Not great, but I will take it

The Pirates won their first series at home this year by taking two of three from the Nats. Karstens got a win by going 6 strong innings giving up only 2 runs. He left people on base in the third, but a nice outing by the bullpen put an end to that with no runs scoring. The Pirate offense was unbelievable in that game. Correia was not as good, and he struggled through his innings and a three run blast after an RBI ground out was more than enough runs to end the day for the Pirates in Game 2. Game 3 was shaky at the start with Malholm looking weak, but he got stronger as the game went, and much better after the short rain delay. Both teams choose to leave their pitcher in. The Nats pitcher had just given up a Walker base hit that allowed Tabata to score on an error on the throw (I thought it should have been on the catch). Walker was now at third with two out. The delay was for the Pirate benefit as they pilled three more runs on in that inning and hung on to win 4 to 2. A good day for Brandon Wood starting at third as he hit the ball hard several times and got a hit. Walker had a multi hit game, which was nice to see. Hanrahan had a little trouble as he brought the winning run to the plate, but got him to strike out.

Meek pitched in both wins. He was not good in either one, although he did not give up any runs. In the first game he was throwing okay. Fastball sitting about 95 and a majority of them going in the strike zone although his slider had no idea where it was going. It managed a ground out and a strike out off of this, but then he lost the last bit of his command. He walked the next guy on four straight fastballs of 95 that were no where close. The next batter got a first pitch fastball strike, but Meek clearly backed off. It clocked at 91 MPH. He went back to his hard fast ball at 95 and again, no where close. He went back down to the 91 and it was a strike again. A slider that skipped to the back stop and then a 93 MPH fastball got a strikeout somehow. Not encouraging. Meek was not much better tonight as he did not get any strike outs. He threw 8 pitches 5 for strikes and 3 for balls and was not making people miss. Not normal Evan Meek stuff.

I did think that this was a big series. We need to beat teams like the Nats, especially at home. If we want to be even a .500 team, a series win was a must. There are signs Alvarez is coming out of his slump, and McCutchen too. This was another game that the Pirates did not hit well, and the line up was lacking its big bats. We still won, and that is a great thing. We can keep hope alive for a little longer.