It's one game and gets all the appropriate caveats.  McLouth, Nady, Doumit and Yates all looked good.  Capps and Marte can reasonably be expected to perform better.  But, what can we expect out of Jason Bay?

Early in spring training Dejan Kovacevic wrote about Jason Bay's miscues in the outfield.  Both Bay and Kovacevic were willing to write this off as early in spring training and blamed it on the conditions in Bradenton, the wind, high skies, etc.  I found this a little more than curious because catching flyballs is something 8 year olds can do rather easily and isn't a "skill" that should have to be polished each year.  Can there be mitigating circumstances to making a play?  Of course there can and sun or wind will certainly at times make routine plays difficult.

However, Bay last night was a horror show.  He made a good running catch in the first inning and then made two other rather routine plays into adventureous ones by getting bad jumps, misreading the trajectory and taking bad routes.  But, it's the play in the ninth that blows my mind.

Brian McCann, the good hitting, rather slow-footed catcher comes to bat with two out and runners on first and third in a 9-7 game.  McCann is more of a pull hitter, yet Bay was playing him straight away two steps in front of the warning track.  Now, I won't put this all on Bay, it is also on the coaching staff but he shouldn't have been playing that deep.  But, that's the least of my concerns.  McCann's hits a high pop into shallow left or slightly left center if you want to be picky.  Bay charges hard and appears to camp under the ball.  The ball lands 20 feet to his left and behind him.  Bay wasn't available to reporters after the game but McLouth said each thought the other was going to catch it.  Having watched the replay 20 times I don't know how that can be the case.  Bay comes in apparently under the ball and stops.  He never raises his hands to indicate he may have lost it.  He never looks at McLouth in anticipation that McLouth is going to catch the ball.  He never asks for help.  It's completely inexplicable.  I don't understand what happened.

I, like virtually every other Pirate fan, hope Bay reverts to the form seen in 2005 and 2006.  But, I am becoming very concerned that we have already seen his best and even more concerned that the effort and intensity that one might expect are completely gone.  Again I hope I'm wrong, but last night wasn't a good omen.  It was a good win and there lots of positives to be taken away, but I fear we've seen the end of the good Jason Bay and the hopes of garnering something of value at the trade deadline are misguided.