O Boy

After going 0 for Cleveland, the Bucs came back home last night looking to get off on the right foot against an Orioles team with a losing record and coming off a series loss to the Nationals. The Bucs were also trotting out their Ace, Charlie "Great Stuff" Morton, who started off this season looking like a new man. His performance in April and May was leading to "Greatest Trade Ever" cries and Cy Young talk. But the trouble with pesky Post Season Awards is that they don't give them out after 2 months. In June, Great Stuff has looked frighteningly like his 2010 self: 4 starts, 18 IP, 19R, 17ER, 32 Hits, a WHIP of 2.11 and an 8.50 ERA.

Last night, the Bucs needed to start the game and the series off right. Neither of those 2 happened and we got the more often than not result of a Big old L. I missed the first 15-20 minutes of the game due to a How I Met Your Mother re-run on WPCW but by the time I flipped on Root at 7:28 it was already 3-0 Orioles. Tim Neverett remained optimistic, though, citing the Bucs own futility in scoring runs after the first inning in their previous contest with the Injuns; they scored 2 in the first and none in the next 10. But suddenly it was 4-0, and then 5-0. Blass and Neverett tried to keep the viewers' spirits up in the bottom of the first, pining for one run to wake the Bucs up. They went down 1-2-3.

The second inning was slightly better than the first, only surrendering 2 runs to the O's. Thankfully, the Honoring of the 1971 World Series Champions took place Monday night and Blass had plenty of stories to tell in lieu of hashing over every detail of this dreadful ballgame with Neverett. Despite trailing 6-0, Neverett didn't hesitate to mock Mark Reynolds for his high strike out total both this season and during his career, noting his 74 K's in 69 games in 2011. I guess he forgot about our 3B, currently on the DL, who has 42 K's in 36 games and his career averages aren't 34 HR and 98 RBI per 162 games played........ But that is the Bucs broadcast team for you, last year's debauchery during Strasburg's MLB debut should have been enough proof that they are little more than bush league. I will never forget Wehner cackling every time Strasburg threw a ball and his and Mr. Sunshine's reaction when Delwyn Young hit a 2-run shot off of him, screaming " HE IS HUMAN" but failing to mention how he was hitting 100 regularly and went on to strike out 14 Bucco batters in 7 IP, giving up only those 2 runs.......

Moving on.

After the Orioles took a 7-0 lead at the end of 2, you could close the book on Morton ( in a Harry Doyle Voice: "Thank God"). The Bucs managed a run in the bottom of the 2nd and the O's got it back in the 3rd, opening it up to 8-1. I totally gave up watching until the 9th but the Box Score indicates Paul and Cedeno knocked in Cutch and GI Jones in the 4th to make it 8-3. The next 4 innings definitely happened.Then, the Hammer worked a scoreless 9th, Cutch grabbed his 3rd hit of the game to start the bottom half, Jones flied out to Left center, and The Pride of PR honored the Orioles Cal Ripken Jr by hitting into a game ending Double Play. Final score: Orioles 8, Bucs 3.

Player of the Game: Matt Wieters. Why, you say, pick a guy was 1 for 5 with 1 RBI and 2 K's? Well, this is my blog and I will pick whomever I like for Player of the Game. And since I didn't have the opportunity to pick him in the draft, I figured I would do it here. Honestly, you can't even compare him to Moskos. Wieters is an everyday catcher who can hit around .260-.270, 15-18 HR, 75-85 RBIs, and also leads the league in throwing out runners, nabbing 18 of 46 attempted base thieves for an astounding 39%. I will take that talent over a middle reliever every single time. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Head Scratcher of the Game: Matt Wieters not being a Pirate. Like I said, he didn't have a breakout game last night, but the Bucs would be a MUCH better team with him.

Face Palm of the Night: Drafting Daniel Moskos instead of Matt Wieters. I am not beating a dead horse or anything. But I have to say it here because the PG will probably ignore it or say he was 1 for 5 in this 1 game, so he's not very good. We know they like to use a small sample size to jump to conclusions, if you recall SmizBlog declaring the Bucs the Offensive King of Baseball in June after 7 games.

This was not the start anybody here was looking for, not in the least. Morton was awful, going 2 IP, giving up 7 R, 6 of them earned and 8 hits. His June was been dreadful and the j*zzfest (that's not a PC form of Jazz Fest) over him may be starting to quell. On the other hand, Cutch had 3 of our 5 hits after going 0 for 13 in Cleveland. The Bucs are now 2 games below .500 and are playing their worst baseball since the Mutiny began. Tonight, J-Mac takes on a guy with a 2-8 record who will probably take a perfect game 2 outs into the 8th.

BTW, it was nice to see RoboRussell waving a guy home last night. I did not know his arms were wired in such a fashion.