Pittsburgh 9, Florida 2

Nice game for the Pirates. Adam LaRoche (who John Russell claims was kept out of the game because of thumb problems), Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez and (obviously) Jack Wilson all started the game out of the lineup, which meant that the Pirates' starting nine featured a number of names that would've been really foreign to us only a couple months ago - Doug Mientkiewicz, Chris Gomez, Luis 0-for-3vas. None of this bothered Ian Snell, who mowed down the Marlins and just generally looked like the true ace he can someday be, throwing hard and saving a big extra for the times when he needed a big pitch. He ended with ten strikeouts.

As you may have heard, Wilson is now officially on the DL, and Brian Bixler has been called up to take his roster spot. He pinch hit today and looked pretty clueless at the plate. In spite of that, though, there is no reason why he shouldn't start every day until Wilson gets back. 0-for-3vas is just totally worthless; he can't hit (though he went 2-for-6 with a double today), he has no upside and he can't really handle short. Today he made another error (his second on the year) when he let a ball roll through his legs.

Offensively, Nate McLouth and Xavier Nady continued to carry much of the load. McLouth had three hits and is now batting .429; Nady hit his third homer of the year in the eighth inning. The bullpen took care of business - finally - with Tyler Yates, John Grabow and Phil Dumatrait all pitching scoreless innings.