Pirates and Dimondbacks Drama

Hey All,

I know I haven't been on here much this year with my blog, and for the I apologize. Just been busy with a bunch of other stuff. But never fear, I'm back and better than ever, and boy do I have a good one for you folks tonight. Late last week the Pirates took on the Diamondback's in Arizona, and boy did sparks start to fly. It all got started on Friday and then got worse from there. There was late game missed calls, players being beamed, and managers getting tossed. This isn't enough for me though. I feel that more fines should be held to the Diamondbacks organization for what they did in Saturday's game.

To be fair in the matter at hand, this case started on Friday night in the 9th inning of the game. Pirate Pitcher Ernesto Frieri plunked D-backs All-Star Paul Goldschmidt on the hand fracturing it. This only becomes significant because he is behind Andrew McCutchen in the NL MVP race. Goldschmidt is more than likely going to miss the rest of the regular season because of his hand and is about 95% chance he is out of the race for NL MVP.

Now let's flash to Saturday's game all the way to the 9th inning, yet again. This time D-Backs pitcher Randall Delgado drills Andrew McCutchen in the small of his back with a 95 MPH Fastball. Now most would think it's retaliation, and you would be right. But, there is a bit of principle here. Now, if McCutchen would have just gotten hit by a pitch, I'd be okay with this and wouldn't be writing this. That wasn't the case on Saturday. Now had this beaming happen in the first inning, the second inning, hell I'd even take the third inning there would be no problem. This happened in the 9th inning, they waited the entire game, and that's not right. Not only that, but the sign that was given to Delgado was really obvious as to what was going to happen.

Delgado got a sign that was a middle finger pointed down, and then pointed right to McCutchen. This was after the Catcher looked at the coach for the call. So this came from the Manager. Now, the Manager had been tossed earlier in the game for making a big scene with Martin after Friday's night game, and then getting into it with the Umps after a questionable call in Saturday's game. So it came from back up Manager, or was called in from the club house. Either way this call came from the bench, and wasn't just the players doing this on their own.  

The one major problem that I have with these actions is NOTHING was done about it. Even McCutchen, who typically keeps his cool had something to say. “They had all game to retaliate. They had the first inning to retaliate. They had the first pitch (of the ninth inning at-bat) to retaliate. They missed. You throw a slider on the second pitch and then you throw up and in on the next pitch. Are you trying to hurt me too? That’s the question…. We understand that retaliation is going to happen in this game. But you know, there’s a right way to do it. If you’re going to hit me, hit me. He hit me square in the spine. If I get hurt, what happens then?”

I couldn't have said this better myself. Something needs to happen to the Diamondbacks origination. Fines, suspensions, or a combination of the two, no matter what, something needs to be done by MLB. This is getting out of hand. Someone is going to get hurt, and this late in the season, it could case a team to miss the postseason. If I had my way, the Pitcher Delgado, the Catcher who put the sign up, and both Manager, and acting Manager at the time should all be fined, and all be suspend for their actions. Not only was it classless, but it was uncalled for. This could have very well ended Cutchen's season as well as his career. The ball did hit him right in the spin. The league needs to do something and it needs to do something quick. I mean hell, it's already Tuesday night, and nothing has happened yet. How long do we have to wait for a punishment? Sure shouldn't be this long, and I won't rest until something is done.

Until Next Time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports. 

Batting Crown In Pittsburgh?

Hey All,

The battlin Bucs are heating up, including that of center fielder Andrew McCutchen who looks to bring a batting title to Pittsburgh.

For the Pirates, home is where you hang your crown. Yet the Bucs' home is also where hitters hang their heads, mourning drives that become warning-track fatalities.

The man promising to bring the NL batting crown "home" has barreled-up on that contradiction. Andrew McCutchen returns to PNC Park on Friday night accompanied by the rest of the first-place Pirates and enough flashing numbers to make Elias' head spin.

McCutchen's .369 average puts him in position to add to the Pirates' 25 historical batting titles, the most for any Major League team (St. Louis is runner-up in the NL with 22 crowns, while Red Sox players have won 24 AL titles).

Amazing enough that average is 153 points above what McCutchen produced in the second half of the 2011 season. It has a lot to do with Pirates ownership's reaction to that swoon: A six-year, $51.5 million contract extension agreed to during Spring Training.

"That freed up Andrew," manager Clint Hurdle said. "His attitude became, 'I can just go and play now.' Sometimes something like that can lock up a guy, worried about living up to it. Not him."

McCutchen is also contending for the NL home run crown. His 22 are second to Ryan Braun's 26, after McCutchen waited until the Bucs' 29th game to hit No. 1.

