This is really starting to get out of hand lately and if Hurdle and the rest of the team don’t figure something out before the start of tomorrow’s game, they can forget about a Wild Card spot. Tonight’s game wasn’t as bad as last night’s, but it didn’t look like a team trying to make the playoffs playing against a team who might lose 90 games.
James McDonald was okay tonight, but still hasn’t been nearly has dominant as he was in the first half of the season as he threw 90 pitches in just 5 2/3 innings. The odds of him turning his season around at this point are about as high as Rod Barajas’ batting average. With that said, I don’t even want to see Barajas behind the plate when AJ pitches anymore. I’d run the risk of AJ feeling a little uncomfortable with The Fort back there, than watch Barajas another inning.
The only real bright spots from tonight are that the team miraculously didn’t make any errors in the field and Pedro continues to drive the ball collecting two more RBI and another double. For someone who was hitting under .200 up until the middle of June, the fact that he’s hitting .244 with 27 ToroBombs and has driven in 73 runs mainly from the 6th spot in the lineup is remarkable.
Really not much else to say about tonight. A series sweep must be avoided by the Bucs to stay in contention and if that doesn’t happen, meaning the Pirates miss the playoffs and possibly finish (swallows hard) under .500, then manager Clint Hurdle could be looking for a new job in the offseason.
