Why?

The 14 inning game in Cincinnati was really a microcosm of what things have been like for the Pirates recently. The whole game was agonizing for many, even if you were falling asleep at the end. There are two things that have me wondering why I seemingly wasted my time watching whatever this was that just occurred, well maybe three or four.

One is the inexplicable decision to remove Wandy Rodriguez from the game with the club up two runs. Wandy was cruising and Hurdle decided enough was enough as he only needed one more out to get out of the 7th. With a pitch count that had not touched 90 or barely did, Hurdle summons the bullpen and brings in Jared Hughes. A double then is placed down the line and in the corner, badly played by Tabata, that allowed two runs to score. It was deflating.

A decision that would later rear its head later in the game, Hurdle thinking he needed speed on the bases, pinch ran for Garrett Jones with Chase d'Arnaud. This would come back to bite them, not with d'Arnaud's eating of the winning hit, but the fact that with the bases loaded in the 14th, d'Arnaud takes a stupid swing. What would have been nice would be to have a run producer like Jones up in that position, but apparently we needed speed on the bases.

The offense did no favors for itself, despite what Clint Hurdle did. In the 14th the bases are loaded with no outs. NO OUTS. No run is scored. How? Well having d'Arnaud and Pedro flail at breaking pitches and Tabata weekly grounding out to first, that is a very possible outcome. This team really needed a guy like Pedro to step up or needs a guy like Neil Walker back to drive in runs. Without them doing that, the lineup looks horrible.

Finally, Ryan Ludwick. He might be overtaking Ryan Braun as my least liked player. Ludwick is not like Braun in that he is not like able, but the fact that he did nothing here last year and has seemingly killed us all year, irritates the crap out of me. I fully expect that Kevin Correa will end up in St. Louis next year and probably no hit the Pirates at some point, picking up the mantle of hated ex Bucco from Ludwick.