Our First Game of the Season

Mrs. Grandstander and I attended our first Pirates game of the season this past Friday evening because (a) it was finally  a decent weather day in Pittsburgh, and (b) the Bucs were giving out free umbrellas to the first 20,000 fans who came through the gates (I understand that there were plenty of umbrellas left), courtesy of Highmark BCBS.

Love that Highmark logo 

on those bumbershoots!

It was the kind of game that makes you love baseball.  It was also the kind of game that highlights one of the things that drives you crazy about baseball.  

The Cardinals jumped out to a 5-0 lead, and despite a monster HR from Gregory Polanco, the Bucs trailed 5-2 going into the bottom of the ninth.  In spite of some great work from the Bucco bullpen, it was a rather desultory performance by the team, and it looked like it was going to be a loss for the home team.  However, the Pirates started the ninth by going double-single-single-triple and all of a sudden it was 5-5.  We were then in extra innings and the Pirates won it in the bottom of the eleventh.  Just like that, a pretty blah performance was turned into an electrifying win.

That was the good part.

Here was the bad part, and the game could be Exhibit A in the Commissioner's quest to speed up the pace of play in baseball.  The first eight and one-half innings were played in two hours and twenty minutes.  Then Cardinals manager Mike Matheny took over.

After Jordy Mercer's triple tied the game, Cards' pitching coach Mike Maddux slowly walked to the mound, all St. Louis infielders conferred on the mound, then Maddux slowly returned to the dugout.  Then the Pirate announced a pinch hitter, and then Matheny slowwwwwwwlllllyyyyy walked to the mound and called for a pitching change.  Pitcher slowly walked in from the bullpen and took his eight warm-up tosses before facing the Pirate batter.  Matheny then rinsed and repeated this painful process twice more in the inning.  Four mound visits, three pitching changes.  The bottom of the ninth took 30 minutes to play.  It felt like it took thirty hours.

And in watching Saturday's game on TV, it was more of the same Matheny.  

That's Reason Numero Uno why it was so much fun seeing the Pirates jam it up Matheny's butt and win two straight from the Cardinals.  How great it would be to see them sweep them this afternoon.

After a terrible week that culminated in the Bucs being swept in Philadelphia last weekend, the team has rebounded by winning four in a row, and this morning they sit in first place in the NL Central, albeit by a slim 1/2 game margin, with a 16-11 record (a 96 win pace over the course of 162 games!).

Things have gone surprisingly well for the Pirates this first month of the season.  It has been interesting and fun to watch, and this afternoon's contest offers the added bonus of getting to see highly touted pitching prospect Nick Kingham make his major league debut.  Because of an unscheduled double header earlier in the week, the team need a spot starter for today, and Kingham got the call.  He will probably be sent back to Indy after the game, but what if goes six or seven shutout innings and notches a win?  Let's hope that Neal Huntington has to make that particular tough decision sometime tonight.

Good luck, Nick Kingham!