Let’s see: went to bed last night before the game started because I had to get up to drive 3.5 hours to Cleveland for some meetings. Hit the sack thinking that Ross Ohlendorf would be starting and figured that the Pirates would have a fighting chance. My 3.5 hour drive to Cleveland at 4:30 AM was better than this game.
As Matt noted, the Pirates made a flurry of roster moves. Ohlendorf was scratched with back spasms and Brian Burres was pressed into an emergency start, fresh from the farm. Not sure where any of this came from, but it has me wishing for Jeff Karstens. Burres’ last appearance was a two inning start for Toronto last April. He made it four innings in SF last night, but gave up six earned runs. The Giants scored three times in the first inning and the route was on.
Bengie Molina wound up with four RBI and four hits. He hit a two run homer in the 8th off of Brendan Donnelley. Not sure what is more amazing – Molina’s second career four hit/four RBI – or that Donnelley managed to walk Pedro Sandoval earlier in the same inning.
The Pirates managed only four singles and a double off of Barry Zito over the course of six innings. Akinoro Iwamura had two hits and two RBI while Andy LaRoche pulled his BA up to .250 with two singles. He also scored twice.
The Good
Good for LaRoche – his batting average is at .250.
Joel Hanrahan returned to pitch a scoreless inning.
The Bad
Not good for LaRoche – he has as many RBI and XBH as I do: zilch. I’m thisclose to wanting to give the 3B job to Delwyn Young. Either of those guys will be a place holder for Pedro Alvarez.
Pirate 3-4-5 hitters (Garrett Jones, Ryan Doumit and Jeff Clement) were 0-11 with a walk (Jones).
The Rest
Molina came into the game with just two RBI in 18 career games against Pittsburgh.
Barry Zito was winless in his career against the Pirates before last night’s game.
The collective Giants ballclub had a total of 9 PAs against Burres prior to the contest. Lack of familiarity didn’t hurt them at all.
The 2009 Bucs were 4-3 after seven games. Through 7 games in 2010, the club has score 34 runs versus 33 runs scored this year. Buc hurlers have allowed 54 runs in 2010 versus 23 runs allowed in 2009. Remember the magic of Jim Kerrigan? Matt was a skeptic last year that the great start of the pitching staff would hold up. He was, unfortunately, spot on. The Bucs finished 2009 14th in the NL in ERA.
