One hour to first pitch …
Game: Pirates (48-43) vs. Houston Astros (30-63)
Time: 7:05 p.m.
Site: Minute Maid Park, Houston
TV, radio: Root Sports, News Talk 104.7 FM
Weather: 87 degrees … but there’s a roof
Here is the official live box score, and here are the lineups …
Pirates:
- Alex Presley, LF
- Chase d’Arnaud, SS
- Neil Walker, 2B
- Andrew McCutchen, CF
- Lyle Overbay, 1B
- Garrett Jones, RF
- Brandon Wood, 3B
- Mike McKenry, C
- Paul Maholm, LHP
Astros:
- Michael Bourn, CF
- Angel Sanchez, 3B
- Jeff Keppinger, 2B
- Hunter Pence, RF
- Carlos Lee, 1B
- Jason Michaels, LF
- Clint Barmes, SS
- Humberto Quintero, C
- Bud Norris, RHP
Rob Biertempfel has news updates from Houston on the Bucco Blog.
Dueling lineups–Harrison or Wood at 3rd? Seen two with Wood and this one with Harrison.
92 locations represented in the blog
7/16/2011 6:31 PM
I’d like to see Wood get some time
Lunatics, please sign in if you are a first time poster or not sure if your home town is in the ledger
Lets Go Bucs!!
STILL delirious! Let’s go BUCS!!
I’m for Wood seeing some more ABs as well. I like having the possibility of my 3B hitting one out. We don’t get that from J-Hay. Biz , I’m in Mackay, Australia – think you missed that last time.
Hey Bizrow – you can add Rogers, Arkansas to the list.
I live in the middle of orioles and ravens country. Severn Md. What I like about Harrison is that he plays hard and gets the most out of what he has to offer. But I’ve seen Wood drive the ball on occasion. You expect power from that position. I can understand why Wood is playing. Too bad Wood can’t play first.
Okay, so now I am STOKED!!
I got done with my run and showered and realized I WANT TO GO PLAY THE BREWERS!
This means the Death Spiral is going to start – I am officially jinxing them unintentionally – but I actually got excited about playing the Brewers.
God, I want to go in and beat the hell out of them…and maybe we can.
Not a great 1st–1st and 3rd with 1 out , 4 and 5 hitter up and nothing.
Wow, thanks folks
Three more places added
Man did we get one there with Maholm
DK- your lineup shows Correia pitching. Just saying…..
@Patton: Thanks. Was too distracted by all the dumb things the Astros are doing.
One gets the feeling those early stranded runners will hurt.
Dejan is listing tomorrow’s pitcher… CD is looking ahead to Brewers..
Clint Hurdle preaches ‘this game, this moment.’ You two need to knock it off and get the karma back on tonight’s game.
Bucs down 3-0 top 3rd… let’s go!
Not scoring runs those first two innings is now hurting, but it was foreshadowing the typical Paul Maholm offense seems to be showing up. Paul is now giving up runs, so this does not bode well. Still time to score some, but those two innings hurt. Let’s get some runs here.
‘Scuse me… top of 4th…
I think they’ll get a few runs off of Norris. Maholm just has to hold the ‘Stros here.
Dinger for Walker! Go Bucs!
Jeez. Maholm’s pitch ‘spray’ looks like an octopus on Pence’s at-bat…
We need this one, not a good start by Maholm, but we are in this game, IMHO
Did I just see that? Overbay homers! Bucs down one…
WOODS HR! Back 2 back! Tie game!
New ballgame now! Let’s get some more!!!
Boom. 3B with some POP
McKenry double! Bats come alive!
Big night for Mikey. Great hit there, and no outs. Let’s get it done.
Here we go!
That’s the kind of ball that 1st place teams play!!!!!
That’s the way Neal!!!
Walker 4 for 4! Bucs lead!
Great inning! Three dingers by the Bucs tonight.
Cards 4, Reds 1 bottom seventh
D-Cutch on the mound… let’s get Paulie a win.
