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.
First of all, there were NO quality starts between the first three starters. Only Paul Maholm lasted past five innings, and at the cost of four runs.
The bullpen held up only in the second game. And count on it to give up a lot of runs if relievers have to pitch four innings most games.
In fact, three separate relievers, Carrasco, Lopez, and Penn, gave up four, three and two runs in stints of one inning or less, in the first and third games for double-digit ERAs. Apparently, they're not out of "spring training."
That put a lot of pressure on the offense, in which the Pirates are not notably strong. But Garrett Jones scored three RBIs on home runs on back-to-back days in the first two games, largely carrying the Pirates on his broad shoulders.
But the Pirate offense reverted "to form," on the third day. They scored only two runs on eight scattered hits.
One reason for the bad taste was because the final result was basically "par for the course," but achieved in the worst way.
Last year, the 62-99 Pirates won three out of four from the same Los Angeles Dodgers in their final homestand. But then they outscored the Dodgers 24-15, and outhit them 40-31.
In an odd "rock-scissors-paper" sort of way, the Pirates have an edge on the Western Division champs that they have against few other teams.
That is, if the Dodgers are "rock" and the Pirates are "paper," the Pirates will beat the Dodgers a lot, at least at home.
But the Dodgers will win a lot of games against "scissors" teams that the Pirates will lose to.
The Dodgers hit a lot, but they are "unclutch," especially against the Pirates, which is to say that they leave a lot of men on base, especially given Pittsburgh's defense.
Dodgers pitchers gave up fewer hits than the Pirates, but the ones that they surrendered to the Bucs included a disproportionate number of long balls (seven out of 10 opening day hits went for extra bases).
These effects aren't nearly as pronounced against other teams, which is why the Dodgers usually win.
If you construct four quadrants using home and away games, plus (Central) division versus non-division games, the only quadrant that the Pirates won in 2009 was "home, non-division" games. This matchup, against the Dodgers, fit this mold.
The next series is a much better test. It is away, and against the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team that the Pirates usually have trouble beating.
Thus, it is an "intermediate" case representing one of the three "bad" quadrants. On the other hand, the pitching matchups aren't too bad.
Charlie Morton, a sometimes stellar pitcher, starts against Rodrigo Lopez, a true back-of-rotation type, in the first game.
Dan McCutchen draws their ace, Dan Haren, from a four man rotation, in the second, but Zach Duke is reasonably well-matched, on paper at least, against Edwin Jackson in the third.
"Par for the course" here would be 1-2. For a .500 record in the Pirates' opening week.
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