Can The Pirates Keep The Boys From ’71 Around This Weekend?

The Pittsburgh Pirates love a crowd.

With PNC Park packed full of 33,800+ fans (minus Bartman) including some members of the 1971 World Series Champions, the young Bucs pulled out the lumber.

It was a sight to behold.

Please ignore all the bunting.

James McDonald went 4.2 innings gave up seven hits and three earned runs with three strikeouts and four walks.  The amount of work on that slender arm scares me.  The long balls he has given up this year have accounted for 23 of the 44 runs he has allowed.  Of course the K/BB rate doesn’t do much for his long term health either.

But although he hasn’t went long in games, he has pitched well enough to give the Bucs a chance to win.  He has kept the team in the game.  If only he could reduce his walks…..

We thought the story of the game was the work the bullpen did against a Baltimore offense that seems to be heating up.

Just look at the work from the pen.  As Hurdle points out in the quotes below, everyone knows what their role is.  Which means they don’t have a role.

Chris Resop 1.1 innings, one hit and two strikeouts.  In case you didn’t notice, we get a BuccoBoner over Resop.  Read the link below…

Tony Watson went one inning, no hits. one strikeout

Jose Veras went one inning, no hits allowed.

Tim Wood went one inning, no hits one strikeout, one walk.

The Pirates bats came to life.  Andrew McCutchen and Ronny Cedeno had some interesting choices at the plate, but the power we wrote about as being a stranger yesterday showed up in front of the fourth largest crowd (insert day of the week, year, etc)

Garrett Jones and Neil Walker had big doubles.  Walker now leads all MLB second baseman in producing runs for his team, but perhaps more importantly is seventh in MLB in RBI.  With all of this offense, perhaps the crew from 1971 could keep the suite for the Red Sox series?

Ronny Cedeno bunting with the bases loaded was the most dangerous Pirate just doing his thing Clint Hurdle said.

Hurdle quotes:

"(McDonald) His stuff was up.  Pitches were over 100.I didn’t call either of them.  (On Cedeno’s bunt) I’ve never called a bunt with the bases loaded. (On Cutch) He’s been hitting the ball good, but he thought in that situation he wanted to put a bunt down and move another runner up, and that’s the way this team has been, unselfish. You’ve got to give him a pat on the back for that approach.”I was a Bob Robertson guy.  I don’t know why. Big Bob Johnson asked Hanrahan why he threw a 3-2 changeup last night.  Those guys don’t miss a thing.Resop has done it.  Basically our bullpen outside of Joel knows their role is to get the ball to Joel.  This group doesn’t care.  They just know…"

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