Pirates' poor baserunning control costly again
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The Cubs' Marlon Byrd slides hard into third base, where Pirates starter Dana Eveland was covering during a rundown in the third inning. Some dirt got into Eveland's eye and, coincidence or not, Eveland later hit Byrd with a pitch. -
Lastings Milledge scores the Pirates' only run June 7, 2010 in the bottom of the seventh inning. -
Pirates first baseman Garrett Jones waits for a throw from pitcher D.J. Carrasco in an attempt to catch Alfonso Soriano off base in the top of the sixth inning. -
The Pirates' Andrew McCutchen watches a ball he hit for a triple in the eighth inning. -
Pirates pitcher Jack Taschner throws. -
Pirates pitcher Dana Eveland untangles himself from the Cubs' Marion Byrd. -
The Pirates' Andrew McCutchen flies out to Cubs left fielder Alfonso Soriano with bases loaded in the fifth inning. -
The Pirates' Garrett Jones walks back to the dugout after striking out against Cubs pitcher Sean Marshall during the ninth inning. -
Cubs left fielder Alfonso Soriano runs in to the outfield wall after failing to run down an eighth-inning triple by the Pirates Andrew McCutchen. -
The Cubs' Ryan Theriot scores on a first-inning sacrifice fly to center field by the Cubs' Jeff Baker. -
Pirates pitcher Dana Eveland throws in the first inning.
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Dana Eveland's debut?
Blah.
The atmosphere at PNC Park for the Pirates' 6-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs, a Monday matinee that served as a rainout makeup?
Double-blah.
The home team's controlling of the opponents' running game?
Well, that one deserves all kinds of blahs -- and blame -- at this point.
The Cubs stole three bases with Jason Jaramillo behind the plate, took two more on wild pitches -- including, remarkably, one on a pitchout by Joel Hanrahan that zipped under Jaramillo's glove -- and yet another on an errant throw by Jaramillo. That was a total of six bonus bases, four of them leading to runs.
Game: Pirates vs. Washington Nationals, 7:05 p.m., Nationals Park.
TV, radio: FSN Pittsburgh and MLB Network, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Pitching: RHP Jeff Karstens (1-1, 4.50) vs. RHP Stephen Strasburg (major-league debut).
Season series: First meeting. Pirates won last year, 5-3.
Key matchup: Catching up with Strasburg's heat and keeping cool amid the hype, of course.
Of note: After a stirring start, Washington, which had the only record in the majors worse than the Pirates last year, has lost seven of the past nine to drop from first to last in the East Division.
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The previous day, San Francisco stole five bases with Ryan Doumit behind the plate, took two more on wild pitches -- though one of those might easily have been called a passed ball -- and another on an errant throw by right fielder Garrett Jones. That was a total of eight bonus bases, three of them leading to runs, including the Giants' winning run in the 10th.
Grand total: 14 bonus bases in two days, and two fundamentally ugly losses.
So, is it the pitchers or the catchers?
"It's both," manager John Russell said. "We're not being very quick to the plate. If you throw above a 1.5 to the plate, it's going to be tough to throw anybody out. Left-handers, if you're not trying pickoffs, chances are they're going to steal a base. We've got some things to work on and try to tighten that up, obviously."
First Published June 8, 2010 12:00 am
