Now in first place in the NL Central Division

[frae]

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette...http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11208/1163254-100-0.stm

Meals told pool reporters later Wednesday that his call was wrong.

"After coming into the locker room, I reviewed the incident through our videos that we have in here and after seeing a few of them, on one particular replay, I was able to see that Lugo's pant leg moved ever so slightly when the swipe tag was attempted by McKenry. That's telling me that I was incorrect in my decision and that he should have been ruled out and not safe."

[Flyman]

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette...http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11208/1163254-100-0.stm

Meals told pool reporters later Wednesday that his call was wrong.

"After coming into the locker room, I reviewed the incident through our videos that we have in here and after seeing a few of them, on one particular replay, I was able to see that Lugo's pant leg moved ever so slightly when the swipe tag was attempted by McKenry. That's telling me that I was incorrect in my decision and that he should have been ruled out and not safe."

Makes me feel like less of an idiot if he saw it, too.

[bweiser831]

it's still a freaking loss so i don't care about his apology. get the call right ... if this team finishes 80-82 because of this it will be disgraceful.

that said, not scoring for 17 innings leaves you little room to spread the blame.

[overkill94]

it's still a freaking loss so i don't care about his apology. get the call right ... if this team finishes 80-82 because of this it will be disgraceful.

that said, not scoring for 17 innings leaves you little room to spread the blame.

Dude, after countless replays people still had a hard time knowing what the right call was. An umpire having to make that call in a split-second and getting it wrong is hardly disgraceful.

[frae]

Dude, after countless replays people still had a hard time knowing what the right call was. An umpire having to make that call in a split-second and getting it wrong is hardly disgraceful.

It ended a 19 inning game on the type of call that is almost always out. It was pretty brutal.

[Bodhizefa]

More extra innings in Atlanta -- wheeeeee!

(Seriously, though, this is a series that I'm going to remember for a very long time. I just hope that little screaming girl isn't around this time, lol.)

[frae]

More extra innings in Atlanta -- wheeeeee!

(Seriously, though, this is a series that I'm going to remember for a very long time. I just hope that little screaming girl isn't around this time, lol.)

Yeah this is just crazy. It has been so long I really forgot how nerve racking watching meaningful baseball is, it is great.

[frae]

The Pirates pitching really is very good, but wow is the hitting bad. Tough two losses there, hopefully they can get 1 tomorrow to get a split.

[Bodhizefa]

The Pirates pitching really is very good, but wow is the hitting bad. Tough two losses there, hopefully they can get 1 tomorrow to get a split.

It stinks that Hanrahan hasn't gotten to see some meaningful action so far. They could've really used him tonight especially.

[madducks]

The Pirates pitching really is very good, but wow is the hitting bad. Tough two losses there, hopefully they can get 1 tomorrow to get a split.

I really think that the Pirates bullpen is going to be in trouble very soon if they don't either get some more offense and/or a complete game from one of the starting pitchers. They are 6 games into a stretch of 20 straight games without a day off. And these extra inning games don't help at all.

Also, three of their starting pitchers are entering new territory in innings pitched. Morton and McDonald have already exceeded their career highs this season. And Karstens is only 3 innings away from his career high in innings pitched. Maholm should be fine as he has been over 175 ip the last five seasons. Correia had 198 ip in 2009 and 145 ip last year, so he will probably be ok. I'm thinking it may be in the Pirates best interest to go with a six man rotation over the final two months. Perhaps Lincoln or Ohlendorf could be that sixth starter.

[Kevin Seitzer]

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette...http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11208/1163254-100-0.stm

Meals told pool reporters later Wednesday that his call was wrong.

"After coming into the locker room, I reviewed the incident through our videos that we have in here and after seeing a few of them, on one particular replay, I was able to see that Lugo's pant leg moved ever so slightly when the swipe tag was attempted by McKenry. That's telling me that I was incorrect in my decision and that he should have been ruled out and not safe."

Hm, I've looked at the other three vantage points (low-first, high-first, and behind-home), and I still don't see it. The pants leg does move, but I don't think that's from the tag. His pants are already rippling from the slide before McKenry's glove even gets close. The low-first-base vantage point makes it look like it's McKenry's glove that makes a dent in his pants, but that's just a weird perspective thing, because if you look from the third-based vantage point at that same time, his glove is nowhere close to Lugo's leg at that point. The behind-home vantage point is the farthest zoomed out, but that's the one where I think maybe I see Lugo's pants move from the tag. It's tough to separate that from the movement that's already occurring in his pants due to the slide (and boy, does that sound wrong.)

[Flyman]

I really think that the Pirates bullpen is going to be in trouble very soon if they don't either get some more offense and/or a complete game from one of the starting pitchers. They are 6 games into a stretch of 20 straight games without a day off. And these extra inning games don't help at all.

Also, three of their starting pitchers are entering new territory in innings pitched. Morton and McDonald have already exceeded their career highs this season. And Karstens is only 3 innings away from his career high in innings pitched. Maholm should be fine as he has been over 175 ip the last five seasons. Correia had 198 ip in 2009 and 145 ip last year, so he will probably be ok. I'm thinking it may be in the Pirates best interest to go with a six man rotation over the final two months. Perhaps Lincoln or Ohlendorf could be that sixth starter.

Career highs in the Majors, sure. But Morton pitched 177 innings last year and 168 the year before that. McDonald threw 140 innings last year, so to say they've already surpassed their career highs in IP is misleading...that's only in MLB.

[Judge Jude]

Well, MLB likely is more stressful on their arms, so I think there's a general point there worth making. I don't think the Pirates make it to the finish line with this crew; I wonder if they know that.

[Flyman]

Perhaps more stressful because of more pitches needed to get through those innings, but the fact is Morton is still 70 innings short of his actual career high.

[frae]

Nice to get a win tonight and good to see the Hammer come in and finish the job. The HR by Cutch made watching the 9th much easier.