Sweep of the Brewers to end the 1st half

WHAT.

You know, I was thinking in the back of my head coming into this series, "the Bucs are playing pretty well, and the Brewers are lousy right now, they could sweep and get to 9 straight wins." But that would've been crazy, so I refused to indulge myself in that train of thought further.

So much for that.

28 June - Brewers 3 Pirates 10 - So the Pirates bats were on fire throughout most of their west coast swing. That fire was doused a bit by Felix Hernandez, but the Bucs went straight back to smashing mode their next opportunity.

Gerrit Cole started off the game with and extremely rocky top of the first, which included, but was not limited to:

1. A four pitch walk to start the game
2. A hit batter with the bases loaded
3. Four singles

A double play helped him eventually eke his way out, but the whole time you just sat there thinking Oh God, What If Something Is Wrong With Cole.

But Cole pulled himself together, and despite some control issues he managed to navigate through the sixth without allowing anymore runs. Thank god for that.

The other half of the story was the offensplosion that happened in the bottom of the second inning. The Pirates were relentless that inning, put balls into play everywhere, and took advantage of a costly Jean Segura error to plate 7 runs. Man, it musta been nice for Cole to emerge from the dugout in the third up 4 instead of down 3.

Also, poor Johnny Hellweg making his MLB debut there. Talk about getting thrown into the fire. A start on the road against the hottest team in the majors by far, and then to get shoddy defense on top of that. Just unfair.

Ryan Reid closed out the game with 3 scoreless frames to earn an "old school" save. W7

29 June - Brewers 1 Pirates 2 - The Pirates couldn't muster much this game against 27 year old starter Donovan Hand, but the two solo shots by Pedro and Garrett (Pedro's was a monster shot, bounced off a tree into the Allegheny) stood up.

Liriano turned in another Game Score 59 start (why am I only keeping track of this for him??), a respectable mark of consistency from a pitcher who's been anything but consistent for the bulk of his career.

Watson-Melancon-Grilli trio turned in a combined perfect 3 innings to end the game and get the Bucs the victory. W8

29 June - Brewers 1 Pirates 2 F/14 -  Unfortunately, I did not have the pleasure of watching this game, as I was at SafeCo field with my dad, taking in a 7-6 loss by the Mariners to the Cubs (It was 7-1, but the M's made it exciting!). However, due to the fact that the game was delayed and then inhumanely extended to the 14th, I was able to follow the game on my phone as I walked with my dad back home from the ballpark.

Morton was shelved after 2 IP due to the weather, and then the Vin Bizzaro ride continued as he put in FIVE PERFECT RELIEF INNINGS to get the game to the 7th.

The Pirates turned a 1-0 deficit in the 8th into a tie ballgame on a McCutchen single (what was I talking about with the offense outbursts earlier? I'm dumb. There's no such thing as being on "fire." I guess you just can't sustain that kind of hitting, even against the Brewers).

And so the score remained until the 14th (even through a bottom of the 13th 1 out situation in which Pedro GIDPed to the end the inning, much to my smartphone watching chagrin) until Russell Martin (who seems to have this knack for picking good spots to add some offense) hit a grounder up the middle scoring Gaby Sanchez.

It's impossible not to praise the bullpen here. But what is there to say about them that hasn't been said. The Shark Tank is dangerous and there's no two ways about it.

W9

51-30. That's 81 games. Halfway there. As an astute poster on bucsdugout said earlier: "51x2 = ??? No that can't be right. 51+51=??? No that's not right either."

At the moment I'm not troubling myself too much with what the Pirates will be like in September. Some forward thinking is good, but for the most part, as a fan, it's time to enjoy this ride and see how far it can take us.

All I know for sure is that the Pirates have 51 wins by the end of June. And for now that's enough. More than enough.

Welcome to PNC Park, Phillies. Good Luck.