Bud Norris Acts Like Chuck Norris; Astros Crush Pirates

The Pirates continued to struggle on the road and suffered a 9-1 loss to the Astros.  The Pirates have lost 30 of 35 and 12 in a row on the road.

Astros pitcher Bud Norris mowed down the Pirate hitters, just like he has opposing batters all year.  I mean, well…whatever.

Charlie Morton had another rough outing.  Yeh, yeh, yeh he was efficient.  Too many balls up in the zone for me.  Where is the stuff? 

The first inning is becoming the new eighth inning:  The Pirates have been outscored 22-1 in the first inning during the past five games.

Lynchburg was locked in a scoreless tie with Wilmington until the 12th inning when Ronald Uievdo gave up a two run walk off homerun to give Wilmington a 2-1 lead in the series.  Here is the box that highlights the solid pitching by starter Jeff Locke who pitches very well against Willimington in which during his last 17.2 IP he has allowed only 10 hits while striking out 17.

Reliever Noah Krol stayed hot with 2.1IP of hitless relief.  Ramon Aguero also caused some serious struggles for the Blue Rocks with three innings of hitless ball and five strikeouts. [Hillcats Website]

Team USA got a win today to even their record at 1-1. Todd Redmond took a perfect game into the seventh inning.  Pedro Alvarez was 1-for4 with an RBI.

China (0-2) is up today in the final game of the bracket play. [Team USA site]

Jack Buck says it very well…enjoy your weekend