Saturday Night Fever

Reds starter Micah Owings after the Pirates put up 4 in the bottom of the 1st.

Coming off the 4-0, 5 hit loss last night, the offense came ready to play, tallying 8 runs on 13 hits. 4 runs in the bottom of the 1st got the Pirates off to what you could call a good start. In his second game back from an oblique injury, linchpin Nate McLouth looked to be in prime condition going 3-5 and making a few solid defensive plays, including a bullet to third that would have been a definite outfield assist had Andy LaRoche not dropped the ball.

The left side of the infield, Ramon Vazquez and our favorite LaRoche brother (Andy), produced 4 runs despite going a combined 1-6 at the plate. While Adam LaRoche stayed hot at the dish going 2-3.

Ohlendorf earned his third win of the season, going 6 innings while holding the Reds to only 3 runs, all coming off a Alex Gonzalez homerun in the 4th inning that dinged the Left Field foul pole. The bullpen wasn't at its best tonight, but did well enough to preserve the win. Burnett, Grabow, and Capps pitched the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings respectively. Grabow gave up an unearned run in the 8th, and Capps gave up 2 earned off of 5 hits in the 9th.

Game Notes

• McLouth: 3-5, 3 runs, 1 RBI & 1 SB
• Adam LaRoche: 2-3, 2 runs
• Ohlendorf (W): 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 Ks
• The Pirates are now 4-0 on Saturdays, outscoring opponents 38 to 9.

Tomorrow afternoon will close out the series with the Reds before the Brewers come to town for a brief 2 game series. Karstens is scheduled to start against Johnny Cueto. His last time out against the Buccos, Cueto gave up 4 earned runs on 8 hits in 6 innings, and struck out 9.

McLouth Signs

• Buccos signed All-Star McLouth today to avoid arbitration. McLouth signed through 2011 with a club option for 2012
  
• Club Option for 2012 is $10.65 Million
• Incentive Bonuses for the total contract could reach a total of $1.25 mil.

With the signing of Doumit, Maholm and now McLouth, it finally seems as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but at the end of the day does this really make that big of a difference in the short term?. Realistically, there is little if no chance of us winning for the next few years and so the signing of these three players may sound great at first but when Alvarez, Bryan Morris, Brad Lincoln are all in Pittsburgh in about 3 years is the core of our team even going to be signed then? Would we want these three signed then? These are all questions going into these signings but at the time it may look promising.