Pirates Waste Another Paul Maholm Start

Paul Maholm did it again

for the Pittsburgh Pirates.   He pitched six innings, five scoreless.  The lefty allowed just five Dodgers hits, and two runs.  Maholm got zip from his buddies.

Hiroki Kuroda had eight strikeouts to get his fourth win of the season.  The 36-year old right hander shut out the Bucs over seven innings and allowed just three hits.  The Pirates had three walks on the night.

Maholm has the second lowest run support at 1.98.  It’s refreshing to see the good pitching, but the Pirates offense seems to have devoured Thanksgiving turkey lately.

Ivan Dejesus was hitting .200 when he strolled to the plate in the sixth.  Maholm walked him on four pitches.  Andre Ethier hit a painfully slow roller and despite a nice glove toss by second baseman Ronny Cedeno, who subbed for a flu-ridden Neil Walker, Ethier reached safely in his 35th consecutive game.

Another walk after some too precious pitching to Matt Kemp loaded the bases.  Juan Uribe who also is struggling mightily hit into a double play.  Maholm had thought about spearing the ball that was hit directly over his head, but pulled his glove down and allowed Brandon Wood to do his thing and L.A. had a one zip lead which would be all they would need.

Rod Barajas was walked to get to Mendoza line Sands.  The only thing that sucked was Maholm kept trying to go away and the rook made the veteran pay for his bashfulness.

Sands blistered a double down the right field line that plated Ethier and would set the final score at 2-0 bad Blue.

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Jose Ascanio is back on the big league roster.    Michael Crotta was placed on the 15-day disabled list.  His right elbow is the culprit, Crotta mentioned he had the same injury at the end of the season.  We can’t think not mentioning it before would go over well.

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Evan Meek threw a bullpen session yesterday.  Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage said that Meek threw 25 pitches, 18 fastballs, seven breaking balls.

"He (Meek) had good arm acceleration with that little whip at the end.  We will get up to 30/35 pitches and then make an assessment after that.   Ray Searage"

"I think I am ready to roll.  I have to do good here."

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Ex-Dodgers outfielder Xavier Paul is now 7-for-21 since being snatched by Neal Huntington.  He was impressed with his former teammate Kuroda.

"He has so much movement on his ball.  He has four of five different pitches.   Xavier Paul"

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Get the RipTides EP here, it’s on pure purple wax.  We ripped their album cover for the Paulie photoshop