Pirates can only blame themselves

By Jeff

If you haven't seen it by now, here is a link to the final play of last night's game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves. To me, Julio Lugo is clearly out, but he was called safe and the Braves won in the 19th inning. Even Lugo thought he was out.

As obvious as that call appears, you can't blame the umpires for the Pirates losing that game and falling to third in the NL Central. Sure, it certainly ended the game prematurely, but it should have never got to that point.

After storming out to a 3-0 lead after the second inning, the Pirates failed to score a run in the next 17 innings. That's embarassing. Lyle Overbay further made his case for release by going 1-for-7. The team as a whole just wasn't clutch. Pedro Alvarex, Overbay and Andrew McCutchen all could have put the Bucs ahead when they had runners on third base with less than two outs, but they didn't. Xavier Paul could have done whatever necessary to hit the ball on a suicide squeee attempt, but instead pulled the bunt back and left his teammate out to dry.

To be fair, the Braves' bullpen, like the Pirates', was excellent last night. As much as we want to rip on the Pirates offense for stinking, and they did, credit has to be given to the opposition. On the flip side, Pirates fans should be pleased from the amazing performance of their team's bullpen.

Last night's thriller was a tremendous baseball game that had fans on the edge of their seats for six hours. That's tough for baseball. While the final play has placed a stain on the game, it was great to see Pirates fans care so much. Go look at the ratings. They were comparable to Penguins playoff games. That's absurd for a Pirates game.

I wish the game ended clean with no controversy, but there was no such luck. But Pirates fans can't blame the umps too much. The guy was consistently terrible all night. But if the Pirates scored a few runs when they had the chances, the ump's most egregious error would have never happened.

By the way, despite the lineup sucking, I still don't think trading for an above average bat is the right way to go.

Dropkick Murphys - Hang Em' High