Who the hell said it’s not how you start, but how you finish?   

The Pittsburgh Pirates started as hot as a school boy on prom night with Delwyn Young hitting a 2-1 cutter into the bleachers, but 105 pitches, 72 strikes, and eleven ground ball outs (shoulda been 12) later, Kyle Kendrick is the one being crowned prom king. In his past three starts, he is 2-0 with a 2.57 ERA over 21 innings. Kendrick has some nice numbers for a fifth starter.

73 pitches, 49 for strikes, and Charlie Morton isn’t the king of the prom.  He is the skinny kid in the corner.  He also is really unlucky and now he has some of the worst numbers in the game. Baseball is funny. Ryan Howard can make it funny, in fact, Howard can make it very funny for the home team and the ensuing tweets.  It’s been the story of the Phillies Pirates matchupsat Citizens Bank or whatever the hell the place is called.

The bases loaded via two hits and a plunk (more…)

Walker has two homeruns and his OPS now sits at .930.   Walker has hit safely in eight of the past nine games.   His only weakness?  Hitting against lefties. 

Remember, from July 30 until his first career Major League call-up on September 1, Walker collected 34 RBI which tied him with Philadelphia Phillies 1B Ryan Howard for the largest total in all of Professional Baseball during that period.  

Two things seem to be different for Walker this season.   We saw that he was hungry and more humble, but his focus and plate awareness is impressive and has jumped his OPS.  Also, Neil wears number 18 now since Ryan Church is now wearing Walkers’ old number 19.  As the Indianapolis Indians announcer Scott McCauley points out in this post, wearing 18 makes Walker the second most popular guy in town.  I guess some football player for the Colts is #18? 

The Indy Gameday box is hereincluding the impressive start from Brad Lincoln.  We have a complete repost of our interview with Walker last year after the jump…

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We were scratching our heads knowing that the Pirates are being outscored 75-38 in the crucial eighth inning.

Don Long was intently watching the Pirates hit from behind the cage.  We didn’t see any other coaches during BP, but it just is hard to believe the best use of Dorante’s time is hitting ground balls to Brian Bixler.  I can’t buy that. (Even though Bixler certainly needs it, he actually let one go through his legs.)

Joe Kerrigan has done a good job with the starting pitching.  Paul Maholm had a strong start and allowed only one run on this night, but improving the starting pitching is a monumental, time consuming task for Kerrigan.  Surely, he could use some help right? 

How much more successful would these young arms be in the bullpen with a veteran coaching them up?  Who could do this job you ask?

 You know the answer to this question.  His name is Kent Tekulve.  His resume is better than anyone on this entire coaching staff.

Teke stats

The Pirate bullpen is rather young.  Just a few key stats from the bullpen..

Chris Bootcheck BA against .391.  Bootcheck is a first round pick.  He needs coaching.

Matt Capps BA against .335.  What in the world happened?  Capps needs coaching.

Steven Jackson had been on a roll with a 1.96ERA in his last 12 games, in the first 11 with the Bucs he had a 6.10ERA.  Jackson has good stuff, he needs coaching.

Joel Hanrahan has great stuff.  He needs coaching.

Ok, you get the point.  I am done.

Certainly, Jesse Chavez has been impressive.  He still needs coaching.

It was the same old madness last night as the Pirate bullpen tried their best to give the game away in the late innings.  Phil Dumatrait and Steven Jackson achieved the goal in the tenth inning as Ryan Howard hit a three run bomb, his 35th of the year,  to lead the Phillies to the victory.

In the ninth inning, with the Pirates trailing 1-0,  Brandon Moss tied the game up with a solo homer, well, at least we still have Brandon Moss and unfortunately, the Phillies still have Ryan Howard.  (Third Boss that was good)

*Enter

Sorry, I had so many emails, I just had to. It just never gets old does it?