2012 Pittsburgh Pirates Season Thread

[Witlon]

Opening day in Pittsburgh has begun.

Tied at 0 through the 4th, with Erik Bedard facing Roy Halladay.

Bedard has been solid, working the outside corner nicely with his 87-91 MPH fastball, and backdoor breaker.

[love_that_reefer]

Not able to watch the game but have been checking in on MLB Network. Looks like a game I want to see.

[Witlon]

Awesome ovation for Nate McLouth as he makes his return to Pittsburgh, pinch hitting with 1 on, two outs in the 8th against Halladay.

So of course...he strikes out. Same old Natey.

[Witlon]

Halladay is done after 8, so the Pirates have a chance facing Papelbon here in the 9th, down 1-0.

[Witlon]

Tough loss for the Buccos on opening day, dropping one to the fighting Halladay's 1-0.

Everything was pretty good; Bedard, Cruz, and to the lesser extent, Resop. And I can't blame the offense for not getting something done against two pitchers making a combined $30,000,000 this season, so that's not much of a problem.

2 hits though, both in the first...frustrating. Back on Saturday, with a Gameday, perhaps.

[love_that_reefer]

Yeah, tough loss that came to a play at the plate. Tabata's throw was a little high but that's baseball. I will say I didn't like seeing Barajas was hitting 6th.

[Witlon]

Seperating the lefties(Jones and K-dro), I suppose. Or maybe, he had a track record against Halladay. (Didn't show it on the ROOT broadcast, and I don't feel like looking it up.)

[love_that_reefer]

Let Barmes split them up if that's the case.

[Witlon]

AJ Burnett's rehab start stats...4.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K in Bradenton.

From all reports, he looked good and he's be back in about two weeks.

[love_that_reefer]

Another win for the Buccos! Good starting pitching so far. It was good to see Alvarez go deep. Maybe he can relax a little getting that first one out of the way.

[Witlon]

Big win on Saturday, with Karstens stalemating Cliff Lee, and Pressley winning it with a walkoff infield single in the 10th.

And then a huge comeback(down 4-1), to win on Sunday behind big RBI's by Casey McGehee, Matt Hague, Jose Tabata and the game winner by Andrew McCutchen.

And yeah, Pedro homered. It was 2-1 pitch, that really wasn't even as good as the 2-0 he pushed foul. Don't know how to explain Pedro, at all.

[zodious]

The question is can they sustain this this year? They start hot every year, then fizzle our after April...

[Witlon]

I'm fine with fourth this year, with a big step forward next year. I just don't think the pitching can sustain more than 100 games.(Just like last year, really).

I don't see us trading for a Ryan Ludwick or anything this year, though.

[zodious]

You sure? As a reds fan we'll give you him back for say, an Andrew Mccutchin...

[love_that_reefer]

Pirates didn't fizzle til after the AS break last season. I think they are a deeper team this season but do see them staying in 4th place.