Pittsburgh Pirates Opening Day Thoughts

Erik Bedard was phenomenal today. Roy Halladay was phenomenaler today. Let’s go over some things that aren’t so obvious.

The Pirates got some decent at-bats from Pedro Alvarez today, however he missed a few pitches that he could have hit hard. In his first bat especially he got a 2-1 pitch belt high and on the inner part of the plate that he could have turned on, but instead he fouled it off and ended up flying out to center. It was good to see Alvarez work some counts and foul some tough pitches off, however he certainly had an opportunity or two to do more and he didn’t capitalize.

Getting two hit by anybody is discouraging. I understand it’s Roy Halladay and there’s not a lot you can do most times, but when you don’t get a hit for 8 straight innings, that says something about your offense. Baseball is a game of randomness and a lot of days things just don’t go your way at all, especially when you’re getting weak contact, but I’m still disappointed with the offensive show today.

The game brought the biggest crowd in the history of PNC Park, which is a cool thing to experience. While it wasn’t a game where you got to experience the full crowd effect, it was nice to see that Pirates fans thoroughly outdid the Phillies fans. Sure, there were a good amount of Philly people there, but Pittsburgh really showed up today and did a nice job claiming their house. In years past we have seen seas and seas of red and it’s honestly been a bit embarrassing, but not today.

I am really hoping that this team can bounce back and win Saturday. I just feel like this April means more for the Pirates than any normal April. There are a couple reasons for that. One, they have a really tough schedule this month, and if they can come out of April with a good record that’ll make everything that much easier. Also, I think it’s important for this team to have confidence from the start. These guys know what they can do, they saw it last year, but there’s no doubt that a bad April could really dishearten some of them and could lead to more losing. That might be true with every team, but I think it’s especially true for a young, unproven team like the Pirates.

Regardless of anything that happened on the field today, it was a positive day if not only because now baseball is officially back. The Pirates season is underway and despite only playing three games in five days to open the season, we all have something to occupy our free time with.