This might be a new low. This was horrible. The matinee was broadcast on WGN and I was half tempted to hunker down and watch. I didn’t (guilty conscience prevents me from doing so) and am mightily glad I didn’t.
The Cubs jumped out early with a four run first off of Charlie Morton. The main damage was a three run homer from Kosuke Fukudome. Then Morton didn’t make it out of the second. Chicago sent 14 men to the plate in a 10 run outburst. Morton was pulled for Chris Bootcheck who was greeted very rudely. Morton (three outs and 10 earned runs) and Bootcheck (seven outs and seven runs scored) saw their ERAs take a big hit. Steven Jackson relieved Bootcheck after a bases loaded triple from Derrek Lee plated three runners with one out in the fourth. Jackson went the rest of the way and didn’t allow a run. Hard to say if the Cubs were even trying at that point as they had already built a 17-2 lead.
The beneficiary of all that support was rookie Randy Wells who allowed two runs in six carefree innings.
The Good
Jackson’s effort.
Garrett Jones had two hits.
The Bad
Good grief – 17 runs, 18 hits. Mark it down as one of those days.
The Rest
Lee drove in seven runs, matching a career high set earlier this season on July 2.
In addition to the win, Wells picked up his first multi-hit game in the Show.
Last time the Pirates gave up that many runs was back in 2000 – before PNC was even open. In that game, catcher Keith Osik allowed five 9th inning runs. Last time the Bucs were beaten by 15 runs or more was 4/5/03. That was Jeff D’Amico’s Pirates debut.
This was the 9th time in 2009 that Pirate pitchers allowed 15 or more hits. Pirate hitters have had 15 or more hits six time, doing it just once in the past two months.
