In a game that featured one of the worst lineups I have seen from a team playing with a designated hitter, the Pirates lost 5-2 to the Indians in the finale of a three-game series. The series saw the Pirates score a total of four runs in three losses.

Clint Hurdle gave Jose Tabata the day off while placing Andrew McCutchen as DH. He also gave Brandon Wood the start at third base instead of Josh Harrison. These moves, to me, didn’t make much sense.

Every starter except McCutchen had a hit on the day but the Pirates totaled 14 runners left on base. The bottom of the order came to the plate on multiple occasions with runners in scoring position but failed to get a hit time and time again.

The Pirates wasted yet another great outing from Jeff Karstens, who pitched seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits. Tim Wood (0-1) received the loss and Tony Sipp (3-0) claimed the victory for the Indians.

Lineup:

1. Andrew McCutchen
2. Xavier Paul
3. Neil Walker
4. Garrett Jones
5. Matt Diaz
6. Lyle Overbay
7. Brandon Wood
8. Ronny Cedeno
9. Dusty Brown

McCutchen, Walker and Tabata are the only consistent hitters the Pirates have. Garrett Jones and Xavier Paul would be next on my list of semi-reliable players.  Every player listed is somebody you would have a little confidence in while at the dish but what about the others?

Brandon Wood – A player who has been horrible throughout his career but has shown he can hit (at times).

Lyle Overbay – A player who was average to begin with on the downside of his career; a waste of five million dollars.

Matt Diaz – A player who shouldn’t start more than once a week, yet is paid over two million a year.

Ronny Cedeno – A defensive shortstop that can’t hit.

Dusty Brown – A defensive player? That would be it.

Michael McKenry – A solid defensive catcher that doesn’t hit

All of these players were featured in the lineup on Sunday. That is five easy outs on a team that has received great pitching. It is amazing that the Pirates are only one game under .500.

My thought is consistent with others: Move Jones from right field to first base and bring up Alex Presley, who is hitting .335 with eight homeruns and 34 RBI.

For the first time since 2005, the Pittsburgh Pirates were .500 on Mother’s Day. This feeling didn’t last long, unfortunately.

The Pirates dropped two-of-three from the Los Angeles Dodgers at PNC Park. The final game was postponed due to rain on Thursday.

Possibly a bigger story than the Pirates reaching .500 was the fact that star centerfielder Andrew McCutchen didn’t run after being struck out on a ball that got away from the catcher on Wednesday night.

Manager Clint Hurdle decided to bench McCutchen for Thursday’s game for his decision. But, since the game only lasted two innings, he will apparently be starting in Milwaukee.

“McCutchen suspension is over, by the way,” said Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pirates beat writer Colin Dunlap via Twitter.

It was a breath of fresh air to see Hurdle put his foot down after McCutchen didn’t hustle. He proved, to me, that it won’t matter if it is Ronny Cedeno or McCutchen, every player will be held responsible for their actions.

This sends a message to not only the players but the fans of Pittsburgh. John Russell, Pirates former skipper, would never do that to any player, let alone McCutchen. This is one of the main reasons why a young team needs a manager like Hurdle instead of a “yes-man” like Russell.

Pittsburgh (18-19) heads to Milwaukee (16-21) for a three game series starting tonight.

Pitching matchups:

James McDonald (2-2, 5.65 ERA) vs. Yovani Gallardo (3-2, 5.11 ERA) Friday 8:10 ET

Jeff Karstens (2-1, 3.62 ERA) vs. Chris Narveson (1-3, 4.38 ERA) Saturday 4:10 ET

Kevin Correia (5-3, 3.25 ERA) vs. Zach Greinke (1-1, 5.40 ERA) Sunday 2:10 ET

The Brewers have owned the Pirates in recent history. Milwaukee took it to the Pirates last month at PNC Park. One game was postponed, but the Brewers defeated the Pirates in the other two games 6-0 and 4-1.

The Pirates are 11-8 on the road this season so maybe we might see a change in fortune. I don’t believe so, though.

Milwaukee will take two-of-three from the Pirates this weekend.

What does .500 generally mean for any sports club? The answer is mediocrity. To the fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates, though, it means much more.

The Pirates haven’t been .500 since 1992, coincidentally the final year of the Barry Bonds era in Pittsburgh. As of today, the Pirates are 17-17 after taking two-of-three from the bottom feeding Houston Astros.

They received three quality starts from Paul Maholm, Charlie Morton and James McDonald. Maholm and McDonald picked up no decisions and Morton picked up the victory. Solid pitching, timely hitting and “small ball” have done wonders for the Pirates this season. They haven’t been .500 on Mother’s Day since 2005 when they were 30-30.

Neil Huntington, general manager of the Pirates, has taken criticism for dealing away the Pirates best players in the past few years. Other than Jason Bay, Jose Bautista and Freddy Sanchez, the other players weren’t “great” baseball players to begin with. They were average at best. I would give the front office a pass for giving up on Bautista because he was performing like an average Major League Baseball player.

