Two more wins and a loss

The Pirates split their split squad games. Malholm was shaky, but no real worries. We got to see Josh Rodriguiz, who was robbed of a drive to the wall. He did help make a DP. Overbay and Atkins both hit well in their separate games. Rudy Owens had another subpar outing. The single most interesting thing other than seeing Mel Rojas Jr. get into a game was the obvious fact that Steven Pearce has no chance of making this team. Instead of letting Overbay play 1B in one game and Pearce in the other, they sent Pearce to the same game with Overbay, which limited Pearce to one AB. In the other game Atkins and Fields played and each got significant ABs. Not a good sign for Pearce. Karstens did throw a nice two innings.

Today's game was a win with great pitching. McDonald got 5 ground ball outs and looked good. Resop pitched well as did Aaron Thomson for two innings. McCutchen recovered from his last bad outing by getting two good innings in. Getting McCutchen the starter level work was interesting. Maybe he will be in the rotation at Indy. I kind of figured they were going to put him in the pen. And most importantly, Moskos got a save. Again probably against AAA guys, but he is looking good so far. Another nice point is Hurdle is still running. Even Chris Snyder tried to steal. Everyone got caught today, but hey, I like the approach. This is where we practice the stealing.

Bad news. The Pirates have shut down Joe Biemel with elbow problems. Some are saying it could lead to Tommy John surgery. Hopefully not, but an MRI is scheduled. This would make the bullpen situation rather interesting. Add in the fact that Scott Oleson is complaining about the idea of a bullpen job. He does have options, so perhaps they are not considering putting him in the pen. That would open up a spot for Tony Watson and even now Moskos as with no Biemel and no Oleson the Pirates are fresh out of left handed pen guys. I guess Thomson could fit into a lefty in the pen role, but still no late inning guy.