The Pirates hitting that has been touted not only here on the Black n' Gold Blitz, but also nationally, decided to take the night off against the Cubs Monday night. With a whopping 2 hits (one of them coming in the 9th inning) the Pirates' performance looked eerily similar to that of the 2011 Pirates team that couldn't hit its way out of a wet paper bag. The truly disappointing part about this loss isn't the fact that they couldn't hit, but that this team ruined another solid start by Erik Bedard. Bedard has been maligned here at BNGBlitz, as well as with other Pirates fans, but his last two starts have been extremely solid. He struck out 10+ and only gave up 2 hits in his 7 innings of work. Rumors are is the "tweak" that the fans heard about him making before his Colorado start was that he was tipping his pitches to the hitter. With that fixed, Bedard no longer looks like the weak link in the Pirates' rotation, but a strong arm pitcher who gets alot of "Ks". The Pirates can't sulk too much as they still have work to do within the division. The Reds continue their hot streak and the Buccos now find themselves 1.5 games out of 1st place instead of still being .5 games behind the hated Reds from Cincinnati. The Pirates now turn to their #1 starting pitcher, James McDonald (10-3) as he attempts to right the ship against former Pirate Paul Maholm (8-6). McDonald has been shaky at best his past 2 starts, but the Bucco bats have bailed him out during those last two starts. As a Pirates fan you hope last night's pitiful hitting performance was nothing more than an aberration, but that isn't what I am most concerned with. The bats will fix itself sooner than later, but will McDonald be able to get back to his early year form of dominating pitching with great accuracy? Lets hope we get that answer tonight against the Cubbies. Anyone else think of this quote from the movie "Major League" last night after reading the stat sheet (I know my brother, Jay, did):
Harry Doyle - "No runs on 2 hits...we only had 2 G*D DAMN Hits?!"
Color Commentator - "You can't say G*D Damn on the air!"
Harry Doyle - "Ahh no one's listening anyways..."
"Yo bartender..." We made a ND WR look like Greg Maddox last night. I really hope that was just a hiccup and we can get back to winning tonight. J Mac needs to have a rock solid performance so we can "right the ship" and raise the Jolly Roger! Go Bucs!
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