Back In the Saddle

I am back from a little bit of sick time and just in time for the Bucs to return to .500!

Last night, the Bucs took down the struggling 'Stros by a final count of 1-0. It was a typical 2011 Bucs W. Great pitching, little hitting, no XBH's, no manufacturing runs, a little bit of luck, and the other team helping the Bucs win.

Monday night, the Bucs caught a MAJOR break when Jose Tabata was thrown out at 3rd base but ruled safe after a ridiculous "runner interference" call on Jose Reyes allowed Tabata to take 3rd and eventually score the 1st run in a 3-1 victory. Last night, the Bucs got the only run of the evening when GI Jones singled in the Pride of Pine Richland after he had singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. All in all, the team left 9 men on base and 4 in scoring position, notching 6 hit, all of which were singles. GI Jones and the Pride of PR led the way with 2 hits each and Cutch extended his hitting streak to 13 games. Ronny Cedeno batted 2nd and went 0 for 4, lowering his season average to .221 and his June average to .143. I don't care if he was 5 for 10 life time against Bud Norris, he should never be batting second unless there is some drastic turnaround in his hitting skills and plate discipline.

Jeff Karstens was outstanding yet again. For a guy who is constantly pegged as the long relief specialist, he is 4-4 with a 2.66 ERA, good for 5th in the NL. Not bad for a guy who the braintrust couldn't find a spot in the rotation for. Karstens went 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing 3 hits and 0 walks again. For some reason, Karstens seems to be on a limited pitch count and was pulled with 1 on and 2 out in the 7th. All-Star Candidate Chris Resop came on the get the final out of the 7th and was replaced by Tim Wood to start the 8th. After getting the first out of the inning, Tony Watson replaced Wood but allowed a single and a walk to put 2 on and 1 out. Jose Veras was called upon the put out the fire and he was up to the task, retiring Jason Michaels and Michael Bourn. Hanrahan worked a perfect 9th to earn his 18th save in 18 tries and it was the time RTJR! Final score Bucs 1, Astros 0.

Player of the Game- Jeff Karstens, 6.2 IP, 0R, 3 H, 3K, 0 BB
Head Scratcher of the Night: GI Jones was successful in his first steal attempt but was nailed the second time, appearing to slide early and in slow motion. It looked like he had the base stolen but the slide took forever. Also, I think sending Jones to steal twice in a row was perhaps going to the well 1 too many times.
Face Palm of the Night: The Astro's are a very charitable bunch. The WP in the first setup our only run and throwing a ball into CF when Cutch stole second was also very helpful. 54 Errors on the season for the Stros.

All in all, the Bucs are .500 once again and that is a great thing. They should beat the Astros more often than not even if the Astros are a better offensive team. The Bucs continue to get great pitching while the offense continues to do very little on a consistent basis. That  former #1 in June offense has  now scored 19 runs in the last 8 games, 8 coming in one game against the Dbacks. They have not scored more than 3 since. The Bucs have a total of 46 runs in the month of June, but as I have previously stated, 17 came in the first 2 games. Thats 29 runs in the next 10 games. The team is 5th in the NL in batting avg. for June but tied for last in HR's and 11th in XBH. Not good enough. For the season, we are 14th in AVG, 14th in Runs, 11th in HR, 15h in SLG %, 12th in OBP, and 14th in XBH.

The pitching has been a completely different story: 5th in ERA and boasting 3 starters in the Top 12 in ERA for the entire NL. This trend needs to continue and the bats needs to awaken. Cutch is doing his part pushing his average to .292 and Walker may be sneaking out of his slump. Tabata's average may be down, but his OBP is .360. We need to drive in more runs, that is the bottom line.

The Bucs have a chance to move to 34-33 tonight, the first winning record this late in a season in what seems like eons. Facing the awful Astros, this is an attainable goal and the Bucs need to pounce on this weak Houston team.