Houston is the only NLCD team to not have a .500 or better record against division foes and as a result of their 4-1 loss to the Pirates Saturday, they have now claimed the cellar from the Pirates.

Matt Morris pitched six innings of four-hit baseball against a mostly flat Astros lineup until three Pirate relievers took over and tossed three shutout innings to close the door with Capps picking up his 13th save, and Morris his first Pirate win.

Bautista went yard twice for his first multi-home run day, Phelps added one of his own in the 9th, and the lone Astros run came after Morris allowed two singles in the 6th, Pence hit a rocket on the ground to Castillo but he bobbled it and his throw to first was late loading the bases, and Berkman then ground into a double play and Lee scored from third.

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Jack Wilson was spiked well up the right leg just below the knee by Ty Wigginton sliding well outside the second base bag trying to break up a double play in the 7th. Wiggy plays hard but he also plays dirty at times and considering his team wasn’t contending for anything more than a little pride, it was another low blow by Ty.

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Evidently third place is the Pirates goal as they believe they can pass the Reds down the stretch who are mashing even more than the Pirates are right now. Unfortunately for them, their pitching is suspect running a 6+ ERA out in August – third worst in MLB. The team with the poorest August ERA? The Brewers at 6.45 and one reason why the Pirates believe they can pass them as well having six games head to head against them.

Third place would be a moral victory of sort since it sounds good, but in reality it’s still pretty rank all things considered.

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Over the last 8 games Pirate pitching has a 3.19 ERA good for 5th best in MLB, are 7-1 which leads MLB, and have a 7.7 K/9 rate which is 6th best in MLB. Combine that with an offense scoring 6.6 runs per game fueled from an insane 159 total bases including 14 home runs and, well, you win a lot.

And the Pirates have done just that with their 15-9 record in August – a .625 clip – with 15 of the 24 games against contenders at the time.

The big picture is that we are 17-23 in the second half, have the 6th worst ERA overall, the 8th highest number of runs scored, and are -3 pythagorean wins off track. That means we are scoring runs in bunches when they aren’t needed, and not scoring runs at times when they were needed. Call it being somewhat unlucky.

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Salomon Torres was put on the 15-day DL with right elbow inflammation. Say goodbye to Mr. Torres – I doubt he’ll ever pitch again in a Pirates uniform.

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Trivia time from the Bradenton Herald:

Who is the long-time Bradenton, Florida, resident who suggested the Pittsburgh Pirates switch Tampa Bay Devil Rays nemesis Tim Wakefield from the infield to the mound after seeing him fool around with a knuckleball?

Yep – Woody Huyke.

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In college as a junior, senior, or graduate student majoring in Business Administration, Economics, Marketing, Sports Marketing, Accounting, Finance or related area? Need a job during the Fall semester?

The Pirates are looking for a Business Development Intern. Apply here.

Put two teams on the field that really couldn’t care less and you get a long, drawn out game with a few highlight plays mixed in.

The score was 2-1 Pirates into the 7th when Snell started at the 73 pitch mark, his 80th pitch he walked Lee to leadoff the inning, his 82cd pitch was hammered into left field for a double by Lamb, Scott then struckout, Loretta hit a groundball to Sanchez that scored Lee with Lamb taking third, and then Munson deposited Snell’s 96th pitch for a two-out rbi single scoring Lamb and giving the Astros the 3-2 lead.

The score remained the same until the 9th when Brad Lidge came on to close the game out and retired two straight before Nady came to the plate and hammered his third home run in his last four games at Minute Maid to tie the game at 3-3.

In the 10th the Astros threatened when they loaded the bases from a double, a sac bunt, and two walks but Chacon got Pence to strikeout, and Berkman ground out stranding all three. During the inning Tracy had the Bucs play a five-man infield and the Astros complained that Bautista, who was playing behind Chacon, was distracting the batter by moving around too much. The umps talked to him and that was that.

Castillo singled in the 12th, McLouth walked, and then Phelps hit a two-out bullet off Moehler’s foot for an infield single loading the bases, but Sanchez struckout swinging at two heaters above his eyes.

The Astros loaded the bases in the 13th as well but Capps stranded them.

Mercifully, the game ended when the Astros sent their sixth pitcher, Travis Driskill, to the mound one too many innings as Adam LaRoche crushed a splitter into the left field seats with two on in the 15th, Maldonado hit a sac fly scoring Bay, and Castillo singled scoring Bautista.

