Ole - The Turning Point

Well the Buccos are the big MLB story of the day after getting hosed last night in Atlanta. There's not much you can say. But I'll try. It's over, there's no changing the call, no getting the win, no way to make up those crucial points in the NL Central standings. It's history. And will go down in Pirates' history as the worst play since another Brave, Sid Bream, ruined a shot to go to the World Series.

Seems like a very fitting series of events to memorialize I'll Be Frank's 200th post.

Some other 200s: (Thanks Dom)

July 19 - 200th day of the year
.200 - The Mendoza line - the goal of Dan Uggla
Chris Stroud - 200th ranked golfer in the world
200 - number of cocktail waitresses tag-teamed by Tiger Woods and Stevie Williams
200 - the number of Nascar Cup Series races won by Richard Petty
#200 - Roustabout (Performs routine physical labor and maintenance on oil rigs and pipelines, both on and off shore) in the Top 200 jobs of 2011
200 - combined IQ of the 2004-05 Indiana Pacers
$200 - the amount of money given to a player before starting a game of Monopoly.
1970 Rayfield Wright Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl ring ($12,196) #200 highest paid sports collectable of all time
A cholesterol level of 200 and below is considered "Desirable level corresponding to lower risk for heart disease"
200 - pounds of french fries and cheese pizza consumed by vegetarian Prince Fielder each year
#200 - Dial M for Murder (1954)on IMDB's Top 250
200 - number of dead cows found on a farm in Wisconsin in Jan. 2011
The E.N.D by the Black Eyed Peas currently ranks #200 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums
200 people killed by being stared at by Chuck Norris
#200 - Loser by Beck in Rolling Stone Magazines 500 greatest songs of All-Time
#200 - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in the World Rankings of top universities
200 - Total number of white football players in the entire SEC
200 - Danario Alexander in ESPN's 2011 Fantasy Football rankings

Now back to baseball.

Jerry Meals, flat out got the call wrong. He did. He admitted it later, but just like Jim Joyce and his screw up for Armando Galarraga's perfect game last year, its too late, apologies are what they are, just words.

I watched every inning of this game. All 19 innings. Started watching at 7:10 p.m., and didn't stop until well after 1 a.m. One thing that was consistent throughout the game was the Braves berating of Meals behind the plate. It got to the point where he had to eject outfielder Nate McLouth and manager Freddi Gonzalez for arguing balls and strikes. Braves' players were throwing bats and helmets, pitchers, including Braves' star of the game Chrishian Martinez blatantly and theatrically showed up Meals after he called a pitch a ball. So what does this man do after getting an ear full from a team for 19 innings, he hands them a game, literally.

Obviously this game will be remembered for Michael McKenry's "ole" tag of Julio Lugo in the 19th inning and the missed called by Meals, but in reality this game should never have gotten this far.

First off, let's get this out of the way, I like McKenry. He's one hell of a defensive catcher. He shows constant hustle, emotion, and enthusiasm; you can tell this guy loves the game. He should be the Pirates' catcher for the remainder of the season.

What about Ryan Doumit?

Well, Doumit who made a start in Triple-A last night will be back up soon, but he shouldn't be behind the plate. He's better offensively than McKenry, but even Mike has picked it up lately, including a homer off of Tommy Hanson last night. Doumit is a true liability behind the plate. He can't throw, he couldn't block a beach ball in the dirt, and with the way our pitchers like to finish off hitters with off-speed junk, we need a catcher who will get dirty and stop everything.

That catcher is Fort McKenry.

Doumit will be in the lineup. He will be at first base where he's played multiple times before. Lyle Overpay will be somewhere in the Allegheny River. No I don't want him to die, not by any means, but he shouldn't be on the field. He's making $5 million this season. $5 million to do what? Go 1 for 8 in a 19 inning game. Hit .231 for the season, with a whopping 7 home runs and 35 RBIs? He should be off the field. Numerous times he came up with runners on and a chance to take the lead with just a base hit. It's gotten to the point where you would rather just give the other team the out, rather than stress over seeing him swing through 2 pitches and then weakly ground to second.

Many chances for the Bucs last night. Their issue is that they can't get the leadoff man on. Once or twice they were able to get that leadoff man on, move him over, but then he would be stuck at second. It seemed like once the game got later and later, everyone wanted to be a hero. Wanted to end the game with one swing. Yes, that's great and everything, but we haven't hit a homerun since July 16. Ten days without one single homerun. This team has no power. They shouldn't be looking for the long ball. They should choke up and Ichiro the ball into the outfield. They are their best when they are running and doing the little things.

I love the suicide squeeze. Greatest play in baseball. Worked once this year for the Pirates, but as we found out last night, if a team is ready for it, it won't work. The Braves sniffed out the squeeze, pitched out and thwarted a Buccos first and third effort with 1 out and the top of the order up. What can you do? Had to try something.

Again all it took was one run. One measley run. Atlanta was hurting. Outside of Freddie Freeman, and Dan Uggla, who is on a 17-game hitting streak and still hitting under .200 (usually people when they go on extended streaks like this raise their average 20-40 points, and this dude is still hitting below the Mendoza line, WOW) were the only two players in the lineup that scared me. Chipper was only able to pinch hit, McCann ruined his oblique (didn't know fat people had obliques), and Heyward should relax on the ESPN commericals and figure a way out of his sophomore slump. They had noone who could hurt the Pirates, as evident by the fact that they didn't score between the 3rd and 19th innings. But then again, the Pirates didn't score since the 2nd so I guess it's all relevant.

As mentioned before Christhian Martinez was the star of the game. He went 6 scoreless innings of relief, only giving up 2 hits on 88 pitches. Unbelievable. Lucky for the Braves they had a guy in their pen, who only a week ago, was a starter in Triple-A. After him, they only had Scott Procter left to pitch.

The Pirates got a valiant effort from their pen who pitched 13.1 scoreless innings. Daniel McCutchen went 5.1 innings before getting nabbed with the loss. He threw 92 pitches. His previous season high was 52. All-Star Joel Hanrahan was still in the pen, but I guess Clint Hurdle, a man I will never second guess, was hoping for that save opportunity to arise. It never did.

While praise goes to one McCutchen, criticism goes to the other. Andrew McCutchen, our "best player", the future of the franchise, needs to do more. An 0 for 6, with a caught stealing is totally unacceptable in a game this, where one game makes all the difference in a microscopically close division race. Granted he is not a clean-up hitter, but has to be because of necessity. Since the break he has done nothing. In June, he couldn't stay off the bases. His average skyrocketed to the high .280s, he was dominant and deserved to be named to the All-Star team. Don't know if his braids or doo-rag are too tight but he needs to have a sit down and figure out what's wrong.

So here we are. Third place in the NL Central. Only 1 game out of first. We will see what kind of character this team has. The Battlin' Bucs have been thrilling the fans of Pittsburgh all year long. The preseason goal of reaching .500 would be a disappointment at this point. The division crown is the new goal, it's the only goal.

After last night's mess, this season could go one of two ways: It could be the spark needed to rejuvenate this team. Get them pumped up, provide that chip on their shoulder that propels teams to glory. That loss could be the wind that sails this Pirate ship into the postseason.

OR

It could have the total opposite effect and take the wind from the sails. Get this team to start thinking too much about past failures, missed opportunities, and delegating blame to others.

We'll see.

But if Clint Hurdle is the manager I think he is, I believe he will have this team energized and fired up to put a hurting on the Braves tonight and pillage and plunder the rest of the National League for the next 60 games.

Let's Go Bucs