Battlin' Buccos Awaken From Hibernation



Is that James Harrison? Nope. JOSH Harrison

 Before I write another word regarding the Pirates I want to make something clear.  The Pittsburgh Pirates need to prove they can play the way they did Tuesday night on a consistent basis before I go writing about how the team as "turned things around".  With that being said, it was great to see the Pirates perform the way they performed the entire month of June and the beginning of July.  The Pirates were absolutely crushing the ball and Pedro "El Torro" Alvarez decided to contribute the past few games.  He hit 2 HRs last night (the latter of the 2 was the longest HR by a Pirate at PNC Park) and had 4 RBIs.  The guy even made a nice fielding play.  To put the cherry on top of the game was a wonderful performance by James "J-Mac" McDonald.  He pitched 7 shut out innings and had his best stuff working.  He was buckling knees and hitting his spots all night.  It almost looked like the J-Mac before the All-Star Break.  Some might forget, but James McDonald was the ace of this staff heading into the season.  He was the #1 and Burnett a close #2.  It wasn't until AJ Burnett carried the team after the break that he became the "staff ace" as Clint Hurdle called him.  Burnett is struggling, so its time for McDonald to pick up his teammate like he was picked up when he was pitching at a 8.71 ERA after the break.

When all was said and done and the smoke from the Jolly Roger finally settled, the Pirates won 9-0 and keep their fans interested in tonight's nationally televised game on ESPN.  Wandy Rodriguez looks to pull a "J-Mac" and get his game on the right track again.  The victory last night couldn't have come at a better time for this team as they now move to only 2 games back of the Cardinals for the second Wild Card spot in the NL with one game remaining in this series.  I was talking to a co-worker today and he mentioned that the Cardinals have a much tougher schedule to finish out the year than the Pirates.  I reminded him of one BIG question mark...the Pirates have to win for that to matter. 

Lastly, it will be interesting how the Cardinals play this game tonight.  After Josh "J-Hay" Harrison did a James Harrison impression on Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina will the Red Birds be out for blood?  They plunked J-Hay later in the game, but will there be some sort of revenge if their All-Star catcher is unable to be in the lineup?  Some radio personalities have said that it was a dirty play, and to that I say they are crazy.  I was a catcher from age 9-18 and even though our state said you HAD to slide in High School, I still was involved in many collisions.  Never once did I feel one of them was dirty or malicious.  What J-Hay did was a clean baseball play.  When Molina decides to use his BODY to block home plate you are asking to get smoked.  If he just had his leg there and was going for the sweep tag, thats a different story.  Nonetheless, as Don Cherry of Hockey Night in Canada says "Better look both ways when walking on the train tracks!"  All of this SHOULD make for a good game tonight on national TV...as long as the Pirates don't crap the bed.