I went home for the weekend and was away from my computer for a couple days, so I’m going to do my best to make sense of this atrocious weekend of Pirates baseball.

After being swept by the Brewers and allowing them to creep back into the playoff race, the Pirates went to Houston for a 3 game series against a team who has already lost 100 games.  Honestly, I don’t think any team should lose to the Astros at this point in the year, especially a team who was in the playoff hunt until last week like the Pirates.  But somehow the Pirates managed to lose 2 of 3 against the Astros and now sit at 75-77 with their hopes of a .500 season vanishing.

Jeff Locke started game 1 and didn’t pitch that bad, as he went 5 innings and gave up 3 runs.  However, James McDonald came in to pitch the 6^th inning in relief and took it in the teeth as he gave up 3 runs without recording an out.  Hurdle made the easy decision to remove him however at that point the game was already lost as the final score was 7-1.

Saturday had the looks of a game that could be considered Kevin Correia’s best start of the season.  That was until Corriea went out for the 7^th inning.  Before that inning, Correia was dealing in his first 6 innings, giving up just 1 run and striking out 9.  But in the 7^th, the Pirates’ starter served up a 3-run homer to some guy named Jason Castro.  The guy had 4 career homeruns before that one.  The only bright spot in the 4-1 loss was Gaby Sanchez’s homerun in the second inning.

The only good thing to happen this weekend, aside from the home cooked meals I had, was AJ getting his 16^th win of the season this afternoon in the Pirates 8-1 victory.  It has been quite some time since AJ had his better stuff on the mound and the offense actually decided to show up in the same game.  AJ went 8 strong innings, punching out 11 and giving up just 1 run.  Every hitter in the Bucs’ lineup had a hit, except for Travis Snider.  Josh Harrison had 4 hits and scored twice today.  Presley, McCutchen, Sanchez, Barmes, and Barajas all had 2 hits each.  Aside from Harrison, nobody really had a huge game as everyone had a part in today’s win.

And there is your weekend that was.  Just another step in the wrong direction, as the Pirates continue to free fall towards the bottom of the NL Wild Card standings.  But in reality, this season is over for the Bucs.  All that is left is 10 games.  In those 10 games Pittsburgh has to go 7-3 to finish 82-80, which is what so many fans hoped for on Opening Day.