Pirates Lose 11-4; Aaron Thompson To Make MLB Debut

The Pirates lost 11-4 last night, as Ross Ohlendorf's return didn't go so well, and he wasn't helped by a throwing error by Ryan Doumit. Good for Ohlendorf to grind through three more innings after the seven-run second, I guess, although it could have gotten a lot worse if he hadn't gotten Yuniesky Betancourt to ground into a double play with the bases loaded in the fourth.

At this point, the Pirates have 60 wins, more than they had last season, but the wins are coming in so slowly now that they'll probably only get to 72 or so by the end of the year. That would still be a 15-game improvement, but it would be a disappointment if they only get that far after being in contention for so long. The pitching doesn't figure to be much better for a while, either. I'm not bemoaning the loss of Kevin Correia, but losing Paul Maholm does hurt. Aaron Thompson makes his MLB debut this afternoon and figures to be serious cannon fodder - the guy has 60 strikeouts in 95.1 minor-league innings this year, most of them at Class AA. 

Also, since I didn't mention it before, Steve Pearce is done for the year with a broken finger, and Pedro Ciriaco has been recalled to warm the bench. And Brad Lincoln will likely be in the rotation for the rest of the year - not that there are many other options at this point.

There's still no internet in my apartment, but that will finally be set up on Saturday, at which point updates will be a little more timely, as opposed to just being a couple a day.