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    Baseball Examiner
    Scoring in Pittsburgh
    POSTED May 8, 4:05 PM
    The Pirates take three out of three from the Giants, winning today's contest 5-4.  The Pirates scored at about their average, 5.03 runs.  That's sixth in the majors and fifth in the National League.  Pittsburgh is getting the most out of four hitters have great seasons, McLouth, Bay, Doumit and Nady.  All but Doumit have OBAs over .400; all but Bay have slugging percentages over .500.  John Russell bunched them together in the lineup, letting nothing break up the streak of batters getting on base.  Sanchez added three hits today, and if he starts hitting in front of these four, I can see the Pirates scoring going up.  The rest of the lineup is terrible, but Russell is doing a good job of getting the most out of his best hitters.
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    David Pinto
    David Pinto worked for ten years as the chief researcher for ESPN’s Baseball Tonight. Starting in 2002, David brought his research and insights to a wider audience through his blog, Baseball Musings.
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    • Nate McLouth: All-StarDuring the Brewers thumping of the Pirates this afternoon, the All-Star rosters were announced. Being a Pirate fan means that the intrigue is limited to wondering which one Pirate gets the honor of being the team's token representative in the Midsummer Classic. The Pirates almost always have one or two players actually worthy of the spot, so the question is usually, "Will the guy that deserves it get it or will it go to Mike Williams again?" With Matt Capps on the DL, it was pretty obvious that the Buccos representative had to come from the outfield, so the only question was which outfielder it would be. As usual, the powers that be (in this case the players) got it wrong and Nate McLouth is the Pirates' All-Star.Don't get me wrong, I'm a big McLouth fan. His first half has been the kind of stuff Pirate fans pray and hope happens every year. That doesn't make the guy an All-Star. He's been dropping precipitously in the last month and of the three Pirates outfielders (all of whom have better numbers than every starter on the NL team), he's the least deserving. Jason Bay is on pace for the second best year in his quietly stellar career and Xavier Nady is having what is far and away a career year. Neither one of them is really showing signs of slowing down and it's a pretty safe bet that they're both going to finish the year with much better numbers than Nate. Somehow, the headlines generated by McLouth's hot start got him the nod over two guys that deserve it much more.Regardless, part of me says, "Screw it, who cares?" McLouth seems like a good guy and making the All-Star team and going to Yankee Stadium will be the thrill of a lifetime for him. What kind of jackass would I be to lobby to take that kind of thing away from him? This game will mean more to him than it would to Bay, who won't ever top the All-Star experience of starting when the game was at PNC Park. It sucks for Nady, who's a nice guy and may never get this close to realizing Dave Littlefield's career dream for him ever again, but someone has to get screwed when it comes to the All-Star Game. Maybe he can go get drunk with Cole Hamels during the game.
    16 mins ago (Where have you Gone, Andy Van Slyke?)
    Game 87: Brewers 11 Pirates 6Getting swept sucks, but does knowing that it happened to the team that's suddenly the best team in the National League make it any better? The Brewers were the hottest team in the league and threatening the Cubs after their win over the Pirates today, THEN they went out and added CC Sabathia. And people laughed at me when I said the NL Central wouldn't suck again this year.Back on point: today was pretty much exactly what was expected. Duke and Suppan got rocked but the Brewers pen stemmed the tide and the Pirates' pen didn't. The result was an 11-6 beating that was only interesting for two reasons. First off, it because very clear why the Tigers wanted tonight to do with Denny Bautista (can we call him "Denny Arms" or is that just too annoying?) and secondly because Nate McLouth actually did some hitting today, in light of his All-Star selection, which he may or may not have known about at the time. But in the end, a loss is a loss and they're piling up for the Pirates lately.
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