The New Pirates 0-1 - we still have some holes

Brad Lincoln kicked off the new era for the Pirates and pitched okay. His official line is 5 runs in 6 innings. The real line was 3 Earned runs and two unearned runs in six innings. A three run fifth inning sunk the Pirates, but Milledge booted one that was ruled a hit costing the Pirates the tying run. Cedano failed to make a play that every other short stop in the majors makes costing them the go ahead run. If they make those plays the Pirates go into the sixth with a one run lead rather than trailing by one. Then when they score the next run they are up two. Even if Donnelly and Carrasco still give up their runs the Pirates are only tied, but neither of those guys comes into the game if the Pirates have that lead. Oh yeah, Lincoln had two hits and an RBI.

Tabata had two hits, stole a base, and scored a run. Cramp pulled him out of the game in the eighth. He looked good. McCutchen is having his worst slump of the season, but still managed to score on a walk and he stole third. Walker had a couple of hits as well.

The problem now is that we still have some holes in the rotation. It looks like Karstens is going to be the fifth starter and that is a better choice than Eveland. But there is room for improvement there. The two big holes are Cedano and LaRoche. They have to go. One of them is slated for replacement soon. Yet the most disappointing hole on the team is Lastings Milledge. He cost the Pirates at least one run. He then had a bone head running play when he did not tag up on a fly ball to go to third. He would have then scored on the next fly ball, but now he was still at second. Luckly Lincoln bailed him out with a two out RBI basehit. I think that he needs to be out of the regular line up. He can be replaced now with Dwelven Young.

So keeping track it is now an 0-1 season. Let us see what tomorrow brings.