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Phillies 6, Pirates 5.

If you had to pick one play that put the Phillies over the top, I suppose you would look at Sanchez being out of position in the third on Burrell’s two-out line drive single to Bay. Burrell started to hold up after he rounded first and then looked at second and found that Sanchez had vacated the bag - so he basically walked to second. It was Bixler’s relay to get and he was in proper position but, for whatever reason, Sanchez ran all the way over to position himself between Bixler and third.

Coste then smoked a sharp ground ball to Bixler that went off his glove and Burrell scored. To be fair to Bixler, I doubt Wilson even makes that play. But the point is, all things being equal, Burrell would have been stranded at third if Sanchez had held the bag on Burrell’s single.  Unfortunately for Duke, he was charged with an earned run that obviously wasn’t a credible earned run.

The tempo of this game was established in the first inning when Duke wasn’t getting his away paints called strikes from home plate ump Paul Nauert. Duke ended up walking both Werth and Utley before Doumit and Duke got on the same page as Nauert, but that was too late.

Coste then hammered a line drive double to left center, Werth scored, and the Bay-to-Bixler-to-Doumit relay to get Utley at the plate was missed by Doumit on a close play. If Doumit holds the ball, Utley would have probably been out as Bixler’s throw was perfect. But like I mentioned last year with Paulino, a ball bouncing ten feet in front of the plate with a big man coming down the line at full speed at you is a very hard play to make for any catcher - but it’s one that needs to be made consistently. We didn’t execute and that may have cost a run. I say may because it would have been bang-bang.

But make no mistake about it, Duke was hammered all day as he usually is. Doumit’s dropped relay, Bixler’s dropped sharp ground ball, Mientz got eaten up with a hammered ground ball he should have got a glove on, Sanchez out of position allowing Burrell a bag, and the early walks learning the umpire’s zone, all hurt us.

What a day Nady had at the plate - 2 for 4 with three rbis. He is aggressively attacking the zone early this year and hitting offspeed stuff as well as heaters. It’s a remarkable change from what we have seen from the X-man the last year or two where he sat on only heaters and drove them.

Doumit and Bixler also went 2 for 3 but it was Nady’s 5th inning two-out two rbi single that got the Bucs within one run. But John Russell and the Pirates failed to execute when they had opportunities from that point on and it hurt.

McLouth led off the 7th with a walk and Sanchez attempted to bunt on the first pitch but didn’t get it down, then ended up flying out to center leaving McLouth at first. It was Sanchez’s job to move McLouth there but he didn’t get it done. Bay flied out as well but he’s our big bat so it’s hard to fault him for driving a pitch he liked that didn’t move the runner.  McLouth may never have scored had Sanchez executed but, then again, who knows. It was a fundamental mistake by Russell not ordering the bunt, imo.

In the 8th Bautista walked with two outs and I immediately wondered if Morgan was going to run for him because Romero was on the mound who has an exaggerated leg kick in the stretch. This was the time to use speed to, not only to upset Romero’s thinking on the mound, but to try and get to second with a steal. At least, that’s what I thought but Russell kept Bautista out there for some reason.

Bixler then hit a slow grounder to third he hustled down the line and beat out that left Bautista at second, and Paulino ground out to short to end the threat.

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It was nice to see the Bucs battle back but it was too little, too late - they were too far in the hole. The Phillies pen has been lights out this year but many of the guys in their pen are very hittable (Durbin, Romero, Lidge, etc).

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Gorzy, Morris, Snell, and now Duke have all had problems with strike zone calls the last few games resulting in a lot of walks.  Part of that problem is unquestionably the way Ryan Doumit receives the ball - he stabs to catch it instead of letting the ball come to him some of the time. He also has a bad habit of having his glove upside down when he receives some pitches and I think that’s throwing off the umpires as well.

You have to wonder if Duke got the paints in the first inning with Werth and Utley if this game might have had a lot different tone?

And I think it’s fair to ask if Paulino had caught 95% of the games so far if our rotation would still be the worst in baseball?  It’s true our better relievers (Yates, Grabow, Capps, Marte) aren’t being influenced by either catcher, but they are primarily heat throwers which typically aren’t influenced by a catcher’s ability.

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MLB Rules 10.12 “An error is a statistic charged against a fielder whose action has assisted the team on offense…”

Obviously Sanchez couldn’t be called for an error on Burrell’s hit under the MLB Rules as we know them, but he should have been.

I assume long time Pittsburgh Pirates official scorer Tony Krizmanich is still in the box this year and I’m starting to wonder, perhaps much like Clint Hurdle last year, if Krizmanich is going blind.

Another interesting note is the number of called errors against the Pirates that have been later changed. For instance, in the first inning Doumit was charged with an error on dropping Bixler’s relay that allowed Coste to go second to third. But after Coste was stranded, Krizmanich removed the error.

An error is an error is an error.

If you remember last year, we had so many errors on the diamond that weren’t called it started to become a running joke by July. Even simple errors weren’t called like a ground ball right to Jack Wilson who flubbed it and the hitter was given a single on a sure out.

If indeed Krizmanich is still the official scorer, he’s making a mockery of the game in Pittsburgh, imo. It was obvious Hurdle had enough of him last year when Krizmanich charged Helton with two errors in one game - the first time in Hurdles six year managerial career an official scorer wouldn’t even talk to him - and, as you might expect, MLB reversed both of Krizmanich’s decisions.

Too much bias, not enough objectivity. He’s throwing the game off.

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What is it now, 36 walks allowed last seven games and 16 of them have scored?  That’s a .47 base run state on walks allowed that is usually around .32 in Pittsburgh. It will come down over time, but still, that’s very, very high.

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Andrew McCutchen is on fire having gone 16 for his last 44 (.364) with ten of the sixteen hits going for extra bases, has a career high 13 game hitting streak, and readers keep asking me why he isn’t in Pittsburgh.

Out of all of McCutchen’s tools, his bat has never been questioned.  He’ll hit MLB pitching - you can go to the bank on that. 

But Pittsburgh isn’t the place for the young man right now - for several reasons.  One, Cutch still has a lot of vulnerability at the plate he needs to work through; and two, he’s learning how to run better routes which, if he has had any faults in his young career, that would be it.  He’s simply not up to speed defensively for Pittsburgh’s center field yet and probably won’t be for quite awhile. I’m guessing unless the Pirates get desperate, he’ll probably get a September call up but that’s about it.

I mean, why start his clock in a meaningless year?  Throw in the fact even Huntington doesn’t know the kind of stock he’ll get in return for some of his trades (1A? 2A? MLB ready?) as the year goes on and, well, the timing just isn’t right.

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Speaking of timing, if Huntington was ever going to deal Nady, NOW is the time considering his injury history and the fact he’s on fire.

Now would also be a great time to drop a “an undisclosed team is interested in Nady” trade rumor in the press since he’s got the attention of a few clubs.

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