Youman threw two innings and 59 pitches, including a 33 pitch 15th, to take home the win. The Astros had threatened after a single, double, and a hit batter loaded the bases, but Youman struck out the next three batters to end the game.

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Salomon Torres remained in the dugout during the game and was unavailable for some reason.

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Remember Bob Wickman, the Braves closer at the start of the season? He was DFA’d by the Braves Friday after blowing his sixth save of the year Thursday against the Reds.

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Dave Littlefield decided to go see some of his draft picks Friday night and ended up in Lynchburg to watch a Hillcat’s doubleheader.

In the first game, Jean Garavito (undrafted free agent) tossed a three-hit shutout over two frames to extend his innings pitched mark this year to 108.2 which is +25 innings over 2006. Jose Diaz, the 20-year-old DSL phenom, then took the ball for the Cats and was manhandled to the tune of 12 runs off 10 hits in 4.1 innings.

Littlefield saw some of his draft picks muster just four hits and one run off undrafted free agent Rowdy Hardy in that game.

In the second game, Littlefield witnessed Wilmington throw a no-hitter at the Cats until the final inning when they managed two hits and one run.

Over the two-game set that Littlefield witnessed, the Cats scored two runs off six hits and have now lost eight straight.

Maybe Dave should stay away from the farm parks?

Just like 2006 where they mowed team after team down late, the Pirates are becoming the spoiler.

Having now won 9 of their last 14 games, the Pirates took the Rockies series winning three of four pushing them from contenders to pretenders. It was the first home series loss for the Rockies since May.

Paul Maholm pitched a very solid game needing just 89 pitches to complete seven frames scattering seven hits, allowing one run, and striking out five.

Over Maholm’s last 15 games and 100.1 innings of work, he is 8-7 with a 3.77 ERA, has allowed just 7 home runs, and averaged 6.2 innings on the mound. Oh, and 11 of the 15 games were against contenders at the time.

If you throw out the first five games of 2006 and 2007, Maholm is 16-18 in 46 starts with a 4.38 ERA and just 30 home runs allowed.

Wow.. that’s not too shabby for the sophomore pitcher.

Josh Phelps had a career high four-hit day with two of them going for rbi doubles against the Rockies young Franklin Morales who hadn’t pitched above Single-A until this year. Franklin was able to keep the rest of the Pirates lineup guessing but Phelps was locked and loaded, especially on Franklin’s changeup that needs a lot of work.

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Jeff Manto was on the radio Thursday with Bob Walk stating the he believes the Pirates recent run of success has to do with us waiting out opposing pitchers better and getting into more fastball counts before swinging. The only difference I could find is opposing pitcher stupidity trying to drill heaters middle-up to us lately.

In fact, we have seen more pitches per plate appearance in the second half but have a significantly worse winning percentage, so that blows one part of Manto’s theory out the door.

Here is a chart comparing the pitches per plate appearance (P/PA), runs per game (R/G), number of games played, and winning percentage in the first half to the second, wins vs losses, when we see equal to or less than the MLB average 3.77 pitches per inning in wins and losses as well as more than the MLB average, and a snapshot of August so far. All totals were before Thursday’s game:

Clearly, Pirate batters were doing a better job before the break even though they weren’t scoring many runs. As I said, the only difference in the wild 6+ runs per game we are scoring now is that opposing teams are throwing high heat down the pike at us and, the streaky bunch that we are, pretty much everyone’s seeing watermelons at the plate.

Sorry Mr. Manto.

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The Pirates continue to play well but the bottom line is they have allowed eight other teams to creep close to them and the Devil Rays in the cellar race.

I’d rather have the second pick in the draft next year than a bunch of wins in a meaningless year.

And for those of you who have been emailing me wondering if the Pirates could pull off winning the division, I’m guessing your odds of hitting the $300MM Lotto jackpot this week playing one card would be better than the Pirates winning the division.

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Joe Hardy started proceedings to divorce his new wife 23-year-old Kristin Georgi Hardy this week. Word has it Kristin kept Joe’s amorous side at bay until they were married and in their honeymoon suite following the marriage, Joe found out why her middle name is Georgi.

Kidding aside, I hear there has been a rush by single females at Penn State applying to work at Hardy’s Nemacolin Woodlands. I doubt Joe will ever have a hard time getting up in the morning. Oh – that’s bad.

Did you know that over the last 3 seasons, 435 of 442 days the Pirates AAA club at Indy has been at .500 or better?

Translation? The International League isn’t what it used to be or Trent Jewitt is the best manager on the planet.

