Buccos

I was at the Pirates game on Friday night and I had a great time. I know the best way to make sure that McClatchy fixes the Pirates is to stop going to the games, but I couldn't stay away. And, I went with my aunt, so it qualified as family/bonding time, too.

I still got home in enough time to catch the overtime period in the Pens-Flyers game, and I saw some remarkable stuff at the game...

1. The Buccos actually won, so that was remarkable in and of itself.
2. They won by shutout and Paul Maholm pitched most of the game. Not often that you see a shutout, even though they also shut out the Braves on Saturday. Then gave up 11 runs yesterday. This is a weird team. But I'm actually not convinced that it's a bad team at this point. The NL Central is very muddled and 90 wins could take the division. Not saying it's going to happen, but it's less impossible than it's been in previous seasons.
   
3. I saw the Infield Fly Rule correctly interpreted and it was actually relevant. I think I've only seen it come into play three or four times live and it has never mattered before. On Friday, the bases were loaded and someone on the Braves hit a weak pop up that Ryan Doumit should have caught. He and Maholm called each other off and Doumit ended up dropping the ball. It was a strange sequence and I actually said out loud, "I think that was the Infield Fly Rule, but I really don't know." No one else in my section knew. We had to wait until the scoreboard showed the official scoring to be sure.
4. Maholm then turned a 1-2-3 double play, which is also quite rare. That completed him pitching his way out of a bases loaded jam with no outs. In a game where the final score was 3-0, that was a pivotal inning.
5. I got to see a balk, then watch the umpires discuss it for three minutes, then Bobby Cox came out of the dugout and threw a fit... because the guy on base got to take an extra base. I think that's why he was upset. I'm really not sure why he would be upset when the balk was called on the Pirates.
6. I saw Mike Gonzalez pitch. If you have a chance, try to catch him the next time the Braves play. I think he's either their closer or their set-up guy, but he has a very strange delivery. He looks like a really drunk guy trying to work a juke box. It's awesome.