More Than Words

I said at the end of my recap of Wednesday's game that this team hasn't won anything and was still 2 games under .500. Now they are 3 games under, but it's how they got there that is truly quite special. Following the Pirates since as long as I can remember, the paradigm has certainly shifted since the Glory Years, at least as far as quality of play and expectations are concerned. We are so mired in this nearly 2 decades long losing streak that we are pining not for a playoff berth but a season in which we close the book with the same amount of L's and W's.

Many times during each of the last 19 seasons, the Bucs appear to hit bottom. Normally, that first plummet is a mere mirage, followed by many more trips to depths baseball futility.The Pirates have made losing an art form and finding new, unfathomable ways to lose games is their freaking masterpiece. Thursday's debacle was such that the rights to display it, in all of it's glory, will likely be subject to an intense bidding war between the MOMA and the Louvre.

I don't want to go into the measure by measure, mark by mark ( thanks to Echo & the Bunnymen) recap of this game because it would be more productive to "help myself out" with 30 grit sandpaper. I will break this game down in a simplistic manner:

The Bucs, somehow, blew a 7-0 lead for a monumental come from ahead loss. If you thought not winning last week's tilt in which the Braves all but handed us the game in the 9th was bad, I can't put into words what you would think about letting this one get away. The Bucs lead 3-0 after 1, 6-0 after 2, and 7-0 heading into the bottom of the 3rd. They still held a 7-3 lead going into the 6th and the game was tied in the 8th. I was at the Pens/Bruins game this year when we took a 4-2 lead into the 3rd period only to lose 7-4. That was mind blowing,  but it was nothing compared to this.

A 7 score lead should be more than enough to win, right LeBron? At least conventional wisdom would agree with that assertion. However, we are talking about the Bucs here and conventional or wisdom probably don't belong in the same sentence as them unless there is an "un" or "total lack of" preceding them. For the Anti's, though, this is the kind of game we tend to enjoy. The overall sucktitude of the team is fully exposed and in such a grand fashion that it no doubt made Sports Center and was plastered all over 5, 6, 10, and 11 O'Clock  News.


Anyways, here are some stats, since I won't really call them "highlights":

 Xavier Paul was 4 for 5 with an RBI and 3 Runs scored. The Pride of PR was 2 for 5 with 4 RBI, including a 2 out single in the 9th to give the Bucs some hope of overcoming themselves.

Interestingly enough, Paul Maholm was 2 for 3 at the plate, which totally made up for his ghastly pitching performance. 5.2 IP, 8 H, 7 R , 6 ER. Not that he has done this personally, but there can certainly be no complaining about run support, or lack thereof, today. To his credit, Maholm was a man about it in the post game interviews. His ERA is still 3.66 on the year, so it's not the end of the world. My new favorite punching bag is Dusty Brown, the 65 year old catcher with 18 ML games in his career after spending 39 years playing in the minors. He had a passed ball and let a Matt Diaz throw through his 5- hole (credited an error to Diaz) that really helped open the floodgates for the Mets. Brown was not the lone goat in this one, though.

There was plenty of baseball stupidity to go around yesterday. The Mets actually used a pitcher to pinch hit for 2/3 of an at bat after Ronnie Paulino singled to lead off the 8th and was replaced with Willie Harris as a pinch runner when Terry Collins called on Chris Capuano to bat. In attempting to bunt Harris over, Capuano fell behind 1-2 and was replaced mid at bat with Josh Thole, the left handed hitting catcher batting .223 on the season. Thole is also 1 for 16 on the season against lefties so it is only natural that Jake Taylor would  stick with RHP Jose Veras to face him while leaving lefty Danny Moskos and his 0.00 ERA in 5 2/3 IP to sit idle. In stunning fashion, inheriting a 1-2 deficit, Thole managed to draw a walk. That wasn't even the worst part of that at bat, though, as Harris moved to second on a balk (with Capuano batting) and moved to 3rd on a wild pitch.You couldn't predict that kind of idiotic lunacy if someone paid you to. And that sums up how a professional sports team, and I used that term loosely, can blow a 7-0 lead.

Player of the Game- Beltran- 2 for 4 with 4 RBI
Headscratcher of the Game: Not going to Moskos to face Thole.
FacePalm of the Game- To pick one facepalm moment from this turd sandwich of a ball game would like picking which one of the Gallagher Brothers is a bigger douchebag.