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The Pirates head to Houston where we swept them earlier this year. Friday will be Albers vs Snell and the Astros are favorites in Vegas, although I can’t tell you why other than Snell is 1-6 in away games this year with his lone win coming against the Cards in April.

The Pirates beat everything on the ground the last time they faced Albers in April but ended up winning the game. He has a 7.02 ERA and 1.62 WHIP last three and has been torched giving up a .395 on base percentage. Snell has a 4.05 ERA and 1.40 WHIP last three with a .333 on base percentage allowed.

But Snell has been trying to prove that he is more than a big park home-based pitcher and in his last two away starts has allowed just five earned runs in twelve innings against Arizona and Philly. That’s pretty impressive considering the lineups those two teams have.

The Pirates are 1-7 in Snell’s last eight starts and the Astros are 13-5 their last 18 games as a home favorite in Vegas, so I think the Pirates are due for a downturn. We’ve been flying way over the radar too long – it can’t keep up and Houston is just the place for it all to come apart as the Pirates franchise has won only 14 games there in their last 56.

The Astros are going to throw one of their top prospects at us Saturday in Troy Patton which surprises me some because we normally wail AAA pitchers hard. Matt Morris will toe the rubber for the Pirates and remember pitching at Houston isn’t his best game. The same is true of Tony Armas who takes the ball Sunday for the Pirates and faces Wandy Rodriguez.

The free-swinging Pirates arrived at Coors Field Wednesday energized knowing soft tosser Josh Fogg was taking the mound and Mike Reilly would be behind home plate.

You see, of all the ballparks Fogg has more than 50 career innings pitched in, his highest home runs allowed per 9 innings (HR/9) had come at Coors at a 1.44 HR/9 rate. Plus, only one MLB umpire with 450 innings pitched behind the plate had allowed more than Reilly’s 1.23 HR/9 – Larry Vanover.

So when the game began, the Pirates sat comfortably in the batter’s box and waited for anything over the plate and swung for the stars. Nate McLouth and Jack Wilson went yard in the second, Xavier Nady in the third, McLouth again in the fourth, and Jason Bay, homerless since August 9th, topped the night off with one of his own in the fifth.

Overall, the Pirates banged out 17 hits, 6 home runs, and scored 11 runs in the game. And it could have been more.

Freddy Sanchez hit a line drive high off the right field wall in the first inning, Bay flew out twice to the warning track in right field, Paulino, Bautista, and McLouth hit deep fly balls that were all caught on the warning track in center, and Matt Holliday seemingly pulled a Bautista home run back into the park in the 8th.

The Pirates six home runs at Coors broke the franchise record of five set May 7, 1997, and was third highest total in franchise history, the 11 runs was the 5th highest run output ever at Coors for the Bucs, and our 17 hits pounded out was the 6th highest in franchise history at Coors.

Over the last 30 days the Pirates have plated 172 runs in 28 games (6.1 runs per game) – second best in baseball behind the Yankees.

Larry Vanover’s fate? He can rest easy knowing Mike Reilly’s ridiculous 1.29 HR/9 now leads all MLB umpires.

The Coor’s Field humidifier? It was probably thrown out the door with the Rockies playoff chance.

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The top of the Pirates order (McLouth, Bautista, and Sanchez) went ten for sixteen with six rbi’s, six runs scored, and hit three home runs in the game.

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It was McLouth’s first career multiple home run game since joining the Pirates and it was the first time this year his initial home run came when the Pirates were ahead in the game. All other eight home runs came when the game was tied or the Pirates were behind.

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Tom Gorzelanny was fatigued after the fourth and really labored to get out of the fifth. He was toast after 50 pitches as I’ve suggested he would be for the last two weeks and I honestly believe he should have already been shut down.

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There were several outstanding defensive plays turned in this game by the Pirates with Jack Wilson leading the way with numerous highlight reel plays made ranging far to his right.

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Doumit has been shelved as we expected he was going to be.

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John Van Benschoten’s game against the Toledo Mud Hens Wednesday was another fatigue thrown game as he tossed 34 pitches to get out of the second inning, 15 in the 3rd, 6 in the 4th, and then really labored hard in the 5th throwing 24 more (12 of 18 for balls at one point) before a strike out, throw out mercifully ended the inning.

Jordan Tata was dealing early and had seven strikeouts through the first four innings, including twice by McCutchen. Neil Walker looked a little bit more relaxed in the box and stroked a nice double and later had a single. Cutch went one for five with the hit being an rbi single in the 9th.

