Game #71: Bucs @ Mariners

It's been covered ad nausea in all the papers and websites but it can't be said enough. Once again a pretty bad pitcher throws a gem against the Pirates. Coming into the game last night, opponents were hitting .413 against Weaver and he had an ERA of 10.97 this year...then he plays the Pirates and rolls through the team on his way to a 4 hit shutout.

Thanks to www.pittsburghsports.net's "Scotts Turf Builder Hall of Fame" thread for the list of names this year who've been terrible and yet "mowed" down the Pirates:

Claudio Vargas (Brewers)
Randy Wolf (Dodgers)
Randy Keisler (Cardinals)
Braden Looper (Cardinals)
Matt Belisle (Reds)
Kyle Davies (Braves)
Chuck James (Braves)
Scott Olsen (Marlins)
Kyle Lohse (Reds)
Matt Chico (Nationals)
Kameron Loe (Rangers)

Don't get me wrong, he pitched well, but not good enough for a shutout. He was consistently hanging his slider all game. In the fifth, in one at-bat to Ronny Paulino I noticed that he hung at least 2, maybe three sliders over the plate. Paulino watched them sail over for strikes on his way to a strike out. These pitches had no bite and just looked like they were moving at 50mph with no curve. Any other team would have been salivating at the sight of it. Not the Bucs, they took them for strikes all night.

I was going to start writing today's blog praising Jose Bautista. He's quickly becoming my favorite player. Plus I sponsor his page at www.baseball-reference.com now.

Of course, this was in the first when he threw and absolute bullet to get Lopez at first. However then in the second inning he sailed a throw over LaRoche's head allowing the Johjima to take second with one out. You knew what was going to happen next as Beltre singled and weak throwing Bay commits an error allowing Beltre to take third. Ugh.

What's interesting is that this immediately reminded me of Tuesday's game when Richie Sexson botched the McLouth grounder on the hop at first allowing Nate to take second. The Bucs wound up scoring two runs that inning just like the Mariners did in the second last night. It really is amazing how important defense is to a team. Right before this Bob Walk was talking about how the Pirates have committed the 3rd least errors in the league. For all the faults this team has, defense is not one of them. Bautista, LaRoche, Wilson, Duffy are all very good fielders. Sanchez is a terrible defensive second basemen and Bay isn't great but those are the only two weak fielders on the team.

How the hell does Jack Wilson get picked off? He appeared to be surprised that Weaver even decided to throw over to first. He was caught flat footed and didn't even slide in. Bad momentary lapse of attention. I'd love to know if a hit and run was on or if Wilson was stealing.

To keep going with the Ichiro man crush...last night showed why he's the best player in baseball. It's the third inning; Mariners are up 2-0. Ichiro comes up with 1 out. He hits a soft ground ball to short, nothing special. Wilson bare hand's it and yet Ichiro beats the throw for an infield single. So now he's at first with Jose Lopez up. He goes on the very first pitch and steals second (not that Paulino had a chance as Maholm threw it into the ground). The count gets to 2-0 and Ichiro goes and steals third. He turned his little infield single into really, a one out triple. Lopez then grounds out and Ichiro scores to make it 3-0. Best player in baseball...tell me who is better? He might not hit the homeruns but he's an excellent fielder, he's got a cannon arm and he just creates runs.