This afternoon I was on ESPN 1430 in Altoona with Cory Giger, talking Altoona Curve baseball, along with Pirates prospects talk.  For those of...

ALTOONA -- An hour and a half to first pitch ... Game: Altoona Curve vs Harrisburg Senators, 6:30 p.m. Site: Blair County Ballpark. Pitching: LHP Jeff...

Going in to the 2009 season, the pitcher I least trusted in the rotation was Zach Duke.  Duke ended up surprising a lot of...

Harrisburg Senators� 10,� Altoona Curve� 5 ....������ (box)

Two 5-run innings gave the Senators the advantage over the Curve in the first game of their Eastern League playoff series.

The Curve jumped out to the early lead in the bottom of the 1st.� 2B Chase d'Arnaud led off with a walk, and 3B Josh Harrison followed by blasting a home run over the left-center field wall, to give the Curve a 2-0 lead before they even had recorded an out.� Two outs later, LF Andrew Lambo reached base on a fielding error by the Senators' 2B Steve Lombardozzi.� C Hector Gimenez worked a walk, and RF Miles Durham singled into left field to bring in Lambo from second base, and the Curve had a 3-0 lead.

It didn't last long, as the Senators sent 10 batters to the plate and scored 5 runs in the top of the 2nd.� Curve starter Rudy Owens had worked around a walk to Lombardozzi in the 1st inning, but got into trouble quickly in the 2nd.� A walk and a single began the inning, then a grounder to the diving 1B Matt Hague produced a force out at second base.� A double into right-center field brought in both base runners, and the Senators had made it a one-run game, 3-2.� A bunt attempt by the Senators' pitcher, Tom Milone, went right to Owens on the mound, and he turned it into a fielder's choice out at third, leaving Milone on first base.� But Lombardozzi walked again, then a single loaded the bases.� Owens had two outs with those bases loaded, and he got an 0-2 on the next batter -- and another single drove in two more runs, and the Senators had the lead.� That sent Owens to the showers after just 1.2 innings.� Jared Hughes came out of the bullpen, and he loaded the bases again by walking the first batter he faced.� A passed ball by Gimenez allowed the runner in from third base (unearned run, charged to Owens), and when a ground out ended the inning, the Senators had a 5-3 lead.

Milone had the Curve bats under control for the next 6 innings.� D'Arnaud doubled in the 2nd inning, but was left on base when three other Curve batters struck out.� Hughes reached base in the 4th on a fielding error, but was also left stranded. � Durham singled in the 6th, but was also left on base.� Harrisburg's reliever Hassan Pena pitched the 7th inning, and he also retired the Curve in order.

Hughes did even better than Milone over his next 3 innings -- he retired those 9 Harrisburg batters in order.� Bryan Morris was next out of the bullpen.� He retired the side in order in the 6th, and worked his way out of a jam in the 7th.� That inning began with a single, then Lombardozzi reached on fielding error, when his grounder bounced off 3B Harrison's glove.� With two on and none out (instead of one on and one out), Morris got a strikeout.� Another single loaded the bases, then Morris ended the inning with a three-pitch strikeout and a blazing line drive that went straight to Harrison's glove.

Mike Dubee took the mound for the Curve to begin the 8th inning, and he found trouble quickly.� Back-to-back singles opened the inning, then Dubee got a strikeout.� An RBI single followed, then Lombardozzi drove a liner down the right field line and into the bullpen, plating the second run of the inning.� An intentional walk loaded the bases, and a grounder to third yielded a force out at third, but Harrison's throw to first rolled away from 1B Hague, and instead of an inning-ending double play, two more runs scored and the inning continued.� Another single dropped in, in short left field, to drive in the fifth run of the inning.� Craig Hansen relieved Dubee, and he got the pitcher Pena to fly out to end the inning.

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Derek Lowe moved to 10-0 all-time against the Pirates. Zach Duke didn't make it out of the second inning. John Russell emptied the bench. The Pirates have 92 losses.

The Bradenton Marauders lost game two of their best of three game series against the Charlotte Stone Crabs.  Bradenton sent Brian Leach to the...

Altoona's ace, Rudy Owens, was originally scheduled to start this past Sunday, but was held back so that Altoona could have him start game...

This is the fifth in a series of 5 articles that will try to get Pirate fans inside the organizations of the Pirates' NL Central opponents. This final article will look at the rising power in Pittsburgh's sister city, the Cincinnati Reds. I expect the battle that is going on between the Reds and the Cards this season to continue for the next few years.

