The Great American Beat Down.

Link to Box Score and Video Highlights

The Pirates came out of the gate swinging, and never looked back which led to a dominating 10-2 win in Cincinnati Saturday afternoon.

A ton of positives to come out of this game, including:

• Nyjer Morgan having an out of this world game, going (deep breath) : 3-4, reaching base 4 times, stealing 2 bases, having an rbi, scoring 2 runs, and most impressively, considering he isn't the biggest guy, running over catcher Ramon Hernandez at home plate AND breaking up a double play in the 9th inning which eventually gave Doumit and LaRoche the ability to go back-to-back with 2 outs.
• Paul Maholm continuing his dominance throwing 7 innings giving up 1 run. His ERA this year is 1.32. This year's Cliff Lee? - they seem to have the same qualities..
• Ryan Doumit having a break out game, going 3 for 5 with a Grand Slam.
• Nate Mclouth continuing to prove that last year wasn't a fluke, hitting his 2nd home run and adding 3 RBIs.
  
• Adam LaRoche, though only 1-5 today, finally hitting a home run. He had another extra base hit / possible home run robbed by Willy Tavares earlier in the game and also hit another ball to the warning track. It looks like he saw the ball well all day today.
  
• Bob Walk. He has been money throughout this season with in-game predictions. Predicted the LaRoche home run and Nyjer almost hitting the cover off of the ball in the 9th inning.
• Andy LaRoche's consistency. 0-5 today - .000 average for the season. All you can do is laugh.
  

In closing :

• Did any of you guys catch Peter Gammons say the Pirates were going to the World Series? Happened on Baseball Tonight earlier this week but was never posted. Basically said the key to geting to the World Series is Eric Hinske, as he's been in the World Series the last two years as a member of the Red Sox and Rays. Obvisually this was a joke, but when was the last time anyone with any credibility on ESPN mentioned the Pirates and World Series in the same sentence? 1992? 1997? .. Something to think about ..
• Happy Easter and Go Pens.