Pirates Game 4 Thoughts

[reds44]

VICTORY!!! 4-0

How about Edwin? A couple of hits, 2 rbis, and about 4 awesome plays on defense. he showed his talent today. Definatley the player of the game today with the glove and the bat.

Loshe drives me nuts. CG shutout. He's got talent, but he is so inconsistent.

Great play by Seabass.

The reports from the hospital seems positive, and I hope Freel is ok. It's good to win one for him.

Maybe we can get on a roll heading to Houston.

[Razor Shines]

I think Lohse was somewhat lucky today, but he was much much better than his last outing and I'll take it. He got hit hard a few times today, but he had some great D behind him this time. He only struck out two, but again whatever it's sometimes better to be lucky than good.

EE was outstanding today. It's funny seeing him get a standing ovation today after Wednesday he was getting boo'd every time he did anything. At the plate he is really looking like the Edwin we saw for most of last year. He certainly looks more confident than he did before he went down.

Ross actually blocked the plate today, that's good to see.

[nate]

Edwin played some real nice D today...heck, the entire team played good D: AGon, Hatte and Ross....even Lohse on the liner up the middle.

Real nice win today.

[UC_Ken]

EE is a lot more talented than everyone seems to think he is. He had a horrible start to the year, it happens sometimes. But this kid is our 3B for the next 15 years and he's going to play in multiple All Star games. If he improves his throwing he'll win multiple gold gloves.

[jimbo]

EE gets the game ball in my opinion. He made a few sick plays at third and came up clutch at the plate. Good to see him smiling also.

[kaldaniels]

One thing that may deserve a thread of its own if you ask me....David Ross for the month of May is hitting .250 with 4 HR. Does he look awful many times at the plate...absolutely. Does he need to cut back on the 24 K's in May, yes. However....if you say the month of May is average for him...that puts him at .250 ~23 HR for the year....which isn't horrible, and hopefully he has a hot streak to come.

Point of this post....Ross isn't nearly as bad as the month of April made him look, and most on here would probably take a .250, 20 HR season if he handles the pitchers well (which he seems to do better than Javy and Chad). Give the guy a little slack, as he has fought thru as tough a month as I've seen a player have here lately.

[Degenerate39]

I just hope Freel is alright and he's able to play soon.

[reds44]

Loshe frusterates me to no end. He probably has our 2 best pitching preformances on the year. 8 IP, 0 R, 12 K at Chicago earlier in the year, and a CG shutout today. Yet he can never put together a consistent string of games.

EE is a lot more talented than everyone seems to think he is. He had a horrible start to the year, it happens sometimes. But this kid is our 3B for the next 15 years and he's going to play in multiple All Star games. If he improves his throwing he'll win multiple gold gloves.

Agreed.

[6-4-3]

Edwin played some real nice D today

Very true. It amazes me to hear the continuing criticism of Edwin's D. He showed above average range today, as well as nice arm. IMO, he is a very big piece of the puzzle already in place.

David Ross for the month of May is hitting .250 with 4 HR.

I will take this type of production from Ross or any 8-hole hitter. He MUST cut down on the K rate. Coming into today (5/28) in 116 AB's he had 45 K's. Goes w/o saying that this can't continue.

Loshe drives me nuts. CG shutout. He's got talent, but he is so inconsistent.

Great start from Loshe today. Hopefully he can string 3-4 good starts together and increase his trade value. In my eyes Loshe will never again put up the numbers he did in '03 14-11, 201 IP, 4.61 era (in the AL) Loshe has been on a steady decline since '04, posting a 9-13 record. He does not fit in long term plans for the rotation, and is not a proven winner.

[captainmorgan07]

i've seen the replay of freel and hopper collision about 4 times now and i can say conclusively that hoppers sticks the ball back in freels glove before the umpire can see what is going on

[jfar23]

i've seen the replay of freel and hopper collision about 4 times now and i can say conclusively that hoppers sticks the ball back in freels glove before the umpire can see what is going on

That's scrappy.

[reds44]

-Trent

Postgame 5.28

I'm gonna start this here, and then come back to it.

First off, lots of guys relieved in there.

Secondly, the Pirates are claiming Norris Hopper put the ball back in Freel's glove. And, well, from what I'm told...

Also, got this report from my friend Corey Brinn in Dayton: "Dragons up 6-3 in 6th, first game of two 7-inning doubleheader... eddie enters the game!! leadoff single, flyout to warning track in left. fielder's choice. flyout to right. ahead of most hitters... threw about 16 pitchers or so... not sure if day is done... yep, eddie's day is done"

So good report from Dayton.

Will get back to you.

From Butcher it was 13 pitches for Guardado

As you can tell here, Corey really seems to like Guardado's backside.



Here's some of what Hopper had to say:

“I didn’t call it, he didn’t call it,” Hopper said after the game. “I knew I had a bead on it and I know how we plays and I kind of figured he had a bead on it and we needed that out pretty bad there. I told myself we got to make the play.”
Hopper stuck out his glove, thinking he was about to catch it when at the last second, Freel’s glove went in front of his and made the catch.
“I know if there’s a ball in between us, it’s going to be close. Because I ain’t slowing up and I know he ain’t slowing up. I’m trying to help my pitcher out any way I can,” Hopper said. “I saw the ball, I didn’t look at him. Even if I would have said something, Freel ain’t stopping. He’s going to get the ball just like I am.”



As I watch for highlights, I want to know why I'm not getting live coverage of Eddie Guardado's rehab appearance in Dayton on ESPN? It's like they really think all the world gives a crap about the Yankees. God, I hate me some ESPN.



Here's what the Pirates had to say:
“I really don’t think he caught that ball,” Pirate starter Ian Snell said. “If you see it on the replay, it's kind of weird. It looked like (Hopper) put it in his glove. So, we need instant replay.”
Said Cota: “They told me that Hopper put the ball in his glove. It's just one of those things. You wish this was like the NFL and you could throw a red flag on the field and challenge that play. … It was my one-in-a-million chance, with my blazing speed, for an inside-the-park (homer). I'll probably have to wait another century for that chance.”

Cota: "It's always scary to see somebody down on the field, unconscious. It happened with me two years ago when I ran into (Sean) Casey. There's something about me and the Reds, with me knocking guys out."

Just saw the replay on ESPN between Clemens pitches, and it's pretty clear what Hopper did.

Heads up play by Hopper to put the ball into Freel's glove. He got the out, so that's all that matters.