New Lows

The Pirates lose; we've grown accustomed to that. It's how they lose that wears you down. Management trades favorite and productive players for prospects who may be years away, if they pan out at all. Field management has some strange ideas about strategy and accountability. (More on that later.) Last night the players showed they might have the physical skills to play with the big boys after all, if they could keep their heads glued on.

Zach Duke outpitched Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter into the seventh inning. The Cardinals were ahead, but all three of their runs were unearned. Two came when Ronny Cedeno appeared to look away from what should have been a first-inning-ending grounder to prolong the inning, allowing Yadier Molina to drive in two runs with a single against a bizarrely positioned infield. Normally reliable Andy LaRoche's throwing error opened the door for St. Louis' third run. (First baseman Garret Jones also botched a cutoff play to extend an inning, but Duke pitched out of it.)

The Pirates scratched out a couple of runs and had the Cardinals on the ropes in the eighth, with LaRoche on third, Andrew McCutcheon on first and Jones at the plate. Jones hit a sharp one-hopper to the pitcher, who caught LaRoche between third and home. He prolonged the rundown long enough for McCutcheon to make third and Jones to get to second, so the end result should have been second and third and one out, a net gain considering the ground ball.

Except that LaRoche forgot to let himself be tagged and went all the way back to third, currently occupied by McCutcheon. Catcher Molina properly tagged McCutcheon out, and the base legally belonged to LaRoche. La Roche didn't know the rule and stepped toward the dugout, allowing Molina to tag him as well to complete the double play. Only in Pittsburgh can a ground ball to the pitcher with runners on first and third and none out turn into a runner on second and two out.

Not a problem; they still got Jones home to tie the game. Then, in the ninth, Akimori Iwamura tagged the wrong hand of a sliding Cardinals runner, wasting a perfect throw from Ryan Doumit and allowing a stolen base. The runner eventually scored and the Cards won 4-3.

Hitting, pitching, and fielding are the core of the game; the players are primarily responsible for those. ("It's a simple fame. You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball.") Cutoff plays, base running are also on the players, but those are areas management has much more control over. If players can't keep their heads in the game, it's the manager's job to see that they do. (Lastings Milledge was tagged out halfway between second and third Thursday night after hitting a bases loaded double; Milledge thought the ball was a home run and had entered his grand slam trot.)

This started as a rant for the players to get their heads out of their asses. People can live with a team that gets out talented by the opposition if the effort is there, but the Pirates make too many dumb mistakes to earn much of that trust. Watching the game and reading Dejan Kovacevic in today's paper had me ginned up for a John Russell rant in a day or two.