It is kinda funny how a ball blasting off into a Pittsburgh night sky can level you. That is what happened when Ryan Howard took the first pitch he saw from Phil Dumatrait and placed it high up in the seats. I am sure many could see this one coming. It was probably not a good feeling when Steven Jackson allowed two men to get on. It might have been when Jimmy Rollins held up from tagging on a Chase Utley flyball. There is no doubt most would have felt weird when Howard stepped to the plate.
Despite the loss in extras, the Pirates once again had a chance to put this game away well before the ninth inning, when this night they needed a Brandon Moss home run to force extras.
There were stranded runners in scoring position. Misplayed balls in the outfield. Ineffective later inning bullpen pitching. Base running mistakes. All cost the team a chance at winning the game earlier, much as was the case the night before.
To be honest though we are going to have that with a younger team. It would be a problem if this was a team of older players doing these same mistakes, instead we have one of the youngest teams in the majors, simply learning how to play big league baseball.
If there is any good to come from defeats like this one, it is that they were competitive. Forcing extras against he defending world champs was pretty impressive, especially coming back on them. Then the champs showed why they are champs with their devastating lineup.
As has been said before, the rest of this season has nothing to do with wins or losses, though it would be nice to win. It is instead more growing pains of things to come and hopefully really great things to come.
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