Even Under My Watchful Eye, the Pirates Lose

Tonight's Pirates/White Sox game was televised on WGN and I can't say that I've seen too many White Sox games before and I may not care to again. Not because the Pirates can do nothing against them. Well, not just because of that. What I really can't stand is their horrible announcers. Well, one of them at least. I didn't really pay attention to their names while I was watching, but I think Ken Harrelson is the guy. He does the play-by-play but he sounds like a color commentator. He's obnoxious and annoying and the general feel for the broadcast is amateurish. Plus, though this is no fault of the announcers, though maybe the broadcast team in general, I could hear heckling like never before during a televised game. Seriously, it went on, very audibly, for the first four innings, and then occasionally thereafter. It was mostly harmless, like "Hey Wilson, your helmet's on backwards!" or "Andy LaRoche, you suck!" which was said while Adam LaRoche was batting. However, I did hear a heckle of Jason Jaramillo that sounded a bit racist. To be fair, I'm not a huge fan of WGN's Cubs coverage either, but at least Bob Brenley and whoever else they have are fairly professional.

As for the game, well, a fellow named Clayton Richard completely dominated the Bucs tonight. He was one of the players in the potential Jake Peavy deal that fell through. Richard did look very sharp out there; it wasn't just the Pirate hitters' incompetence, though there was a bit of that. On the plus side, Ross Ohlendorf pitched pretty well, nearly throwing a complete game. Ohlendorf was especially sharp early on, but then got beat a bit, as the game wore on, by leaving too many pitches up. There were actually a handful of balls hit very well off him that fortunately found their way into the gloves of Pirate defenders, though a fastball that stayed up to Alexei Ramirez and a hanging curve to Jermaine Dye both ended up in the seats. Still, it was nice to see another solid start. Andy LaRoche looked very good today, making a number of fine plays at third, singling twice, drawing a walk and stealing a base. And we did reach that point in the ninth, with Andy due up and 2 outs. I was very worried that John Russell would send up good ol' Ramon Vazquez to hit for him. Fortunately, Andy was allowed to hit and, in perhaps a "This is what happens when you don't pinch-hit for me" moment, he roped a single to left. Of course he was stranded and the Bucs lost 4-0, their third consecutive defeat. Perhaps their fortunes look better tomorrow, when they have a clear disadvantage in the pitching match up: Jeff Karstens vs. Mark Buehrle. Because having a better starter sure doesn't seem to matter.