I was watching the game tonight around the seventh inning, thinking about how Kevin Correia was dealing on the mound. I’ve been critical of Correia this year, but the last two months he’s been the least of the problems for the Pirates. In fact, he’s been their best starter during that time.
Correia struck out a lot of batters tonight, which reminded me that he’s had a few games in the second half with good strikeout totals. One of the things I liked about Correia in San Diego was that he put up decent strikeout rates. His ratios with the Pirates have made him the right-handed version of Zach Duke. I went to Baseball-Reference to check on those strikeout numbers and see if he was showing some improvement. He did have a few big strikeout games spread out throughout the schedule, but nothing significant to show a change from his overall numbers. Also, considering his two big strikeout games recently came against the Astros and Cubs, they have to be taken with a grain of salt. You know, because teams are supposed to dominate the Astros and Cubs, which the Pirates haven’t seemed to understand this month.
While looking up the numbers, Clint Barmes booted a grounder and Correia followed that with a three run homer. If there’s anything we can say about this team in August and September, it’s that when the other team is ahead, the game is pretty much over. This doesn’t look like the same team that battled back in any situation during the early parts of the summer. So that was it for me. MLB.tv and the constant annoying Bob’s Discount Furniture commercials were off for the night. I was taking a break from the Pirates, if only for a few hours until I had to write again.
The first thing I did was search for a review of the latest episode of “Louie”. I don’t know why, but after I finish watching a show, I always look for recaps to see what other people thought of the show. In this case, I clicked the first recap I saw of Thursday’s episode, and there in the first paragraph it greeted me:
When I’m asked what FX’s Louie is about, my response usually goes something along these lines: “It’s about this middle-aged comedian who gets in awkward situations and generally comes out on the wrong end of his misadventures.” As those of you who watch the show know, Louie is a well-intentioned, tough-luck kind of guy who keeps digging through the shovelfuls of crap that are heaped upon him. He’s got a winning percentage roughly in the same neighborhood as the Pittsburgh Pirates (pre-Andrew McCutcheon).
There is no escape from this team. You can’t even read a recap of your favorite show without hearing about how bad they are, and hearing about a player who doesn’t exist (but if he did, would hopefully be as good as Andrew McCutchen). That’s all I’ve got for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll dig in to some unanswered question, such as why the Pirates constantly get shut down by 4-A pitchers, or what they can do to fix their inconsistent offense.
Links and Notes
**The Pirates lost to the Astros 4-1.
**Pirates Notebook: Correia Racking Up the Strikeouts; McPherson Remains in Rotation.
**From Last Night: The Day Huntington and Stark Lost Their Jobs?
