At least the Pirates won heading into today’s home opener. Freddy Sanchez made his debut and he went two for four with a solo homerun. Four other Pirates had two hits and Brad Eldred and Jason Bay both went yard in the 6-3 win. On the mound, Zach Duke was solid and he picked up the win. He gave up just three runs on five hits with five strikeouts in six innings of work. Salomon Torres pitched the ninth and he picked up his fourth save already.
The earlier games didn’t go as well. The Pirates couldn’t get their bats going and Paul Maholm didn’t have his best stuff. The only Pirate run that came in the 6-1 loss was when Jack Wilson scored on Ronny Paulino’s single and Ken Griffey, Jr.’s throwing error. In the Saturday game, the Pirates scored their fare share of runs but Tony Armas, Jr. was knocked around as the Pirates lost 7-5. Adam LaRoche homered and drove in two runs while Chris Duffy singled twice and scored.
The world champion Cardinals come to town for this afternoon’s home opener. Ian Snell will try to follow through on a great start his last time out and hopefully the Pirates can knock around Braden Looper. Game time is 1:35.
