- You may remember last year when The Pittsburgh Pirates lost a game in the 19th inning due to one of the most egregious calls you'll ever see (the ump was either hallucinating or just so desperate to end the game and go home that he didn't care who he robbed). Sunday, they played another 19 inning marathon, but had better results, defeating division rival, Wild Card competitor and defending World Series champion St. Louis by a score of 6-3.
- The win perhaps symbolizes that Pittsburgh is mature enough to make the playoffs this year after a twenty year cold streak that last saw them in the postseason when Barry Bonds still wore a Pirates uniform. Now the team is led by Andrew McCutcheon, a much different player than Bonds who leads to NL in batting average by a fairly comfortable margin.
- Pedro Alvarez hit a solo home run and then McCutcheon drove in two of the three runs in the 19th, which are the most runs the Pirates have scored in the 19th inning of a baseball game in exactly 100 years.
Skipper troubles
- Houston has a new manager while the drama in Boston continues. Brad Mills was relieved of duties on Saturday as the manager of the Houston Astros while Triple-A manager Tony DeFrancesco was called up to be the interim manager of the team. The Astros, who have the youngest lineup in the majors, have struggled this year, recently completing a stretch where they lost a mind-boggling 34 out of 38 games. In addition to being the youngest, they have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball with only 3 current players making more than $750k a year (and two of those players are currently on the disabled list).
- Meanwhile, in Boston, manager Bobby Valentine is under a fresh round of scrutiny after a text message from one of his players to management was uncovered, questioning him as a manager. While General Manager Larry Luchino has said that Valentine will at least finish the season, his status with the team is questionable past October. The Red Sox are currently struggling, at more than 10 games out of the AL East, and currently sporting a worse record than the perpetually bad Baltimore Orioles despite a payroll of more than $173 million, third highest in baseball.
- Valentine has shouldered a lot of blame for the poor play of the Red Sox this season, even though injuries and an old team are at least partially to blame.
Like I said before, the Red Sox "curse" has now taken on a new twist - the firing of Terry Francona!!!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Epstein. But yea, they wasted all that good karma from the past decade and now can't blame anyone but themselves.
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