I was down at PNC this afternoon for an especially cold, windy, sometimes rainy Sunday afternoon game against the Reds. The Pirates came away with the victory 5-3, and with it their first series sweep of the year. Starter Paul Maholm was efficient over his 6.2 innings, striking out 5 and only allowing 2 runs. Meanwhile, the offense only managed to do anything in one inning, the 4th, but that one inning netted all 5 Pirates runs, and would be enough for the win.
Octavio Dotel came in for the 9th and immediately allowed a Jay Bruce homer. If you look at Dotel’s splits against lefties, the Bruse homerun isn’t really a surprise. For his career, Dotel’s FIP against southpaws is 4.68, compared to 2.80 against righties. In short, he has always struggled against left handed batters. In a 3 run game with Bruce as the only lefty set to come up, I’m fine with using Dotel. But in a tighter game, I think JR would be wise to go another direction against left handed batters.
On the bright side, Lastings Milledge seems to have something extra this year that I didn’t really see last year. At the plate, he’s been mostly a single hitter, and that’s going to have to improve for him to stick as a corner outfielder. However, he made several nice defensive plays today, plays I’m convinced he would not have made last season after coming over from Washington.
EDIT: I forgot to add that there were two fly balls to left that I found interesting in light of recent discussion on outfield positioning. Without looking at my score book, I don’t know the innings in which they occurred but, there was one hit toward the north side notch that Milledge managed to corral due to his positioning. Then later there was ball hit down the line that probably would have been an out were the outfield positioned “traditionally” but it turned into an RBI single due to the left-center shift the team employs at home. Don’t try to divine any great wisdom from that, just take it as 2 anecdotal plays that occurred in one particular game.
Its also worth noting that this was my first game in my regular plan seats, since opening day I was over on the first base side. My seats down in section 27 provide a nice view as well as easy bathroom and concession access. All told, it was a great day at the ballpark despite the cold.
