I never thought it would come to this and I, I want you to know that everyone’s got to face down their demons. Maybe today we can put the past away. Or maybe not. Apologies to Third Eye Blind.
Everyone knew this season was going to be rough. This is becoming historically ugly as the Pirates have lost 12 straight games. Paul Maholm was very effective through six, but hit the wall in the 7th. The Indians had one run in and two men out when Maholm surrendered consecutive runs scoring knocks to Trevor Crow and Shin-Shoo Choo. Maholm was done. Enter Joel Hanrahan. He was greeted by Carlos Santana who yelled ‘Oye Como Va’ as he stroked an RBI double. Fortunately, Ryan Church gunned down Choo at the plate to end the inning.
The Pirates mounted a comeback in their half of the seventh off of Fausto Carmona. Neil Walker singled. Andrew McCutchen walked. Garrett Jones singled. Bases loaded. None. Church delivered a bases clearing triple to make it 4-3. Carmona was done but Rafael Perez and Frank Hermann got the next three Bucco batters without allowing another run. The Pirates could not mount a run scoring event against Chris Perez in the 8th or Kerry Wood in the 9th.
Wood notched the save. Carmona was charged with all three runs in six plus innings. He gave up five hits and whiffed seven. Maholm gave up seven hits in 6-2/3 innings. He struck out five.
The Good
Jones had two hits.
The Bad
Have I mentioned the losing streak.
Buc batters drew just one walk.
The Rest
At some point I’ll have to create the all music team. Corey Hart and Carlos Santana would both likely be on it. There was a Tom Jones who played about a 100 years ago.
Maholm last appeared against Cleveland in 2006. This was his first decision against them. The same is true of Carmona.
Jones has a nine game hitting streak. He is hitting .321 in his June.
Pirate hitters entered the game 15th in the NL in walks. Only Houston is worse.
Pedro Alvarez is still in search of his first ML hit.
Church has two games with three RBI in 2010.