And guess what – Josh Sharpless actually threw an inning in relief and, not only did he not walk a batter, he tossed 14 of 16 pitches for strikes. That has to be a record for that young man.

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Man-oh-man – the Rangers won the first game of a doubleheader 30-3 with their seven, eight, and nine hitters (Saltalamacchia, Murphy, and Vazquez) going 13 for 19 with 16 rbi’s and 14 runs scored. Woooww.

All three sat the second game. Geez.. no doubt.

Tony Armas has earned $44,117 for each inning pitched in 2007 if he walks away tomorrow, and he’ll still rake in another quarter-million if the Pirates buyout his $5MM 2008 option.

So when Jim Tracy proudly announced three weeks ago:

"He didn’t just put his hands up and say, ‘I quit,’" Tracy said, lauding Armas’ ability to bounce back from a disastrous first three months of the season."

All you could do is ask why in the world would Armas quit Mr. Tracy when he makes more money in one game than the average Joe in the U.S. does in ten years of hard work?

Armas isn’t stupid – he’s not going anywhere unless Dave Littlefield sends him on his merry way, and that should have been done a long, long, time ago.

So Tuesday’s game opened with Colborn’s reclamation project taking the mound at Coors despite having his highest career batting average allowed and WHIP at that park (more than 10 innings at a park to qualify) and he was mauled as expected, couldn’t complete the 5th, and walked off the field dragging a 14.55 in-game ERA behind him.

Now the question becomes, is David Littlefield going to force Jim Tracy to start Armas in five days at Houston knowing he gets mauled there as well, or will Littlefield finally stick a fork in himself and release Armas? Flip-a-coin.. my bet is Armas starts and probably goes the rest of the year because we can’t afford to break anymore arms – except his.

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Wilson was held out of the lineup Tuesday night, Jurrjens pitched another good hand-picked start, Jim Leyland and Lloyd McClendon were in Toledo watching Andrew Miller pitch against the Indy Indians Monday night, and a rumor out of Toledo said Davidson was being showcased Monday.

All that has fueled speculation that the Tigers and Pirates are about ready to deal. I’m still not sure I believe it but we’ll see.

Joe Garagiola Jr. was at the Pirates/Rockies game Tuesday night. Hmm..

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Stick a fork in Chris Duffy – he’s probably played his last game in Pittsburgh as I mentioned was probably the case a week ago.

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I watched Bullington’s start Tuesday and I was pleased with his control. He’s getting fatigued late but that’s to be expected. It’s nice to see him throwing strikes. On the other hand, JvB is toast and needs to be shut down. I swear he looks like he is pitching through arm fatigue.

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I’m hearing there is a good chance Andrew McCutchen will be brought up in September. Evidently the Pirates have decided they have nothing to lose. If they start his clock in September, they won’t lose any time if they send him to AAA for 31 consecutive days at some point next year.

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Neil Walker hasn’t played third the last two games but has batted in the DH. I don’t know why the Pirates would promote him and then have him sit on the pine unless he was hurt. He was noticeably limping in Friday night’s game so maybe he’s sprained something. Who knows? I’ve emailed everyone and nobody has responded with the answer yet.

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The battle of the Pittsburgh beat writers continued Wednesday when the Post-Gazette reported Robert Nutting said he hasn’t conducted any interviews yet one day after John Perrotto reported Dan Duquette had already met with Nutting.

Who knows which of them is right, or what they mean. Stay tuned here – at least you won’t get caught up running in circles. LoL

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I promised you some video on McCutchen and that is below. The clip also shows Jurrjens pitching to one batter.

After the Pirates took the lead in the first with a Sanchez rbi single, the game turned to the Pirates defense behind Morris who was pitching a gem.

Still 1-0 Pirates into the bottom of the fourth, Helton golfed a flyball to Bautista in right who made the catch, the ball dropped out of his mitt when went to grab it, and first base umpire Andy Fletcher, long known for extremely poor calls in Jim Tracy games, called the catch a dropped ball and Helton made second.

Tracy passively argued but Fletcher just kept shaking his head knowing he saw that purple cow flying overhead. As you would guess, Hawpe later hit a flair single into left and Helton scored to tie the game.

The innings quickly passed by as Morris and Jiminez continued throwing well until the 6th when Atkins walked and Hawpe hit a routine double play groundball to LaRoche but he bobbled it and then recovered to get Hawpe. With a man at second and one out, Morris tightened his act up and struck out Spilborghs and Torrealba to strand Hawpe.

