A win? You bet

After a two to one win the Pirates have halted a long and painful losing streak. And it was done by Paul Malholm. This is exactly what an ace ought to do. Throw seven scoreless innings to make sure your team gets a win. McCutchen scored the first run off a Garrett Jones single in the first inning and later Ryan Doumit landed one of his two hits over the wall for a solo homerun. Matt Capps gave up a run, but still earned the save.

During this massive slide Andrew McCutchen’s Batting average slipped from the .290’s to .270. Lastings Milledge dropped from about .300 to .280 and Dwelvn Young’s dropped even further. Only Garrett Jones and I guess Ryan Doumit stayed normal. Jones is still hitting over .300 and Doumit is sticking at about .235.

In my opinion this is the reason for the slide. The Pirates have had some good pitching performances by Ohlendorf and others, but still ended up in losses. The Pirates offense right now is completely based around Andrew McCutchen. If he is on and hitting then Jones has someone to drive in as does Milledge. When McCutchen is off the whole team suffers. McCutchen is hitting .360 with runners in scoring position just to show that his bat creates runs one way or another. He may be getting tired or trying too hard. Jones and Doumit might hit a few long balls, but it is not enough. Even LaRoche has hit a few homers, but almost always in a futile way. Unless McCutchen finds the swing again, expect more losses.

However, there is more good news. The Lynchburg Hillcats have won their best of five game series and are in the finals. They had to win both game 4 and 5 to do so and that is exactly what they did. Game four had First Round Pick Sanchez hit a two run homerun to win it. D’Arnaud hit a solo shot to seal it. Game five saw great pitching from Bryan Morris, who was aquired in the Jason Bay trade last year. It also saw Third baseman, Josh Harrison, acquired in the John Grabow deal this year, get his first two hits of the series. Those hits produced four RBI’s.

I am looking forward to the Hillcats taking a shot at the title.