Opening Day

    Yesterday Bucco fans were able to breathe again because the Pittsburgh Pirates kicked off their 2012 campaign. Yes, Baseball is finally back and A record crowd of 39,585 (although a large amount of Philly fans attended) watched newly acquired Erik Bedard go toe-to-toe with future Hall of Famer Roy Halladay. Yes, Roy did get the last laugh by pitching a gem in a 1-0 victory over the Bucs, but it gave us the first glimpse of Bedard who looked like the pitcher he was when he went 13-5 for Baltimore in 2007. That year he had a 3.17 ERA while striking out 10.9 batters per 9 innings.* He also placed 5th in Cy Young voting that year. Bedard held the semi-powerful Phillies lineup (Chase Utley and Ryan Howard were not in the lineup due to injury) to 6 hits and 1 run in seven innings of work. He only walked one and struck out 4 (2 were to Halladay). 

     The Pirate offense was non existent which doesn't bother me because of the pitcher they faced. They did start the game off with a single by Alex Presley then a swinging bunt single by Jose Tabata but got no-hit the rest of the way. Now some of you fans are thinking "Hey, it's going to be yet another long year. They got no hit in the last 8 innings of the game." but don't get discouraged so easily, They faced Roy Halladay, the man who is only one of two pitchers to throw a no-hitter in the playoffs. This team should be fine and if they can get the pitching that Erik Bedard showed game 1 then it should be a good summer in the Burgh.

*-http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bedarer01.shtml

Stud/Dud of the game

Stud: Erik Bedard - 7 IN 6 H 1 R 1 ER 4 K 1 W

Dud:  Jose Tabata/Andrew McCutchen - Tabata's poor play on the sac fly that turned out to be the only run of the game should have been a double play. Tabata misplayed the fly ball which, in-turn, caused his set up for the throw home to be off allowing the slow-running Ty Wigginton (Yes, That Ty Wigginton) to score the winning run.
          I can't believe after game 1 I'm already giving Cutch a dud nomination, but he came to the plate in the first with runners on first and second and grounded into a double play. No hits were allowed after that moment in the game for the Bucs. This leads to something I heard from many (including the radio post game) in which they were asking why Cutch didn't bunt in that situation. #HURDLED. Andrew McCutchen is our hitter right now. He posted an .820 OPS last year with 23 HR and 83 RBI's (34 more than in 2010) He only grounded into 7 double plays in 158 games. Yes, I understand his speed and the "surprise factor" as well as the few chances you get to score on "Doc" Halladay but why would you even think about taking the bat out of your best players hand.

Turning Point

Pitching to Carlos Ruiz in the 7th with runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out. Why not pitch around him to get to Freddy Galvis who in his first 2 at bats grounded into 2 Double Plays.#HURDLED

Final Thoughts

--Chris Resop and Juan Cruz pitched the 8th and 9th respectively.

Resop 1 IN 1 H (Halladay Ouch!) 1 W 2 K

Cruz 1 IN 1 H 2 K

--Pedro Alvarez only struck out once in the game and appeared to work the count a bit. Although he missed on a couple of balls that should have been crushed. He also had a nice ovation when announced during the pre game lineups.

--Speaking of ovations, Nate McLouth got a huge one before his pinch-hit at bat with one on in the 8th. He struck out.

Lastly I will be posting a this day in 1992 segment here. Yes, the last year the Pirates did anything.

On this date 4/5/1992 There was no game but on 4/6/92 the Buccos started their season off with a 2-0 shutout of the Montreal Expos at Three Rivers Stadium, Doug Drabek went 8 IN scattering 6 hits while striking out 3 and walking 1. He also helped himself out with an RBI single in the 2nd scoring Steve Buechele. Andy Van Slyke went 0-3 with a Walk. He would also get picked off at first.