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This Just In: Zack Greinke Good, Joe Beimel Bad

Well, that was terrible. Paul Maholm didn't strike out anyone in five innings and generally got singled to death, leaving behind 4-0. (To be fair, he didn't walk anyone either.) The Pirates got dominated by Zack Greinke (with a million strikeouts, as per usual), when they finally managed to touch him up a little bit, with a single by Ronny Cedeno and RBI doubles by Michael McKenry and Andrew McCutchen. At that point, the Brewers brought in Francisco Rodriguez, who got Xavier Paul to ground out.

And that's when it got really bad. Joe Beimel came in and promptly gave up massive home runs to both Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder that landed in almost exactly the same spot in right field. (The main difference was that Fielder's home run got to that spot faster.) Honestly, I don't even know what Beimel is doing on the team at this point; I've never felt comfortable with him out there, and the superior Tony Watson just got sent to the minors. I suppose you keep Beimel so that you have him and Watson in September, but I don't know how the Pirates could ever feel good about Beimel in a high-leverage situation.

But that's not all! The inning dragged on after that, and Rodriguez's turn in the lineup came up. The Brewers sent him out there to bat, and he hit a grounder to first. Garrett Jones fielded it and appeared to trot to first for a moment before it became clear that Rodriguez actually had a chance of being safe. Rodriguez beat him to the bag, and Jones could have tagged Rodriguez instead, but he didn't, and K-Rod ended up with his first career hit, which the entire Brewers bench thought was hilarious. I sure am glad somebody got a laugh out of this one.