04/13/05 - Pirates (Fogg) @ Brewers (Capuano), 12:05 PM CT

[ThePurpleStorm]

Any reason Capuano only went 5 innings?

[squarepusher]

[ Any reason Capuano only went 5 innings? ]

 

Listening to the game, it didn't sounds like his pitches were doing what he wanted them to. If you walk the pitcher twice, it's not your day.

[AJAY]

Thank god we won that game. What a relief to score some runs when we needed them. If we would have lost, I think it would have put a lot of doubt in people's minds about whether this team was really better than last season's team.

 

In my opinion, this was a HUGE win.

[ThePurpleStorm]

I agree.

Losing 2 out of 3 at home to the Pirates would have hurt the fan enthusiasm. This was a very big game.

[colbyjack]

Turning the DP is a huge problem here. What the HECK is going on with the infielders?

 

I was at the bulk of today's game, thanks to Pedro, and I can tell you the double plays were cleanly fielded. Hall was slow on his relay to Spivey on one of them, might have been slow on another, and the third missed DP was just a matter of a weakly hit grounder that the Pirates runner simply out-ran the relay to 1B. I think on any other game, or with any other runner, the Crew could have just as easily been 3 for 3 in those chances.

 

If the team would have gotten one of those DPs, and if Capuano hadn't walked the leadoff guy, the Pirates never would have scored two runs. Capuano looked just a hair wild today, but I love the guy's composure. I think it's going to be a long season for the Pirates. Wilson and Bay may be good hitters, but not good enough to carry that offense.

 

And the ball that Hall hit was crushed. As soon as he hit it I thought it was long gone. When the ball was in the air I looked down at Craig Wilson, who had turned his back and slowly jogged to the wall, where he calmly turned around, put his glove up, and caught the ball with his back to the wall without leaving his feet (so you can't say he was robbed). It looked as though the ball died in the air, as Hall got a lot of air under it. It's always fun to see Hall put a charge in one, and he just missed that one (it might have been out with the roof open).

 

The balls Jenkins & Overbay hit were no-brainers. Nice to see Jenks go the opposite way, as he has seemed to be trying to hit more that way this season, which is a good sign. He'll get hot before the month is over.

 

Great win. I missed the 8th & 9th innings when things got exciting.

[homer]

bork, did you do the math on that yourself or did you find it somewhere?

 

Reason I ask is that I was trying to find bullpen splits on the web and was unsuccessful.

[clancyphile]

And the Crew had three runs taken away from them on Tuesday.

 

It was, I think, a good series. A little unlucky in the second game, but other than that, the Crew's holding up fine. The Crew's only been out of one of the games this year (the Zambrano-Sheets matchup).

 

Not pennant-winners, but a 10-15 game improvement is not out of the question, I think. Even today, Cappy was able to keep the Crew in the game. The bullpen is stepping up (minus one performance out of FIVE appearances by Phelps). Even then, I think Phelps rebounded nicely after that Cubs game. I consider Turnbow to be the biggest question mark out of the pen, and even then, he was somewhat unlucky in one appearance (Brady Clark misplays Burnitz's drive to center for a triple).

 

Cappy's kept the Crew in a pair of games, and Glover and Santos appear to be usable until Capellan and Hendrickson are ready. Just a little bad luck from a 7-1 record, in my opinion.

[DHonks]

Another great outing by a starter. Not great to watch, but great on paper. Now we just need our 3-4-5 hitters to get going. Seems like Brady or Spivey is dead on each game, but then behind them there hasn't been much until Miller and Branyan. I think Lee's due for a bustout series, and when that happens, the hit parade will begin. Another huge factor is Jenkins swinging better. I'm always a critic of Jenkins, but I do enjoy him when he's taking a good approach. It's almost like he's a bipolar performer...all-star vs guy who can't make it out of AA.

[crichar3]

Any reason Capuano only went 5 innings?

 

 

While he came out throwing strikes, it looked like he got a little cute with the corners (understandable for a guy who rarely approached 90 on the gun) starting in the second inning. His pitch count got elevated in the third when he struggled with his control and the defense behind him was leaky. I think they could have gotten one more inning out of him, but when you have Wes Helms on the bench all ready to pinch hit how could you not go to him?

 

Sarcasm aside, it looked to me that he was laboring a bit starting in the third inning, so I imagine that Ned decided to pull him an inning early rather than an inning late.

[DHarris34Phan]

Another great game! I was in attendance...El Caballo gave me a few looks, as did Jenkins. My buddy was heckling Jenkins pretty bad when he was running to the dugout, and then Jenkins hit a dinger! I guess he just needed a kick in the butt! Capuano got lucky to get out of the 3rd(?) with only giving up 2 ERs. The bullpen was solid once again, and our offense brought home runs with RISP!

 

Tomorrow should be another great gamE!