Pittsburgh Pirates

At least the Pirates' starter gave up fewer runs than the other guy. That was enough for an 11-9 victory over the Brewers last night.

Brad Lincoln gave up seven runs in 2.1 innings. That ordinarily means "loss," but that wasn't the case here.

That's because Milwaukee's Dave Bush gave up 10 runs in four innings. Nine of those came in the first inning, the first time in 117 years that the Bucs scored that many runs at home in the opening frame.

Fantasy Baseball’s Pitching Line of the Week:

Paul Maholm (SP-PIT) 

As most of us know, the Pirates have stunk for a long, long time.

Since 1992, the Buccos have made mistake after mistake in the development, trading, drafting, and signing of free agent players. Every time a player starts to pan out, the Pirates trade him for an average of three prospects.

When you're lucky, one of those three pan out. Then you trade that guy for three more prospects and hope one of those pans out so you can start the vicious cycle again.

When you pan over this era, you see a few deals that have been good ones, not many, but a couple have worked out.

The Arizona Diamondbacks drafted Ross Ohlendorf in the fourth round of the 2004 MLB draft. The scouting report on him at that time was:

Body Type: Strong as an Ox, thick muscular build.

Delivery: Low 3/4 arm. slow easy high leg kick with good hip rotation. Loose for his size.

Pitches: 89-92 mph fastball with occasional hard sink and bore. Can reach for extra and does it easy.

Small tilt to occasional tight slider.

Deceptive change with sink.

Command: Has improved.

This was the year that the Pirates were supposed to climb out of the cellar. Which is to say that they were supposed to be better than at least one other team in the National League Central.

But after a decent start, that hasn't happened.

The Pirates do have a nice record (9-3) in the season series against the Chicago Cubs.

Under different circumstances, the Cubs might be in the cellar and the Pirates ahead of them. As was the case in 2006.

For stretches at a time, the Pittsburgh Pirates play respectably, hugging .500, hanging out in the middle of the division in the third or fourth spot, even second, for a brief period earlier this year. Then, the inevitable happens, and the Bucs end up in last place, where they are now.

The Pirates are a decent team at full strength, usually coming out of the box in April. In past years we were often 12-12, or 12-11 in the opening month. This year's 10-13 start was uncharacteristically bad, but far better than what took place later.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are 2-11 so far this year in Interleague play against the Detroit Tigers, the Chicago White Sox, the Texas Rangers, the Cleveland Indians, and the Oakland As. The only bright spot was the 2-1 series against the comparably bad Cleveland Indians.

Even if they split the next two games with the As (which is expecting a lot), they would be 3-12 against the American League. Worse, Neil Walker was injured in yesterday's game.

The poor situation the Pirates are in easily lends the notion that its General Manager and manager would be on the heat seat for next season. In a move that makes no sense to many, or actually makes perfect sense for the Pirates especially when you see similar bewildering roster moves over the years, Pittsburgh actually gave the two contract extensions.

On a clear Sunday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Pirates strung together their first win streak since mid-May.

The Pirates put together well-timed hits and with the help of three Indians' errors, defeated Cleveland 5-3 to win their first series in over a month.

Rookie pitcher Brad Lincoln made his third start today. He entered the game with an ERA just over 7.00. Lincoln went six innings for the Bucs, surrendering three runs on eight hits to the Tribe.