Malholm Complete Game Shut out

Paul Malholm had one of the most dominate games I have ever seen. He went the entire game throwing only 91 pitches. Over 75% of his pitches were for strikes. He gave up only 3 hits. One of them was with 2 strikes and 2 outs in the ninth. It was a great game. In addition to Malholm, every Pirate starter got a hit. Wood came into the game for Pearce and Wood failed to get a hit. Pearce already had one. Pearce had stiffness in his leg apparently. It was also a homerun derby that allowed the 10 run out burst. Ronny Cedano hit a three run shot. Overbay whacked one. McCutchen got one for two runs. And Snyder hit another.

Before Pearce got hurt, I was going to make the argument that it is time to get him in the game regularly. Pearce got his RBI hit today against a right handed pitcher. He can hit the lefites and he is showing he can hit the righties as well. Now, I am not trying to say Pearce ought to take the place of Alvarez, but I am saying that we ought to trade Overbay while we can and let Pearce have first base by himself. He is hitting in the .290's. Overbay is hitting in the .230's. Maybe we would be giving up a little power, but maybe Pearce would go up in power if he hit everyday. Even if he does not, we are not giving up too much power. Just a little defense. But I am willing to do that for a prospect.

The Pirates had a big offensive night in AA as well. Holt, Sanchez, and Marte look great down there as does Farrell. Mercer is coming on, and they all had hits to save Aaron Thomson from a bad outing. Tim Alderson has a sub-1 ERA out of the pen and this two nights in a row that he has had a scoreless inning. He may have a future coming out of the pen.