Pirates go 4-3 on their final West Coast trip

@ Padres (2-1)
@ Giants (2-2)

I was hoping for a bit of a winning streak against some lighter opponents, but this'll do. As the Pirates limped into Petco Park, and the fans gritted their teeth with memories of last year's San Disaster in their minds, Liriano took the mound in game 1 and shut the Pads down. He threw 7 scoreless and struck out 13. There's been some debate on whether or not Liriano is an "ace" but that's one of the things an ace would do, for sure. Pirates win 3-1.

The Pirates blew out the Padres the next night behind a great start by A.J. Burnett and a 5-run 7th inning. Also, weirdly the Pirates hit 3 triples that night, one each by Pedro Alvarez (!), Andrew McCutchen, and Josh Harrison. The last two occurring in that 7th inning. Burnett's only failing was giving up a solo shot to Jedd Gyorko. Pirates win 8-1.

The Pirates couldn't get the sweep though as Cole had another of his shaky-holding-it-together-bend-but-don't-break type starts, giving up 2 runs on 10 hits (9 singles and a double) over 6 innings, walking none and striking out 5. The score was 2-1. The offense couldn't get anything going against Ian Kennedy which was disappointing, because it was certainly a winnable game given the pitching performance. Most of us were fine with the loss though and were happy to sail up the coast to SF on the back of a series win.

I didn't have the opportunity to watch too much of the Giants series because, ironically, I was on a trip to San Francisco. I did get to see the second game of the series though with some of my old college friends which was a treat! Both to hang out with them and take in my 2nd Bucco game of the year (after the one in Seattle in June). Plus AT&T Park is beautiful.

The Bucs won game 1 10-5 on the back of an offensive explosion, which was due in part to Matt Cain being hit on his pitching arm by a line drive and getting knocked out early (Cain would head to the DL, though I from my understanding that has more to do with the Giants being precautionary with one of their best pitchers while they are out of contention than Cain being really seriously hurt). This outburst helped erase another poor start from Jeff Locke who only made it through 4 innings. Again, he gave up many hits and walks and isn't showing many signs of improving. I continue to hold my opinion last I espoused it, which is that he needs some extended rest and has the ability to be a quality mid rotation guy.

Game 2 was the game I went to, and it was a fun, if a bit understated game. The moment of the game was no doubt Barmes 3 run home run to left that just made it over the wall. On replays you see that Barmes managed to somehow dig out a tough down and in slider from Madison Bumgarner and pop it over the fence. It wasn't quite as crazy as the Inge HR I saw in Seattle in terms of insanity in a vacuum, but the timing could not have been better. Morton pitched very well in this game, scattering 7 hits and a walk to give up just one run over 7 2/3 innings. The Pirates won 3-1.

In game 3 Liriano had an uncharacteristically bad start, throwing just 4 innings, his first bad start since that awful game in Coors Field. The Pirates put up a bit of a fight to get back in it but couldn't make up the difference against Tim Lincecum and the Giant bullpen, as the Bucs fell 6-3. The Cardinals also caught up to the Pirates to gain a share of 1st in the Central on this night.

Game 4 saw the Pirates get shutout by Ryan Vogelsong over 8 innings, who's been awful this year. They lost 4-0. Andrew Lambo (who's been underwhelming, it's too early to pass any word on him in terms of ML stats, but so far he's been a disappointment), Andrew McCutchen, and Felix Pie (really?) got the only hits of the afternoon. Burnett was fine through 7 innings, but the Giants got to him in the 8th to put the game out of reach of the Bucs' impotent offense.

Series split. A middle of the road road performance, could've gone better of course, but while Marte is on the DL and Grilli is working his way back, the Pirates job is to "avoid the Grand Canyon", and as I've said before, playing 0.500 ball on the road is fine. It's not giving you any cushion of course, but it's fine. Let's head back to da Burgh to host our good buddies the Brewers.

A couple other notes. On Tuesday before the Brewers series started the Bucs made a move trading one of their young middle infield prospects Dilson Herrera and a PTBNL to acquire Marlon Byrd from the Mets after they claimed him off waivers (which was surprising in its own right, you'd think someone like the Reds would've blocked the Bucs). The Pirates also got John Buck to bolster their catching depth, freeing up Tony Sanchez for some pinch hit appearances.

This is a good trade in my mind. Byrd is having a spectacular year at age 36 (due in part to his 0.350 BABIP, counteracting his 26% K rate), though that's not why I like it. At this point just having another quality player is a good thing, as the depth will really help the Bucs. And that's not to mention that Byrd's a great right handed bats against lefties, and the Pirates have sorely been needing more firepower against LHP. Hererra's a good prospect but he's very young and the Pirates have fantastic depth in the minors. This is the kind of trade that needed to happen, because if there's a chance Byrd can help the big league club now while the Bucs are knocking on the playoff door, it's worth the probability that Hererra will pan out to give yourself that opportunity. In some ways this is like what a Nate Schierholtz-y deadline trade could have been, just a bit lower stakes (later in the season, with lower leverage players being involved).

The Pirates don't play a team that is not the Brewers or Cardinals until September 9th, when they head to Arlington for their last interleague matchup of the year.

Bring on the Crew. We're a 1/2 game out of the lead but that could easily change tonight. The Cardinals are facing the Reds after winning the first game of their set in St. Louis last night.