Make Every Day Memorial Day

The Pirates continued to dominate on Memorial Day and specifically

ran the domination against the Cubs to new levels.

The Cubs managed to scrap together one run for the fourth time in five games. The run came because Ryan Church is losing his hearing and failed to remove himself from the area where Andrew McCutchen was repeatedly calling for a fly ball in left center field. So while I would love to get excited about a Pirates victory, I am taking it with a grain of salt. The Cubs are awful right now.

Nah….screw that!  Bucs Win! Bucs Win!

This game wasn’t an offensive juggernaut by any means, but it felt great to see a win.  Neil Walker continued to hit and also sold some tickets yesterday.  Nearly 4,500 walkup tickets were sold at PNC Park.  Welcome back Walker.

Garrett Jones, hitting .319 in his past 19 games,  hit a bomb over the Clemente Wall to tie the game in the sixth inning.  Bobby Crosby had a clutch RBI single for the game winner.

The Cubs have some decisions to make with their lineup. Will Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Lee continue to be put in the middle of the lineup despite the stench surrounding them? The fact that Pittsburgh booed Aki Iwamura yesterday makes me believe that if A-Ram and Lee were in black and gold surely someone would have ran on the field at PNC Park and attempted a cross body block.

It’s hard to believe A-Ram is in such a slump. I mean this one has stuck around a while.

Lou Pinella is planning on giving Lee a day off today and playing Xavier Nady at first base. But what about long term? When the Cubs wrap up this series with the Bucs, their season will be one third in the books. It doesn’t look too pretty.

Yesterday, Pirates pitchers were able to keep Lee and Ramirez hitless. In fact they went 0-for-7 with four strikeouts. They were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. That’s the scary stuff for the Pirates, the Cubs had chances, hell, if Lee and Ramirez can break out of their slumps even a little bit, well the Bucs could have been in trouble.

Nevertheless, the Pirates continued to pass out the ballgag and Nurse Jones costume to their Chicago foes. The Cubs have scored just six runs in the four games played at PNC Park this year. All of have been losses.

Video highlights from MLB and a great recap from Jen Langosch MLB Blogs

****Octavio Dotel remained perfect against the Cubs in the month of May.  He has saved five games against the Cubs striking out nine batters in his five innings of work while allowing just one hit.