The Pirates have won their last two games and three out of their last four to push themselves eight games below .500. Only in the NL Central would that put a team in contention but the Pirates, despite having another mediocre season, stand just a game and a half back of the second place Cubs and a large but not insurmountable 8 1/2 games back of the first place Brewers.
Freddy Sanchez is starting to heat up. He won’t give you much power, but that batting average is now on the cusp of .300. He’s done a great job against left handed pitching (.364/.394/.500) and he’s hitting .345 in June after going .317 May. And he also gives the Pirates better value as a second baseman. At third, he’s a slappy but a .300 hitting second baseman is a commodity with or without power.
Jason Bay’s OPS is down exactly 100 points from last year. While that’s disappointing, you also know he’s going to find his stroke and that might be when the Pirates make their push. Regardless, at $3.25 million this year, he’s a huge bargain no matter what he does.
If I had to bet, it’ll be Tom Gorzellany who gets the nod in the All Star game. He had a couple of rough starts there a week and change ago but he got back on track with a nice one last night. You can’t complain with a 3.04 ERA and a 7-4 record. In fact he already has as many wins as the team leader had last year and he could become the first Pirate since Todd Ritchie in 1999 to win 15 games in a season.
The Pirates continue their series with the Mariners and it’ll be Paul Maholm going up against a struggling Jeff Weaver. I like our chances at winning a third straight game.
