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Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call – The legend of Flo-Mo

By Jason Rollison

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Welcome to the Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call, a daily feature here at RumBunter.com. Every morning at 9 AM, one of us will give you our random thoughts on the goings-on around the Pirates’ organization, and we’ll throw out a few links to some good Pirates-related items from around the web.

They call him Flo-Mo

Like many Pittsburgh Pirates fans, I had to be up for work early today, so I unfortunately had to bail after that 13th inning. When I awoke from my already abbreviated slumber, imagine my surprise when I picked up my phone and saw that Pedro Florimon had the game winning hit as the Pirates walked off the Arizona Diamondbacks in 15 innings.

Thinking I must still be sleeping, I put the phone down and rolled over, confident that the alarm would go off soon. I drifted back to sleep assured that I would see some heroics from Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, or even Sean Rodriguez when I woke. When I did, I checked my phone again. Florimon? In the 15th?  The same guy who popped up a bunt attempt for an out earlier? Wha?

Turns out I wasn’t dreaming after all.

All joking aside – you have to be happy for the youngster. Through all of the roster movement this year due to injuries, Florimon has steadily held a position on the roster while others such as Jaff Decker and Vance Worley are shuffled around. His time with the major league club will soon be coming to an end – but only temporarily, as he is assured to be a September call-up. That should make many of his teammates happy.

Stacking wins with one eye on the future

Depending on who you talk to, Clint Hurdle may be considered the worst manager in baseball when it comes to managing a pitching staff. I do not subscribe to that theory at all. But, it’s very intriguing to watch how he manages his staff during this brutal August stretch of 20 straight games before a day off on August 31. Last night we saw Clint try to save the bullpen somewhat by attempting to let Francisco Liriano get through the 8th, and that is absolutely the right call. With a 5 run lead at that point, Hurdle was absolutely in the right to try to save the bullpen. Who could have predicted such a poor outing from Jared Hughes, who failed to get an out? Who could have seen that two errors in the ninth would lead to the first blown save for the Pirates in more-than-recent memory? For an MLB manager, I imagine that managing to win a game while keeping the future in mind to be one of the hardest aspects of their job. 

More from Rum Bunter

Let’s hear it for Arquimedes Caminero and Joe Blanton, who each worked three clean innings each. It will be interesting to see if Hurdle can save the bullpen tonight with J.A. Happ on the mound.

Pittsburgh Pirates talk on the web

Friend of Rum Bunter Josh Taylor (KDKA-TV and Sportstalk.triblive.com) reminds us – What these Pirates are is more important than what they are not.

Gene Collier of the Post-Gazette points out the necessity of a hot offense when the starting pitching is constantly putting out fires.

Next: The Pirates bullpen is a force to be reckoned with

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