Morning Cuts: August 26, 2011

Pirates:

• Electric Charlie got smacked around in St. Louis last night, allowing five runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings as the Pirates were clobbered by the Cardinals 8-4. The Bucs fell behind 3-0 after two innings, but took advantage of Edwin Jackson’s erratic nature to draw some walks, get into favorable counts, and string together a few hits to jump out to a 4-3 lead after the 4th. Morton gave back the lead in the 5th allowing a single to and a stolen base to Craig, walks to Pujols and Berkman, and ultimately a single to Freese that plated two and put the Redbirds up for good. Matt Holliday, apparently sick of seeing people walk Pujols to get to him, smacked a three-run shot in the bottom of the 8th to smack the final nail into the coffin.
• The good news is that Chris Leroux looked tremendous in 2 2/3 innings of relief (one hit, one walk, three strikeouts), Alex Presley recorded a hit, an RBI, and a run in his first game back from the DL, and Chase D’arnaud stole a base. So, there’s that.
• Pedro Alvarez should be playing winter ball this year.
• Also in that article linked above, Biertempfel mentions the Pirates may opt to add Matt Hague to the club when rosters expand September 1. Would love to see what he can do against major league talent because he’s been crushing in Indy.

Steelers:

• Mike Tomlin held a press conference yesterday (video) and provided a good rundown of what to expect Saturday night against the Falcons. In short, Ike Taylor is definitely out (broken hand) and the starters will play the entire first half and at least the first possession of the second half.
• The Steelers have been happy with what they’ve seen out of Rookie offensive lineman Marcus Gilbert. The problem is they haven’t been able to see too much. Gilbert has been banged up for most of training camp, suffering hamstring and knee injuries. But he is healthy now, and will get the start in place of the injured Jonathan Scott Saturday night.
• Please, PLEASE bring back the no-huddle.

TODAY:

• Pirates (McDonald) at Cardinals (Westbrook). Tony Watson threw one behind Lance Berkman last night so it’s safe to assume that LaRussa will kinda sorta suggest to Westbrook that he buzz a Pirates’ tower. WHYGAVS has Neil Walker as the early favorite.