Well, there wasn't much to like about this one. Jair Jurrjens had no problems with the Pirates. He looked decent - his fastball regularly hits 93 and he has a very good changeup - but he wasn't throwing many breaking pitches, and hitters should've been able to settle it and rap out a few hits just on guesswork. But they didn't. Adam LaRoche was awful, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, and the bottom third of the lineup did nothing.

Tom Gorzelanny still managed to keep the Bucs in the game despite not really pitching that impressively, and the Bucs were down by one until the eighth. However, Damaso Marte went out again and pitched like he was trying to lose. He got one out, allowed four runs (including a long homer by Mark Teixeira) and now has a remarkable 81.00 ERA. Evan Meek made his major league debut after that, but it was hard to get a good look at him because he only threw nine pitches. It looked like his fastball is pretty good - 92 MPH or so with good movement. However, he still managed to give up two runs after allowing a three-run jack to Yunel Escobar.

On the bright side, Ryan Doumit had a good game, with two hits and a couple of good stops behind the plate, and Freddy Sanchez was good on both sides of the ball until an error late in the game. Also, Tyler Yates does throw hard.

A few bits of miscellany:

-P- If you happen to be looking for a place to convene online while watching the game, the new commenting system here at Bucs Dugout is the bees knees. Your comments upload instantly, and the comments autorefresh, so you don't have to reload the page every few minutes. I hope that won't be viewed as competitive or too salesman-like; I'm just pointing out that the new comment system is really cool.

-P- Hey Bucdaddy, I just can't get email through to your address. Could you send me an email from a different address?Thanks.

-P- Seriously, how does a photo like this get by Major League Baseball? Shouldn't someone be looking at these things?