The future Home Run Derby participant did not connect for his first homer until May 8, a game he had also begun with an average of .298. In 61 games since McCutchen is batting .404, with 22 home runs and 58 RBIs.

"The thing is, those first five weeks he was getting pitches to hit, but wasn't hitting them," Hurdle recalled. "He's not missing them now. He's playing the game the best he's ever played."

All this makes the center fielder the embodiment of Pittsburgh's strange journey along the National League Central's yellow brick road. For he has built, and will try to maintain, those incredible numbers in a home park that was designed to be pitcher-friendly and has lived up to that blueprint.

Wait, you say, haven't the Bucs led the Majors in scoring since the start of June? That they have, and it is a contradiction that leads to the most confounding part of the Pirates' contention for the division title.

Good thing that Hurdle keeps saying that the season's outcome will define this team because, at the moment, it defies definition. Throw all of the team's stats into a numbers-crunching machine and it would sputter, emit sparks and finally just blow up.

The Bucs' well-chronicled offensive turnaround has had less to do with adjusted swings than with the schedule. Through May, which they ended with a ridiculous team average of .218, the Pirates played 29 of 50 games at home. Since then they have played 25 of 41 games on the road.

The Pirates have hit 64 of their 101 home runs on the road, where they average 4.5 runs compared to 3.7 at home. Despite this their 29-14 record in PNC Park is the Majors' best home mark.

It doesn't make sense until the spotlight shines on their collective 2.39 ERA in those 43 home games, more than two runs lower than the road mark (4.68).

"Our pitchers love pitching at home. It's a pitcher-friendly ballpark," Hurdle reiterated. "When you develop a home-field mentality, you build your club to your home field. What we tried to do is get the personnel in place we need to have success.

"But," Hurdle added, "our guys have gotten over the mentality that left field is too deep, that it is not a hitter's park. It is -- if you hit line drives and keep the ball low and hit it hard, good things will happen. There's a lot of grass out there."

There was also a lot of grass around the 457-foot center field sign in Forbes Field -- where 13 of the Pirates' batting titles were won between 1909-1970. Before that, Exposition Park hosted seven bat kings. Three Rivers Stadium produced four titles, while Freddy Sanchez's 2006 title was the only one in PNC Park's first 12 seasons.

McCutchen thrives among those grass blades, although his wrists can generate the bat-speed and power to send balls soaring over them. His 10 home runs at PNC Park account for 27 percent of the team's home total. He also is hitting 30 points higher at home (.386) than on the road (.356).

He shouldn't count on those MVP chants subsiding during the upcoming six games against the Marlins and Cubs.

McCutchen's version of his breakthrough is as monotonous as the two, three hits he seems to be getting daily.

"[I'm] just going up there trying to hit the ball hard, without trying to do too much," McCutchen keeps saying. His modesty belies all the hard offseason work the All-Star put in to get to this point.

"He worked on things he had to do to be the best player he can be and he hasn't varied from that for one day," Hurdle said. "It's a very special time and place for him. And the other thing is, he's having fun with it. Too many times, we get that head-down-and-grind mentality of, 'I've got to do well' and falling to pieces if things don't go right. Andrew is enjoying this ride."

He enjoys it the most of any of the Pirates hitters when the ride pulls into PNC Park. On a personal level that is. Everyone is stoked by the wins, but when it comes to maintaining offensive equilibrium, no one is as balanced as McCutchen.

Go down the line: Pedro Alvarez has 13 road homers among his 19 (a total which pairs with McCutchen to form the NL's second-best one-two punch, behind only the Milwaukee twosome of Braun and Corey Hart). Casey McGehee has hit seven of his eight on the road and Neil Walker is hitting 59 points higher on the road (.324) than at home (.265).

The Pirates' chief home-field advantage is knowing what to expect and how to prepare for it. Hurdle's lineup often reflects the defensive needs of the day's pitcher, whether his tendency is to get grounders or get to the ball in the air.

By the time a visiting team might have figured it out, it has to move on.

"Our confidence level spikes at home," Hurdle said. "It's not like we aren't confident on the road, but at our place and in front of our fans, it's just different."

Pirates Loss Close Game

Hey All,

After spending most of the week with the Houston Astros, who kept scoring first then had no retort, the Pirates on Friday night ran into someone who punched back.

The Bucs, the shocking leaders of the National League Central, and the NL West-contending Giants, shocked by three straight losses in Washington, D.C., exchanged volleys to the entertainment and ultimate disappointment of many in a sold-out PNC Park who watched San Francisco hold on for a 6-5 victory.

