A Mixed Bag

The concluding weekend of a 10-game homestand for the Pirates has been a soggy one so far. Each of the first two games suffered significant rain delays. So far, the Pirates haven't been a washout against their opponents, the San Diego Padres, but they haven't cleaned up either.

The less said about Friday night's game the better, a 7-0 loss that was delayed for two hours by light rain and then played in a downpour that doused the stadium lights after six innings. Oliver Perez was banged up for three innings, but we won't put much stock in this setback in his rehabilitation of his season.

Last night the delay was more than an hour and a half, which seemed to tak a toll on both starting pitchers. Eight runs were scored in the first inning, five of them by the Pirates. Zach Duke overcame his early-inning woes, however, and blanked the Padres over the next six innings, and picked up his second straight win. Just why Duke has so much trouble in the early going is a mystery, and it is a trait shared by his rotation mate Ian Snell. Both the Post Gazette and the Pirates' radio team have noted that the two pitchers are generally hit hard in the early going. Teams hit over .300 against them on the first trip through the lineup. By the third time through (if they get there), the average dips below .250, and in Duke's case significantly so.

There is a positive to be drawn from this. Duke, who has pitched much better overall than Snell, has shown that he can make adjustments as the game goes on, the mark of a smart pitcher. If he can make a further adjustment in his approach in the early innings, he may return to the form of last season. As it is, he is 4-6 with a 4.23 ERA, not where he or anybody else wants to be at this point, but certainly not a disaster on a team that is 14 games under .500.

Saturday's game was also marked by another positive trend, the newfound ability of the team to preserve victories in the face of adversity. A week ago, they came back several times to win an 18-inning victory over Houston and used some timely hitting and a couple of good defensive plays to do so. Last night they were in danger of blowing a three-run lead in the ninth inning in a scenario eerily similar to last Sunday's loss, in which they lost a four-run lead in the final frame. Mike Gonzales, one of the victims of that collapse, was on the mound again, and had already given up one run when the Pirates blew a potential game-ending double play with a bad throw to first from Jose Castillo. The ball bounced past Sean Casey, but also the Pirates way when Casey fielded the carom off the wall and fired a strike to Ronnie Paulino, who blocked the runner trying to score to end the game. Without a doubt, the play would have gone differently earlier in the year.

The team has a chance to win its third consecutive series today and end an eventful homestand 8-2. The enormity of the hole that they dug themselves, however, can be measured thus: entering the series with the Padres, they were 20-34, exactly one-third of the way through the season. If the 108 remaining games were played as 36 three-game series, the Pirates would have to win two of three in 34 of the 36 to reach 90 wins. Simply to reach .500, the team needs to win the equivalent of 24 of 36 series, sweep one and win one in each of the remaining 11.

This must be why players are advised to take games one at a time.

So today is a must win. The season of 36 series begins today. Let's go 1-0.