Can we give Huntington his due for what we have seen this year? I understand it is early, but a few players have played great baseball.

Charlie Morton came over in the Nate McLouth deal. The front office took criticism for allowing Morton opportunity after opportunity last season. He has improved on his accuracy this year. Although it is still a work in progress, he has turned out to be a reliable starter thus far. He is 4-1 with a 3.13 ERA. He has 24 strikeouts and 24 walks, but has shown better endurance and concentration.

Joel Hanrahan came over with Lastings Milledge in a trade with the Washington Nationals. Hanrahan has a 1.50 ERA to go along with 10 saves.

James McDonald has performed well in his last two outings. He came over in a deal that sent Octavio Dotel to the Dodgers.

Brandon Wood came over after the Angels gave up on him and has been solid defensively, patient at the plate and clutch with runners in scoring position.

Huntington has made mistakes along the way, but the original plan to blow up the team and start over was the right idea.

Who knows how long this .500 deal will last but can’t we just enjoy it? The Pirates are playing good baseball in May and that isn’t something we are accustomed to.

Remember when people around the Pittsburgh area wanted to forget about this guy named Charlie Morton? Remember when people complained about Huntington getting rid of OF Nate McLouth? It turns out, although just maybe, that Huntington has found a gem of a starter.

I don’t blame anybody for being worried about Morton’s future. Defending him was easy for me because of how lethal his stuff is. Finally, it seems that he has found that control he was lacking.

Morton (4-1) had just about the most dominating seven hit performance you will see. He pitched 7.2 innings, allowing one run on seven hits. He has struggled with walks all season long but tonight he only had one.

Key plays:

Andrew McCutchen hit a two RBI double in the second inning.

Lyle Overbay hit a solo home run in the second inning.

Brandon Wood had a huge two RBI double in the eighth inning to give the Pirates some insurance.

Boxscore:

McCutchen 2-4, 2 RBI

Tabata 1-3, BB

Jones 1-4

Walker 1-3, BB

Overbay 1-4, HR, RBI

Snyder 1-2, 2 BB

Wood 1-4, 2 RBI

Cedeno 1-4

Morton 0-3

The Pirates and Astros will play the rubber game tomorrow at 1:35 pm.

The Pittsburgh post-gazette is reporting that Pitt’s leading scorer Ashton Gibbs will return for his senior season.http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11127/1144984-100.stm?cmpid=latest.xml&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Gibbs recently declared for the NBA Draft but did not hire an agent leaving a possibility for him to pull his name out and return to Pittsburgh. Gibbs averaged 16.8 points, 2.8 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game last season. He is one of the better three-point shooters (49 percent) in the country He was named first team all-Big East a year ago.

He has been one of those prototypical Jamie Dixon players who get better year after year. He averaged 4.3 points as a freshman, 15.7 as a sophomore and 16.8 points as a senior. The general consensus was that he would return for his senior year because he has parts of his game to improve upon. For instance, he isn’t a great driver, creator for others and he struggles to generate his own shots. He needs to use screens in order to use his ability to shoot the ball. These are all areas where Gibbs will look to improve for the 2011-2012 campaign.

The starting lineup next year will feature Travon Woodall at point guard, Ashton Gibbs as shooting guard, Nasir Robinson at power forward, Dante Taylor at power forward/center and one more remaining spot to be determined. The likely candidates will be sophomore Talib Zanna or freshman Khem Birch. Gibbs’ return makes the Panthers a much better team for next season.

They will be contending for the Big East regular season championship like usual. Ultimately, this is the best decision for Ashton Gibbs.

Gary Williams confirmed on the Scott Van Pelt show on ESPN that he will be retiring.

Williams posted a 452-242 record as a head coach at Maryland. His career record is 668-380. Williams is third in career victories in the ACC behind Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina’s Dean Smith.

Williams was a fantastic coach that always had Maryland prepared every single season regardless of the talent level.

Coaching accomplishments:

He won a national championship in 2002.

He has been to two final fours.

He won the ACC regular season title three times.

He won the ACC tournament in 2004.

He won the Big East regular season in 1983.

He won the East Coast Conference in 1981.

He was a two-time coach of the year in the ACC.

Prior to the 2004-05 campaign, Williams and his Maryland teams made it to the NCAA Tournament 11 times in a row.

Gary Williams is the definition of college basketball. His work ethic, will to win and tenacity is what people love about college basketball. He has been one of the best coaches in the country in recent history.

His Terrapins finished 19-14 this past season. This will have an effect on the University of Maryland basketball program for sure.

Shooting guard Nick Faust, point guard Sterling Gibbs (brother is Ashton Gibbs) and power forward Martin Breunig are all incoming freshman next season.

