Boxscore

Pirates starter Phil Dumatrait again put his former team in last place, this time without even playing them.

Dumatrait went 5 2/3 innings, allowing 2 runs for the win, thanks in large part to a 5 run fourth inning. Those do tend to help with the winning. Jason Bay contributed two RBI to the cause, continuing his resurgent year at the plate.

How long before Bay’s traded? He’s about the only chip the Pirates have to bring in fresh blood. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to do it before all the other crappy teams flood the market with players.

Randy Johnson goes for the snakes this afternoon, matching up with Zach Duke at 12:25pm EDT.

Boxscore

Wandy Rodriguez made his second start after a stint on the DL and seemed to be closer to his usual self. So often a pitcher’s first start after being activated stinks, and Rodriguez was no exception. Last night, however, he threw 6 innings of shutout ball against the Pirates.

The Astros have a slumping offense, and a dominant pitching performance was just what they needed to help them win on just two runs.

The Pirates got another good start out of Phil Dumatrait, but the team also had no offense. Who would have guessed the game would be a pitching duel?

There’s a chance tonight’s game will be another low-scoring affair, at least for one side, when Roy Oswalt starts against Zach Duke at 7:05pm EDT.

We haven’t had time to podcast since our 100th. And with RHM being out of town on business this week, it wasn’t looking good, but I cranked up the old recording studio and took a shot at recording a solo effort.

It’s short (that’s what she said) because I discovered quickly that I suck by myself. Amanda makes it sound easy, that’s for sure.

At any rate, enjoy a few short minutes of me rambling about the state of the NLC. Hopefully, we’ll get the podcast back on track again next week.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Boxscore

The adaptive Cardinals used primarily small-ball tactics and defense to defeat the Pirates. They took advantage of five singles and a walk to score 5 runs. Then their defense and pitching made sure it held up.

St. Louis has been successful this year, taking what their given. Some days they have the home runs flying, sometimes it’s a low-scoring, pitching duel, and some days, like yesterday, they turn singles into runs. A team that follows either a small-ball or 3-run home run strategy is far too one-dimensional to do well, as the homer happy Reds have proved over the past few years.

The two teams close out their series tonight at 8:15pm EDT, with Tom Gorzelanny pitching for the Pirates and Adam Wainwright for the Cardinals.

Boxscore

Dusty Baker showed that he continues to favor Corey Patterson when he started him over Jay Bruce last night. It’s–wait, Patterson was sent to AAA? And Bruce started?

Surely, Bruce plummeted to earth after his impossible to live up to first major league start of his career. I mean, no one–oh, he went 1 for 3 with 2 walks. I see. But he made two outs! Aha! That’s fallibility if ever I saw it!

So the Pirates finally managed to record an out against Jay Bruce last night, proving that he is slightly human. It took them a long time to record three against the Reds in the first inning, though, not accomplishing that feat until two pitchers had been used and 6 runs had scored. Even with Bronson Arroyo pitching on short rest, the Pirates didn’t have much of a chance after that.

The new-look, starting-to-make-sensible-choices Reds won, wresting fifth place from Pittsburgh, thanks to Arroyo, the ex-Pirate. Tonight, an ex-Red tries to grab fifth place back when Phil Dumatrait faces Aaron Harang at 7:10pm EDT.