Pittsburgh Pirates Put Up Impressive Effort versus San Francisco Giants

Published: 26^th Apr 11 11:46 pm

Danielle Parenteau
Danielle Parenteau

3 Rants

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been cellar-dwellers for close to two decades, but they did not play like it against the San Francisco Giants today.

Yes, they did lose and that result was partially brought on by a couple of bad throws, but throughout the game, it was their effort that impressed me.

These plays are examples of what really stood out to me about the Pirates:

Andrew McCutchen saved an extra-base hit and a run with a fantastic catch of a ball hit by Miguel Tejada with Pablo Sandoval in scoring position in the second inning.
On a bunt, Lyle Overbay alertly threw to third instead of going for the sure out at first and wound up nailing Nate Schierholtz.
After getting a slow throw from second baseman Neil Walker and getting the putout on Freddy Sanchez in the tenth, Overbay still threw home to try and keep the game tied.

The risks did not always pay off. After all, on both plays involving Overbay, Darren Ford ended up scoring, and that throw home went to the backstop.

But what matters is that they took those risks.

They pushed the envelope, instead of sitting back on their heels. They played to win, instead of resigning themselves to their perennial loser status.

What’s more the risks were worth taking even when they did not work out, not hurting even when they did.

The first Overbay play put the speedy Ford on base, but in a situation like that, you have got to go for the lead runner if you have a real shot at him, which Overbay did. Plus, had he not made that play, Schierholtz would have been 90 feet away and would have scored anyways just as Ford did (0n a sacrifice fly by Buster Posey).

The second Overbay play looks bad on the surface — He throws the ball to the backstop, and the go-ahead run scores.

However, he still did the right thing. At that point, he had nothing to lose: Ford still would have scored if he had held onto the ball, and there were no other baserunners who could move up on a bad throw.

In fact, if Walker had shown the hunger some of his teammates did and made a stronger throw to first, preventing Overbay from having to rush his throw, the result may have differed.

What’s more the Pirates also got a strong performance out of starter Charlie Morton and some solid bullpen work.

As a baseball fan, it is nice to see Pittsburgh show any signs of being more competitive, but as a Giants fan, do they have to do it now?
They play the Colorado Rockies in their next series — now that would be the time to do it.

What do you think? Was this just a fluke? After all, the Pirates are under .500 and in fifth place in the National League Central. Or could they be on their way to turning things around?

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