Location: Pittsburgh, Pa. | Ballpark: PNC Park (38,496) | Spring Training: Bradenton, Fla.
Principal Owner: Bob Nutting | CEO: Frank Coonelly | GM: Neal Huntington | Manager: John Russell | World Championships: 5
When Ian Snell is right, his fastball routinely sits in the 92-94 mph range and tops out at 96 mph.
However, the right-hander has struggled to get his heater past 90 mph this season, and he is 2-2 with a 5.05 ERA after nine starts.
"I stink, plain and simple," Snell said Friday, a day after his shortest outing of the season -- six runs in four innings of a no-decision at St. Louis. "I have one good start then one bad start. There's no consistency. I don't have a feel for anything right now. It's a real struggle. I don't feel comfortable."
Manager John Russell has enough confidence in Snell that he made him the Opening Day starter this season. While Snell was 9-12 last season, he had a fine 3.76 ERA.
"I'm not worried about him because he's a fierce competitor and he wants to do well," Russell said. "He is just having a real hard time finding a groove. He'll find it, though, and once he does he'll be fine."
CUBS 7, PIRATES 4: Left-hander Tom Gorzelanny was tagged for four home runs as the Pirates fell to 0-7 against the Cubs this season. Alfonso Soriano hit homers in each of the first two innings as the Cubs built a 6-0 lead against Gorzelanny (3-4), who gave up seven runs and seven hits in six innings with two walks and three strikeouts.
Jason Bay and Doug Mientkiewicz homered in the eighth inning for the Pirates, who have lost 10 straight games to the Cubs dating to last season. That is the Pirates' longest losing streak against the Cubs since dropping 10 in a row during the 1890-91 seasons.
Copyright (C) 2008 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.
After we sweep the Astros in Houston, we have a seven game homestand against the struggling Padres and the Rockies. The defending NL champs may not do as well in PNC.
Back to Back wins!! JVB was decent, Malholm was awesome and the bats woke up. How about Freddie? Get the brooms out boys, Snelly will shut them down tomorrow.
Now the question is who do we go after to get us in position to make a run at this thing? (I'm kidding, I'm not that crazy)
Tremendous effort when we needed a SP to give us a solid outing saving the bullpen. Through 8 innings he has only given up 5 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and 5 K's. I know he could probably make a complete game, but he has already thrown 108 through 8 and maybe we can let him have the 9th inning off. Maholm has given this team about 8 or 9 quality starts in the past
(POLL)
This was done about 2 weeks ago. But it appears things have changed. Our Buccos our on the verge of getting swept in a four game series by lowly Colorado. We are currently nine games under with a ton of baseball left. How will the battlin' Bucs finish.
If you pick any of the top 4, you're as far from reality as I was Until July 11th.
