Skipping the Bump in the Road

At 4-22 on the road, the Pirates might have seemed an ideal opponent for the reeling Colorado Rockies, losers of 10 of their past 12 games going into Monday night's game. But the mile-high air of Denver proved a tonic for the Pirates and starter Ian Snell, who dominated their hosts en route to a 5-2 win.

Snell struck out ten in 6 1/3 innings in one of his better starts of the year. As the Buccin' Ear remarked in yesterday's post, Coors Field demands that pitchers stay ahead in the count, and the sometimes controlled-challenged Snell took heed, throwing 70% of his 94 pitches for strikes. He displayed a 95-mph fastball with good movement that set up an 80-plus mph slider that had the overanxious Rockies off balance throughout the game. On offense, the Pirates wasted some opportunities, but Freddie Sanchez, Jose Castillo, Jason Bay and Ronnie Paulino provided more than enough for Snell, who raised his record to 6-3. Snell's ERA, which suffered some massive hits earlier in the year, is still far above the horizon at 5.26, but he's provided some hopeful signs that he is ready to do his part to stabilize the rotation.

So the Pirates are now 8-3 since May 26, obviously a record you'll take, especially if you were 14-33 prior to the stretch. Not to minimize the success, but the four teams that they have played in those 11 games (Astros, Brewers, Padres and Rockies) have gone a combined 13-28 over the same period. This is not to say the Pirates haven't play some good ball over the past two weeks (they have), but it helps that the teams they've encountered haven't been.

In sports, as in business, it's important to kick your opponent when he's down, lest he get a chance to get up and reverse positions. Modest as the Rockies' success has been over its 13-plus year history, the Rocky Mountain News baseball writer Tracy Ringolsby still saw fit to label the Pirates "the humblest of opponents," undoubtedly with apologies to the Kansas City Royals. If such comments are reflective of overconfidence on the part of Colorado, so much the better for the Pirates, who should seek to place their dimunitive cleats on the neck of their struggling opponent.

After Colorado, the Pirates travel to San Francisco, where the Giants are undoubtedly licking their chops at the prospect of six games, beginning tonight, with the Marlins and Pirates. The Giants are in the thick of the Western Division race, and the lovely city by the bay has never been a hospitable place for the Bucs. The four-game series will be a good test for the hopes of the Pirates, still striving to emerge.