ALTOONA -- 30 minutes to first pitch ... Game: Altoona Curve vs Harrisburg Senators, 6:30 p.m. Site: Blair County Ballpark. Pitching: LHP Rudy Owens vs. LHP...

Tim Hudson and James McDonald each pitched six shutout innings. Only McDonald would throw a seventh shutout inning.

Bradenton Marauders� 5,� Charlotte Stone Crabs� 0 ....�� (box)

The Marauders broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 7th with a big 4-run inning to take the win in their first playoff game.� Starter Aaron Pribanic earned the win with 7 scoreless innings of work.

Pribanic scattered 6 hits and one walk over those 7 innings.�� The first batter of the game singled, but a pickoff at first helped Pribanic get out of the inning.� He worked around a single and a walk in the 2nd inning, and around another single in the 3rd.� Pribanic retired the Stone Crabs in order in the 4th, but got into a jam in the 5th when he gave up three singles to load the bases with one out.� A timely double play, started by 2B Shelby Ford, who stepped on second base himself, then fired on to 1B Calvin Anderson, got Pribanic and the Marauders out of that jam without a run scoring.� Pribanic went on to retire the side in order in the 6th and 7th innings.

Charlotte starter Matthew Moore was also having a great night.� He struck out 9 Bradenton batters over the first 6 innings, while allowing only one hit.� He also walked 6 batters, though, and the walks were what ultimately got him into trouble.� The Marauders threatened in the bottom of the 1st, when both Ford and RF Robbie Grossman walked.� A wild pitch allowed Ford to move to third base.� CF Starling Marte grounded to first base, but the Charlotte first baseman threw home, and Ford was out on the basepath.� A strikeout ended that inning.� 3B Adam Davis walked in the 2nd inning, and Grossman singled and LF Quincy Latimore walked in the 3rd, but none of them could come around to score.� The Marauders went down in order in the three middle innings, including the side striking out in the 5th.

Matthew Moore began the bottom of the 7th by walking Anderson, and Anderson was replaced by pinch-runner Adenson Chourio. A wild pitch moved Chourio to second base.� Moore struck out Davis, his 10th batter of the game, then intentionally walked DH Jordan Newton. That was the end of Moore's night, and he was relieved by Marquis Fleming, and Fleming did not have a good night.� He began by giving up a grounder through the right side of the infield for a single to SS Greg Picart. Chourio raced around from second base to score the first run of the game.� Shelby Ford followed with a double into the left-center field gap, bringing in both Newton and Picart from first base.� Robbie Grossman grounded out to first, and Ford advanced to third base.� Starling Marte drove a liner into left field for a double, and Ford also scored, to give the Marauders a 4-0 lead.

Fleming came back out to pitch the bottom of the 8th.� C Eric Fryer began the inning with a double down the right field line.� Both Erik Huber, who had come into the game in place of Calvin Anderson, and Adam Davis flied out, but Jordan Newton skipped a bad hop off the glove of the Charlotte shortstop and into short left field.� Newton was credited with a hit, and Fryer came around to score one more run while the Stone Crabs were chasing down the ball.

Kyle McPherson came on in relief of Pribanic, to begin the 8th inning.� By then, the Stone Crabs were a bit stunned.� They went down in order, including 2 strikeouts in the 8th.� McPherson got some help from Shelby Ford, who made a perfectly-timed leaping catch of a line drive to begin the 9th inning.� The Stone Crabs did get a two-out hit, on a ball that fell into short left field, but McPherson got a pop out to short right field, easily played by Robbie Grossman, to end the game.

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NOTES:

The Marauders will play Game 2 tomorrow in Charlotte.� The Tampa Yankees beat the Dunedin Blue Jays 3-0 in the other Florida State League round one game.

The Altoona Curve begin their playoffs on Wednesday, facing the Harrisburg Senators in Altoona.

The Pirates also took a scoreless tie into the bottom of the 7th inning, when they busted the game open with a big inning.� None of the 8 new call-ups got into the game, though.

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This is the fourth in a series of 5 articles that will try to get Pirate fans inside the organizations of the Pirates' NL Central opponents. This article will look at the gold standard of the NL Central in recent years: the St. Louis Cardinals. While the Cubs may have the most supportive fans, perhaps no city in all of MLB has more knowledgeable fans than the Cardinals.