Pittsburgh Pirates

Oh. Oh. Charlie Morton can't pitch at night. That was the sinking feeling I got shortly after releasing the last piece about Morton's SOMETIMES stellar pitching. I almost wanted to take it back.

"Sometimes," actually held true for about two innings, probably as long as the sun was in the sky. Morton got five of his first six outs on strikeouts, and six of his first eight. Those are numbers any pitcher can be proud of.

All right, I'll take the Pirates' capture of their first series with two games in the "W" column, and one in the "L," which they have done in the recent past.

But it was a muted "win" that basically reeked of defeat. (And I was saying this two games ago with a reference to a "Pyrrhic" victory.)

The Dodgers outscored the Pirates, 18-17. The Dodgers outhit the Pirates 33 to 27. The Dodgers' batting average was forty-one points higher.

About the only thing they didn't do was to win the crucial, second game of the match. And it gets worse for the home team.

Could you have asked for a better opening day at PNC Park?

The sun was shining, the stadium was filled to capacity, and the Pirates came away with an 11-5 thwomping of the Los Angeles Dodgers, their fourth straight opening day victory.

All other things being equal, it's clearly better to chalk up a "W" than an "L." Nevertheless, some wins are better than others.

The wins to be happy about are ones where opponents were clearly out of it, and are likely to stand up under most different sets of circumstances.

On the other hand, the Pittsburgh Pirates won last night, not because they posted winning metrics, but because they were playing an opponent they could beat. The Los Angeles Dodgers outhit the Pirates, 12 to 10, and proved once again that Zach Duke is one of the most hittable starters in baseball.

Last season, the Pittsburgh Pirates went 62-99, turning in their 18th consecutive losing season and, in the process, establishing the longest stretch of futility in MLB history.

Dan McCutchen has won the "fifth starter" job for the Pittsburgh Pirates beating out Kevin Hart. The FIRST fifth starter role, that is.

But if history holds, there will be plenty more "fifth starter" chances for people like Hart, and even Jeff Karstens.

Last year, according to FanGraph's Marc Hulet, only two teams, the Colorado Rockies and Chicago Cubs, had five full time starters who all pitched in 24 or more games.

Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Garrett Jones is leading the team in at bats this spring, but still is not getting the hits he would like. He is not discouraged, but remains focused on preparing for the long season ahead.

"Numbers wise, its not going well," Jones said prior to a recent game in Bradenton, Florida. "But overall, I'm trying to get my swing down. Physically, I'm feeling great. I'm just getting ready for the season."

At the beginning of the 2008 season, the bookmakers gave 250 to 1 against the Tampa Bay Rays winning the World Series that year. The Rays in fact failed to do so, but came a lot closer than almost anyone would have expected.

Going into the Fall Classics, the odds were 7 to 5 in their favor, which is to say that someone who had paid "$1" for the bet, could have cashed out for over $100 (instead of winning $250) before the final resolution.

I was never a fan of Andy LaRoche's brother Adam, and sharp-eyed readers may have noticed my tepid acceptance of Andy in the past.

But in one respect, the younger LaRoche is already "Jack Wilson," which is high praise coming from yours truly. That is, in terms of "citizenship."

He spent half an hour giving the "grand tour" of PNC Park to a boy in wheelchair. That was above and beyond the call of duty and will generate enormous goodwill for the Pirates, both for the one incident and for the many similar ones that are likely to follow.

A few years ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates had a superstar outfielder named Jason Bay and a very questionable pitcher named Oliver Perez, while the Mets had a promising, if undeveloped, outfielder, Lastings Milledge, whom they traded to the Washington Nationals for Ryan Church.

Now the Pirates have both Milledge and Church, while the Mets have Bay and Perez.

Neither the Pirates nor the Mets have outfielder Xavier Nady, who was the consideration for Perez (and reliever Roberto Hernandez, who lasted only two months with the Mets).