MVN - Most Valuable Network

Game #40 Pirates at Cardinals

Busch Stadium | 8:15 | Maholm vs. Todd Wellemeyer | Box

Todd Wellemeyer was very impressive, allowing just one hit through seven innings. The Cardinals offense put hitters on but couldn’t get many in against Paul Maholm in the early going. Maholm gave up 11 hits and three walks in six innings, allowing four runs.

The Pirates offense sputtered. Adam LaRoche had a home run taken away by Rick Ankiel and didn’t score until the 8th.

But the loss wasn’t the worse news of the day. Ryan Doumit was put on the DL and will miss about a month. Raul Chavez was brought up from Indy. The Bucs, as it notes in the same article, sent cash to Tampa to keep Evan Meek, which I think is a good thing given how hard he throws.

Pre-Game Thoughts
A win tonight and the Bucs are back at .500. Bucs were 17-22 after 39 games in 2007 and 18-22 after 40.

Todd Wellemeyer has been much better than a punch in the nose for St. Louis. He is 3-1 with an ERA better than league average in his 8 starts in 2008. He gave up four runs in six innings pitched back on April 23, 2008 and received no decision in a game the Buccos came back to win.

In 59 career at bats, the Pirates collectively have just 13 hits. They are slugging less than .300 as they have just two extra base hits off of Wellemeyer. He is 1-1 overall in 13 appearances. Two of those times out have been in a starting capacity. He has tossed 24-2/3 innings pitched.

Paul Maholm attempts to even his record at 3-3. He has allowed 11 ER in his last 11 IP. This will be his first start against St. Louis this year. He started and lost in his last outing vs. the Red Birds. That was 7/31/07. Everyone fondly recalls that day as the day that Dave Littlefield traded for Matt Morris, sealing his own doom.

Maholm had done well against the current batch of Cards, holding them to 10 hits in 41 ABs. Both Albert Pujols and Jason LaRue have homers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 6:04 am and is filed under May, 2008 Pittsburgh Pirates, Away, Paul Maholm, St. Louis Cardinals, Game Threads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.