"To jump out early, have them jump back, and for us to continue to chip away ... that's the way we're playing now," said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle, disappointed by the result but certainly not by the effort as his crew suffered only its second loss in 10 games.

The Pirates' last salvo went a long way: Pedro Alvarez led off the eighth with a 457-foot homer off lefty reliever Javier Lopez, but all that did -- besides awe witnesses -- was cut into the final margin.

The loss ended the season's fourth four-game winning streak by a team that has yet to make it to five. That might reflect the unavoidable fact of always having a weak link in the five-man starting rotation, which at the moment is Erik Bedard.

"We'll look at some tape, try to help him figure out some things over the [All-Star] break," Hurdle said of the veteran lefty, who for the fourth time in seven starts could not make it through five innings. Asked whether he might already have some idea of what those things are, the manager admitted, "I do have some thoughts, which we'll share with him first."

Bedard on Friday was quite charitable with the 3-0 lead the Pirates had presented him.

The Giants thus attempted to tighten up two races, the one they trailed by a game and a half and the one the Pirates led by two games.

The small picture was as compelling. After shadowing each other atop the NL batting charts for weeks, Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen and Giants left fielder Melky Cabrera got some face time.

Although the averages of both players officially rounded off to .356, the two began the night at a ridiculous .00011 apart; McCutchen lead at .35593 and Cabrera at .35582.

The Bucs won that battle, if not the war.

After a 3-for-5 night that included two RBIs, McCutchen was at .360.

Cabrera also drove in two, but had "only" two hits in four at-bats to finish at .358.

McCutchen's teammates appear as stunned and impressed by his performance as are outside observers. Pick a context -- batting .550 in July after earning June Player of the Month honors, 17 hits in his last seven games, 27 hits in his last 52 at-bats against left-handers, a dozen games with three-plus hits -- and McCutchen is in his own orbit.

"Me and McCutchen are from the same class [of 2005] out of high school, and to see where he's at is pretty outstanding," said Alvarez, who tied McCutchen for the team lead with his 16th homer. "I just hope that he can keep going, because we're feeding off his energy. It's been a lot of fun to play alongside him."

Before pulling their first-inning punches, the Bucs pushed across a quick run for a 1-0 lead. They began the game with three consecutive singles, by Josh Harrison, Drew Sutton and McCutchen -- the last good for his 55th RBI.

Harrison, getting a start at short and atop the lineup, lit the fuse again in the third. He led off with a walk and, one out later, scored when McCutchen's drive found the 410-foot nook in left-center for a triple. Neil Walker's double delivered McCutchen for a 3-0 lead.

Bedard entered the fourth with a no-hitter -- having retired nine straight after a game-opening walk of Justin Christian -- but never got out of it.

"We saw him really improve after the leadoff walk," Hurdle said. "The second and third were very crisp. The fourth was bad all around."

Precisely what the Giants did -- bat around. Ryan Theriot sent an RBI double to right-center and scored on Cabrera's game-tying homer, which cleared the bases but not Bedard's plate.

"Rod [catcher Barajas] was going down to block it; it was going to go in the dirt," Bedard said of the 1-and-0 curve to Cabrera. "But he hit a home run on it."

Bedard had a slightly different evaluation of that pitch than did his manager, who had said that breaking pitch was something the pitcher "probably wanted lower."

"They're not just cashing it in and sitting back, waiting for something to happen," said the beneficiary of the rally, southpaw Barry Zito. "They're making it happen. That home run Melky hit was a huge lift for the team, and everyone else added in their spots."

A run-scoring single by Hector Sanchez gave the Giants their first lead at 4-3, and they added to it when Harrison let Joaquin Arias' grounder carom off his glove and into left for an error.

"The guys bounced back good," said Giants manger Bruce Bochy. "They got an early lead, but the club did a great job of putting together a big inning."

Bedard retired Zito on a sacrifice bunt, then his 3 2/3-inning start was over. He needed 37 pitches just to get through two-thirds of that fourth inning.

Casey McGehee's sixth homer in the fifth reduced Zito's lead to 5-4 but, after 2 1/3 hitless innings by Chris Resop, Juan Cruz surrendered Theriot's sacrifice fly in the seventh to reset the San Francisco lead at 6-4.

All in all, the Pirates are surging and need to keep this momentum up well past the [All Star] break, and cruise into the playoffs. They need to keep using McCutchen's "energy" and hope that the pitching stays where it's at, and they will be just fine. I can't wait to see what they do this afternoon against the Giants in the heat at PNC Park as they try and keep the lead in the NL Central Division.

Until next time
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports.