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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

PIT Post-Gazette: Pirates’ split foils streak, bid for .500

And the Pirates… fell just short of finding the franchise’s holy grail of a .500 record, settling for a doubleheader split yesterday with the Atlanta Braves, a 5-0 shutout and an 8-1 loss.

The opener, highlighted by another quality start from Zach Duke and a bases-clearing double by Freddy Sanchez, brought a six-game winning streak, the Pirates’ longest in four years.
...
Will another chance [at .500] come? To be quite sure, this group sounded optimistic, partly because of the 6-1 homestand just completed, partly because they had taken three of four from an Atlanta team that carried its own six-game winning streak into this series ...

“Things are really different,” center fielder Nate McLouth said. “Not to look at the past, but how many times around here have we looked back at that one point where we could have gone above .500 and didn’t? That’s not going to be the case here. We’re right there. Look at where we were a week ago and how we’ve played since then.”

The Pirates came home from Washington 12-17.

NTNgod Posted: May 13, 2008 at 12:07 AM | 3 comment(s)
Related News: General, Atlanta, Pittsburgh

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1. Greg Schuler Posted: May 13, 2008 at 07:58 AM (#2778706)

It's probably just a coincidence, but the Pirate winning streak happened to coincide with a 54-inning errorless streak that was ruptured yesterday in a big way. Decent starting pitching, a few hits and not giving away outs - can you really win that way? Shocking.

Then again, every season the Pirates have a mini-hot streak like this and everyone always gets excited about it. And inevitably, the Pirates sinks back to the mean of their ability.

2. zonk Posted: May 13, 2008 at 08:45 AM (#2778725)

I think there's a shot that the Pirates might be an 80 win team. I wouldn't lay money on it, but their OF is producing. Doumit taking the lion's share of ABs behind the plate means that Jack Wilson/Brian Bixler is the only real vortex of suck (Bautista isn't THIS bad).

Capps is decent enough and the Bucs have certainly had worse rotations.

I don't think they're a contender, and with supposedly ready replacements in the minors -- they still ought to look at at dealing Nady...

For the first time in years, I think it's entirely legitimate to say that the Pirates aren't the worst team in the NL on paper and real good argument can be made that they're not even in the running.

3. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin (Vlad) Posted: May 13, 2008 at 09:58 AM (#2778769)

I think you underestimate the fragility of the rotation, Zonk. Gorz is pitching like he's hurt, Duke has more BB than K, the fifth spot is an absolute disaster, and there's literally no depth in the upper minors.

I do agree that the offense has looked strong so far, but I don't think that should stop them from trading Bay and Nady at the deadline, if there are decent offers on the table.

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

PIT Post-Gazette: Pirates’ split foils streak, bid for .500

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