Maholm 3.06 ERA
I am so pleased with the offense tonight – Overbay and Wood coming through – especially with Presley not coming through and Maholm missing the bunts.
And we have a better pen than the Cards…
We are in position to win with mediocre pitching.
Please NH, no adding idiots…we are doing great!
And Rockies up 3-0 on the beer creators.
McKenry has his BA over .260 now.
Reds threatening, bottom of 8th. Another comeback?
Reds blow it…
Carpenter through 8
Now we gotta get through 8
We control our own destiny!!!
Go get him Clint…
Out!!! Maybe?
Leadoff walks are killers. Did Veras even check Pence before he stole third?
uh oh…
C’mon… DP ball…
Bad Veras
Cards 4, Reds 1 Final
Hmmmm. Will this strike fear in the Astros? 0 homers and 20 rbis are what’s left on our bench tonight.
Good News: Brewers lost!
Bad News…
Steve Pearce at SS in Indy right now. Dude is versatile. Can’t wait to get him back to the Burgh. Yes, I really mean that.
oh well, we’ll get ‘em tomorrow
Ok, just saw the replay. Pence was O U T!
Poorly played 8th, again. Pirates have given up more runs in 8th than any other inning.
Bad night for bullpen.
Back at ‘em tomorrow!
Yup. Replay shows Pence clearly out at home.
Ump doesn’t blow the call, that’s 2 outs, runner on first. Maybe Veras settles down instead and gets the 3rd out without giving up any runs. Though from Gameday it looked like he was having a rough night, and walking Pence to start off the inning didn’t help the cause at all.
Which replay showed Pence definitely to be out? I didn’t see one.
The one I was watching from Gameday. Mc got him on the back before his leg hit the plate.
Of course, slowing down vs. watching it at game speed, it’s easy to see it. But no, I don’t want to allow replay any more than it’s already being used.
Holy flashback, Batman! Tonight’s game seemed more worthy of last year’s Pirate team: lack of clutch hitting, a couple oh-for 5′s, untimely errors, and a bullpen implosion. We were so crisp last night, and so not crisp tonight.
Even playing poorly, we were about an inning away from pulling out a win we didn’t really deserve. We won’t be in many games where our leadoff hitter and cleanup guy go a combined 0 for10.
Milo Hamilton said he thought Pence was out after looking at the replay
FWIW, he did look out to me, but only after slowing it down to a frame by frame. No way an ump behind the play sees that. Instant replay might not have even overruled it. But he was out. Oh well, gotta overcome those things, and tonight we did not.
Pence never touched the plate until his hand hit it. He was out. Look at it again. He started his slide late. Neither foot hit home. Either way, too close to call.
Whether Pence was out or not doesn’t matter now. Tomorrow’s another day another game. Let’s get the series.
Bucs have to make hay against these bottom feeders or they won’t be able to hang and compete for the division. Schedule has been soft for a couple weeks and they continue to give games away.
The difference between last year and this year is I feel down this morning over the way the game went last night.
Here’s a link to highlights of last night’s game. Watch the Pence run, and they show clearly the tag on the shoulder before he touches the plate.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_07_16_pitmlb_houmlb_1&mode=wrap
Let’s hope the ump took a look at the replay after the game last night, realizes he got it wrong, and gives us the benefit of the doubt on a close one today.
Sometimes, as much as I love to see whether they got it right or not and then get upset with them when they blow one against my team, I wish instant replay would just go away. Yes, they should have the films so they can rate the umps/refs, but otherwise for the most part all it does is get us upset(or happy when a blown call goes our way) and doesn’t change the end result.
Kevin
The schedule has been soft and they continue to give games away? Not sure what team you’ve been watching, Slick. They won the last series against the Cubbies, Stros, Toronto and Boston, and split with the Nats. And this with 5 of the starting lineup on the DL.
Sorry, 4 (unless Doumit and Snyder count as 2).