Back under .500

Blogging two days in a row. Hmm, two days in a row....the Pirates haven't won consecutive games yet. It's been W-L-W-L-L-W-L to put them back below .500.

Giving up 7 runs in the first three innings is not a good way to win a home opener. 7-0 Cubbies was the score when I went down for track practice. In spite of this, somehow the Pirates managed to battle back and make it 8-8 in the bottom of the ninth when I got in my car to come home from practice. Jose Bautista inexplicably tried to bunt home Bixler from third base with one out in the bottom of the 9th to no avail. So, the game went on to the 10th, 11th, and 12th. Capps pitched solid in the 10th and 11th, but he couldn't go a third inning.

So, cue the last pitcher remaining in the bullpen. Rule 5 pickup Evan Meek. This guy has promise (about two years from now), but per the rules the Pirates must keep him on the Major League roster for the whole year or else they give him back to Tampa Bay. So, in he comes and the results were predictable - walk and stolen base, walk, wild pitch, intentional walk and before you know it it's 10-8. You feel bad for the kid since he's never pitched above AA before, but he just needs to relax and throw some strikes. Oh well. We'll see what happens Wednesday. At least the weather was beautiful and they fought back.

Beth told me tonight she's glad when we get to the point that I throw in the towel on the season (usually betwen Memorial Day and Father's Day, maybe to the 4th of July) so I don't get so emotionally involved with the game every single night.

In the NCAA finals tonight, I hope Kansas wins big, so Davidson can say that they gave the Jayhawks their toughest game.

Also, the Pens start their hockey playoff run on Wednesday against Ottawa. I'm not a big hockey fan, but I love watching playoff hockey when it's tied or a 1 goal lead in the third period in the playoffs. The guys just lay it all out on the line. We'll see if the Pens can get past the first round.

We got some good work in at track today. I set up a 100 yd relay on the turf with some vertical jumping exercises. They ended up going 10x100yd with about a minute or so of recovery between each one. They also needed to go to the soccer goal and do 10 jumps where they touch the cross bar. Tomorrow will be jumping power day and run throughs, Wednesday pre-meet with pop-ups and run throughs and Thursday a meet on the road.

Beth's feeling better, we may try to go running tomorrow morning if she feels well enough.