes it wasn't a total loss.  First off we didn't hit well.... but how could we? I don't think any team would have hit well against Roy Halladay today.  The man was spot on.  As a matter of fact I would have liked to see Halladay finish out the game and collect the complete game, but that's neither here nor there.

I saw a few solid things from our Buccos today.  First and foremost they hung in there.  Erik Bedard came out and also threw a solid game.  It seemed to me like his control was solid, his speed was decent and he kept the Phillies from knocking the ball out of PNC Park.  He went 7 innings and didn't give up the traditional 6th inning circus that plagues Pirate pitchers.

Also saw Neil Walker make several great snags on defense up the middle of the infield.  He did exactly what needed done and backed up shortstop Clint Barmes on a few shots that just got past him.  As a matter of fact he followed one of those grabs with a fantastic throw to first to get the runner out.

I noticed a few things I wasn't extremely happy with either but since I am feeling positive today I will leave those for another post.

Overall I think it was a solid start for the Pirates, would I have loved to see the win.... YES! But for now I will enjoy the fact that we played solid baseball.

Pirates Finalize Opening Day Roster

Well, its official.  The Pirates Opening Day roster is complete.  Some of the biggest discussions from recent weeks about the battle for those coveted last few spots left us all sitting in anticipation of what would happen.  The way the final decisions were made was sort of a disappointment, at least for me it was.  The Pirates ended up not having to make a decision.  Chris Leroux, a right handed pitcher fighting for one of those spots made the decisions for them when he strained a pectoral muscle during the Pirates preseason game with the Phillies on Tuesday.  This little mishap put him firmly on the 60 day DL.

This let the Pirates place pitcher Juan Cruz on the roster without having to bump a position player.  Matt Hague, Josh Harrison, and Yamaico Navarro all ended up on the roster instead of one of them having to start the season at Triple-A Indianapolis.

So is this a good thing for the Pirates?  Absolutely.  This allows them to keep 3 players that have the potential to generate some offense for a team that sorely needs any and all offense it can find.

Now I guess it's time to final look at Opening Day..... Pirates Vs. Phillies.   Erik Bedard vs Roy Halladay.  I know its crazy to be so excited over a team that hasn't had a winning season in..... forever, but I can't wait to watch!  Thursday at 1:35pm can't come soon enough, at least not for this Pirate fan.