Pirates pitcher Salomon Torres gave up a home run to Cardinals Chris Duncan in the ninth inning Wednesday at PNC Park.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Before lunch time yesterday, or barely 12 hours after the Pirates had silver-plattered another PNC Park victory for the St. Louis Cardinals (who are now 37-15 here, if you've lost count), there was floated a general if tenuous agreement that a lineup with the talented Jose Bautista batting eighth represented demonstrable offensive aptitude.
About four hours after that, when the Cardinals had completed a sweep in a sad little baseball game best metaphorically remembered for the customer who took part of a broken bat right in the coconut behind the Pirates' dugout and had to be wheeled away, the notion that Jim Tracy's team was a potential scoring machine just waiting to be cleared for takeoff was still pretty much a matter of faith.
In the 3-2 loss yesterday, not to be confused with the 3-2 loss Tuesday night or the 3-0 snoozapalooza Monday, Tracy left slumping first baseman Adam LaRoche on the bench with lower back stiffness, left slumping catcher Ronnie Paulino in the dugout in deference to his three innings of overtime the night before, and still, just about everywhere you looked, golden slumpers filled your eyes.
Defending National League batting champ Freddy Sanchez showed again the effects of a painful spring by demonstrating how he could strike out on three pitches as well as strike out after being ahead in the count 3-0. Jack Wilson popped up with Chris Duffy on third with a one-out triple in the third, flied out with the bases loaded in the fourth, and flied out again with the score tied and two runners on in the eighth. Jason Bay walked three times, but tapped weakly into an inning-ending force play in his only other plate appearance with runners in scoring position.
"We're waiting on our offense," Tracy said plainly. "That's what's holding us up."
It might have looked to some as though the manager had tired of waiting in the fourth, when starting pitcher Paul Maholm eschewed the bunt with a couple of runners on, instead slugging a line drive center fielder Jim Edmonds had to run down 330 feet from the plate.
"The bunt was on," Maholm explained, "but I saw them crashing and just tried to hit it up the middle. If I bunt it, I probably bunt into a force out."
Asked if he was surprised his liner didn't get over Edmonds' head, the pitcher didn't hesitate.
"Naw," he smiled. "I don't have that kind of pop."
Maybe not, but that's not exactly making him conspicuous right now.
In 30 quiet innings against the pitching-suspect Cardinals, the Pirates scored in exactly four of 'em, never more than once. They're 3 for their past 19 with runners in scoring position.
But for all that, thanks mostly to pitching that has been fairly exemplary, some part of the 9,959 ticket-holders might still have gone happily into the cold spring rain but for the fraction of an inch Brad Eldred was just not far enough ahead of a Russ Springer fastball with the bases loaded in the seventh. Tracy estimated the resultant third out traveled 408 feet, and Eldred knew that had he pulled it just a sniff, four score and we're all likely writing about something else.
"That pitch was away, and I still tried to pull it," Eldred said with evident dissatisfaction. "I hit it pretty good and it carried, but then the elements come into play on a day like today and, of course, that's the biggest part of this park."
Cardinals left fielder So Taguchi ran Eldred's towering drive down near the North Side Notch, but that was as close as the big right-handed banger really got to a stable at-bat in five plate appearances.
He took a 71 mph curveball for a called third strike after swishing on a 69 mph change from St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright in the second, hit a 2-2 pitch all of six feet in front of the plate and into a forceout in the fourth, and tapped out weakly in two other at-bats sandwiched around his would-be grand slam.
"Not real happy with any of them," Eldred said. "That called third strike I thought was high, but, otherwise, I was a little jumpy up there. I normally try to drive the ball left-center to right-center, but today it seemed I was trying to pull everything."
Eldred probably isn't going to get a lot of at-bats with LaRoche and Nady playing his positions, so he can be forgiven for being a bit overanxious in the batter's box. Whatever it is that's ailing everyone else except Chris Duffy at this point isn't quite so forgivable.
Much like its beginning, the end of this opening home series wasn't exactly magical, but, as always, any day the Cardinals leave town is a good one.
(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.)
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