Hopefully those kids decide they still want to play for the university.

Williams has made the University of Maryland’s basketball program into one of the best in the country. At 66, Williams has had a fantastic basketball career.

Russell Westbrook is a top 15 player in the NBA. Sometimes, he can act like he is a top 5 player, though.

He has shot too much for not even being the main star on the Thunder team this postseason. Russell is taking about 21 shots so far this postseason. He is taking almost the same amount of shots as superstar Kevin Durant.

It may be fine if he was connecting on more of his shots. He is shooting less than 40 percent from the floor.

He struggles to finish around the basket, pounds the ball on the floor too much and ball hogs too often. Durant needs to be the guy who should be more vocalized on getting more shots.

Durant demanded the ball against Denver in game five, and he took over scoring over 40 points in a Thunder victory.  

Westbrook attempted to take over game four in Denver after shooting 12-30 in their only loss against the Nuggets. He also was only 9-23 against the Grizzlies in game one; Durant was 11-21.

Whether you blame Durant for not demanding the ball or Westbrook for controlling the ball and taking wild shots, we could all agree that adjustments need to be made. Durant should shoot at least a few more times than Westbrook per game.

Westbrook is an outstanding player. Not only can he score, but he can facilitate as well as rebound pretty well. He needs to calm down and be under control if the Thunder wants any shot of getting by the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference semifinals

The Pittsburgh Pirates super prospect Jameson Taillon will make his professional debut tonight for the West Virginia Power.

He was the No. 2 overall selection in last year’s draft. He will face Hagerstown and Bryce Harper tonight, who was the overall No.1 selection in that same draft.

This outing is one of the most anticipated outings in recent Pirates history. This is the guy that was chosen to turn this franchise, and especially the pitching staff around. He along with Stetson Allie, have been claimed the next pitching superstars of this organization.

The reason why Taillon hasn’t pitched so far this season is because the organization was afraid of a higher workload coming out of high school. He is the 18^th best prospect in the MLB, according to Baseball America, so taking it slowly should be expected.

It should be a very interesting night in West Virginia. I don’t generally want to watch minor league games unless the Pirates top prospects are there. I watched Indianapolis play a game when 3B Pedro Alvarez was playing, but I don’t usually do that. Tonight is different; I want to watch every pitch thrown by Taillon.

This is one of the most anticipated outings in recent Pirates history. Let’s just hope it goes extremely well.

Brandon Wood

Brandon Wood should get his opportunity to show what he has to offer sometime this week.

Tomorrow would be ideal. I don’t know if we will actually see him, but I think it would be perfect.

1. The game isn’t televised in the Pittsburgh market because the Penguins will be playing. This might relieve a little bit of the pressure that may be on the 26-year old.
2. He will be facing a left-hander which should help a little.
3. John Lannan won’t overpower hitters.
4. Cedeno couldn’t do much more. He is batting just 1.97; Wood is batting .168 in his career.
5. It’s not like this Pirates team is contending. If it is all about the future then why not? Is Cedeno part of the future plans? Wood could be if he could ever do anything with the bat.
6. If they thought highly of this kid (which they must have) then why not give him some at-bats? Preferably every day at-bats.
7. Cedeno couldn’t do much more. Oops, already said that one.

I understand the whopping strikeout numbers, low walk rate and lack of production at the major league level, but he has to be given the opportunity to get at-bats consistently.

If the Pirates don’t allow him to get at-bats then why even bother picking him up in the first place?

The thought going into the season about Pirates third basemen Pedro Alvarez was his glove not his bat. While his glove has came around and performed decently well, his bat has been terrible.

He is batting an abysmal .183 with only four RBI’s.

Alvarez has the fourth most strikeouts in Major League Baseball with 22. Contact has been an issue with Alvarez in his brief career. He struck out 119 times in 95 games last season. He collected 16 home runs a year ago, but has zero this season. When is it time to panic?

Panic no, worry yes. He is in his first full season in the big leagues so obviously there is room for improvement. He has had slow starts in pretty much every level of his baseball career.

Last season he joined the club on June 16th. He was batting .197 on July 9th. We saw him jump his average to .259 after July 21st. We saw a slight spike in home run and RBI totals during that time.

His June batting average was .152, July was .255, August was .250 and September was .311.

Three reasons not to worry:

1. Pedro is a slow starter.
2. He has shown he is capable of hitting MLB pitching.
3. When he is on his game, he has the potential to do major damage.

Three reasons to worry:

1. Pedro isn’t even making contact, and when he does, it is soft.
2. His confidence seems to be a major problem.
3. We have seen high draft picks under perform before in this franchise.

He needs to be more aggressive at the plate by swinging at first pitch strikes. Most of the time he is behind early. Then, he swings at a ball in the dirt when he has two strikes. His approach is letting him down.

I am not to the point of worrying quite yet. Hopefully he will warm up with the weather.