Pittsburgh Pirates: Don’t Destroy James McDonald

James McDonald is turning into an effective starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, the right hander finds a way to pitch effectively.  It’s been enjoyable to watch and he usually has saved his best outings for PNC Park.  But he had one for the New York faithful (nice crowd) last night as McDonald threw eight scoreless innings and allowed just five hits against the Mets.

We sent a tweet that we had seen enough in the seventh inning.  The reason why was McDonald looked uncomfortable after throwing a changeup that sailed high for ball one.  We took the screen shot because he just didn’t seem right a few pitches earlier.

Heh, what the hell do I know because McDonald toughed it up and got through the inning.  And another.  His velocity was at 91 after the Searage visit, so the kid is tough.   He seemed to favor that arm later in the eighth.  I just trust it wasn’t anything more.

The main reason I wanted to see him gone was he has thrown some serious pitch counts for several games in a row.  By my count since August 5, McDonald has thrown  89, 107, 109, 103, 98, 98, 108, and 100 last night against the Mets.  It shouldn’t be a big deal, but when I saw him flinch, my mind snapped.

McDonald threw 147 innings in 2008,   then he hurled 124 last season.  He has throw 125.2 innings this season, 49 of those in the past 38 days.

It’s September.  Don’t do anything dumb with what little pitching we do have.

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I can’t recall and if you Tivo’d the game let me know, but did McDonald say anything when Ray Searage came to visit to the mound?  It looked like Searage did all of the talking.

Oh yeh, the Pirates lost in extra innings 1-0.  The offense missed the flight.  Nice bunt Jose.  Why run Cutch?  Walker’s streak is over.