Yet another recap

FINAL
Pittsburgh 8
Cincinnati 6

WP: Ohlendorf (3-2)
LP: Owings (1-3
BOX SCORE

POSITIVES
–Fourteen hits is fourteen hits.  Very few of them were hard-hit, but that’s still a lot of hits for this club.

-They kept finding ways to score, despite being down early.  

-Two infield hits from Willy Taveras.  His OBP is now over .350, and that’s better than I expected.  That said, if you’d told me Taveras would’ve been on base >25 times and only attempted 5 steals, I wouldn’t have believed you.  

NEGATIVES
–The effort level, at least from this club’s veteran “leadership.”  Brandon Phillips failed to run out a popup that Freddy Sanchez dropped.  Brandon Phillips was in no hurry to pick up a dropped throw at 2b, allowing the runner to score from second.  Ramon Hernandez was in no hurry to chase down a wild pitch from Burton, allowing Nyjer Morgan to go first to third and score on a sac fly.

-The defense.  Only one error charged, but several other plays weren’t made.  If you’re going to build a team around pitching, defense, and “the little things,” you’re in trouble when you can only do 1 of the 3.

-Owings again failed to really keep his team in the game.

HAVOC

-Pathetic.  Seventeen baserunners and no attempted steals, sacrifices, or even a pickoff?  (Granted, Hernandez was running on a 3-2 pitch, and should’ve been thrown out at 3d for the first out of the inning.)