It's Like Playing Hopscotch

That seems to be the theme of the Pirates season thus far. Win a great game, crushed, win, almost get no hit, 10 runs, then get shutout.
I mean there were two bright spots today. One was Snell, who other than one badly placed 87 mph fastball he might get a win. The other would be Nyjer Morgan. The Buccos had 3 hits, he had two of them. Through his first 6 games on the road as an everyday player, he's hitting .423 with 5 R.B.I.'s and 3 stolen bases. In retrospect, he stole 9 all of last year.
Imagine the uproar from people, including this blog about bringing McCutchen to the majors if Nyjer was not producing. With him being able to be a serviceable lead off man this is letting McCutchen get even more work in AAA before he does come up in early June.

Notes

• The bullpen looked good, even though Chavo got saved by a triple play in the bottom of the 8th
  
• Harang looked phenomenal, just ran into him on a day where he had it rollin.
• A Key to the series was McLouth and Doumit. In the win they were a combined 5-8, 2 HR's, 7 R.B.I.'s. In the loss, 0-7 with 3 K's.
• I truly hope the Pirates do keep to the key of the season.. and Happy Easter
  

Farm Hands

The AAA Indianapolis Indians dropped their 2nd in a row against the Toledo Mud Hens on Friday to start off the season. '04 first rounder Neil Walker went 1-4 with a game tying Solo Home run in the bottom of the 7th, but the bullpen couldn't hold up, giving up 1 run in the top of the 8th and 9th innings. Leadoff man Andrew McCutchen went 2-4 with a double, 1 run scored, and a stolen base. The Indians will take on the Mud Hens tonight in the 3rd of 4 games with Tom Gorzelanny on the mound.

Meanwhile in AA Altoona, the Curve fell, for a third consecutive game, to the Erie SeaWolves 2-0. The Curve outhit the SeaWolves 7 to 3, but went 0-5 with runners in scoring position. Jose Tabata went 1-4 with a double, but left 3 men on base and grounded into a double play. The Curve and SeaWolves at set to square off at 1:05 this afternoon in Erie to wrap up the first series of each team's season.
With a combined record of 0-5 between the Curve and Indians, the Lynchburg Hillcats posted their second consecutive win of the season with a 14-7 victory over the Potomac Nationals. The Hillcats worked over the National pitchers for 17 hits, none of which came from heralded first-round draft pick Pedro Alvarez, who went 0-5. Rough day for Alvarez as he also had 2 fielding errors.