Just when you think you're out, they drag you back down again.
Joe Torre sits out five of his starters for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Paul Maholm, slated to make four and a half million dollars next year, is on the mound and while he gives up a run in the first inning, and from the radio play by play, it sounds as if he's throwing strikes and pitching well. Garrett Jones is due up in the bottom of the first and we all know what he does in his first at bat. The team has got to have momentum.
As the game does on, Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley doesn't pitch particularly well. He walks four batters in 5 1/3 innings, has bases loaded in the fourth, and had already gone over 100 pitches in the fifth. You'd think a third win in a row to match the opening of the Pirates' 2007 season was in the bag.
So, what happens? Let's not discuss it. Still, as Meatloaf once opined, "two out of three ain't bad," and as Andrew McCutchen told reporters: "We won the series."
True enough, and now they're on their way to Arizona to play the Diamondbacks who also won their opening series against the Padres. Charlie Morton, 5-9 last year, will take the mound. In his last spring training start he gave up one run on five hits in six innings against the Twins. Rodrigo Lopez goes for the home team. He was 3-1 last year with a 5.70 ERA. So despite the fact that the Buccos were 1-6 against the Diamondbacks last year, there is hope.
The trouble is that losing 10-2 is a downer. The bullpen has worked hard in the last two games. The Pirates left a lot of men on base. The defense hasn't always been what it should. Even the weather has turned crummy, in Pittsburgh at any rate. One can only hope and as that great philosopher Monty Python used to say, "always look on the bright side of life."
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