It was great stuff to see.

LaRoche ledoff the 7th with a rocket into the centerfield gap for a double and I thought we were on our way for a big inning. Unfortunately, Bay popped out, Bautista flied out, and Paulino ground out stranding LaRoche.

Morris got two quick outs in the 7th and then gave up a 3-1 home run to Tulowitzki to put the Rockies ahead. After Holliday crushed a line drive single, Tracy went to the pen and grabbed Grabow who tossed his first pitch at Helton’s head who ducked, the ball hit his bat, and the umpire called it a ball.

Nobody from the Pirates bench caught it, Paulino didn’t catch it, and Grabow didn’t catch it. Instead of an 0-1 count, Grabow had a 1-0 count and then painted two filthy sliders away on the corner for two quick strikes that should have been a strikeout. Instead, Helton clubbed a liner to right and Bautista made a nice diving play to catch the ball and then held it up as if to mock Fletcher.

That catch seemed to reignite the Pirates.

The Rockies sent LeRoy Hawkins to the mound in the 8th and with one out, Phelps pinch-hit for Morris and crushed a middle-in heater over the left field wall to tie the game.

Chacon took over in the 8th and retired six straight through the 9th and gave ground to Torres in the 10th. Tulowitzki hit a soft line drive to the left of Izturis and I quickly saw why my instincts had been questioning his range as the ball was halfway across the infield before Izturis even took a step and it landed for a single. Torres then struckout Holliday and on the pitch, Tulowitzki broke for second and Paulino threw him out. Marte came out and walked two before finding his arm slot and then got Carroll to fly out.

The Pirates opened the top of the 11th with Izturis walking, McLouth put down the funniest sac bunt you’ll ever see seemingly off his toe moving Izturis to second, and then Kata was hit in the left elbow with a pitch.

With men at first and second, Sanchez was at the plate with and one out when Fuentes seemed to balk in his delivery turning toward second and that caught Izturis leaning toward third, but nobody was at the bag to take his throw. Good thing because Sanchez then flared a soft liner into left and Izturis scored.

LaRoche grounded out and then Bay hit a groundball to Atkins at third and he bobbled it, then threw a low away toss to Helton who tried to glove it but the ball popped out of his mitt and Bay was safe with Kata scoring.

Capps came out and blew away the three he faced to save his 12th of the year.

Although the Pirates made some outstanding defensive plays in the game, they really weren’t sharp yet it didn’t hurt them like the blown call by Fletcher that eventually lead to a run for the Rockies that tied the game. On the other hand, the Rockies defense gave the game away late. How ironic is that?

Here’s a video recap of some of the plays:

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Matt Capps has now retired 21 of the last 24 batters faced. Wow.

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I emailed Branch Rickey III and asked him whether he might consider the Pirates CEO position if asked and he politely responded with "No Comment". However, I spoke with a few others around him and the consensus thought is that he would be a better candidate to replace Bud Selig one day than to become the Pirates next CEO.

Obviously I knew that, but I wanted to at least check with him knowing he is by far and away the best CEO candidate around the game with his leadership skills.

So scratch off Joe Garagiola Jr. and now Branch Rickey III, plus Walt Jocketty is all but sure to not have an interest, be my best guess, not that we’d really want him wearing Black-and-Gold anyway.

The club level names left are Pat Gillick, Brian Sabean, Tony LaCava, and Gene Michaels, and I often wonder if longshots Terry Ryan or John Schuerholz might step up.

There have been other "out there" names like Jack Zduriencik (no track and little success), Al Avila (just an off the wall pick), Larry Lucchino (do we really want him in Pittsburgh?), Jeremy Kapstein (good stock but the wrong setting), Dan Duquette (not another Littlefield clone.. Puh-lease..), and Jim Duquette (about as funny as Zduriencik), but for many different reasons they don’t fit.

I just hope Nutting remembers the old Cheech and Chong movie where Chong keeps saying "Dave? Dave who? Dave’s not here man." Dombrowski is not a name I’m wanting to hear either.

(edit — Perrotto reported this morning that Dan Duquette was interviewed by Nutting. Good Lord – all we need is a has-been who has been out of the game for the last five years taking control. Uggghhh. We need to keep a running tally: "Yes Men" Interviewed = 1, "Real Deals" Interviewed = 0.)

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Cutch was 3-5 last night. I’ll put together a nice video of some of his at bats for you to see over the next few days.