Covering: Twins 8, Pirates 5

The return of Joggin Joey. Excellent.

Isnt Liriano supposed to be the ace of this staff? I know win loss is not indicative of performance but nobody would be happy with a 1-3 start from their ace.

I think we still had an open spot on the 40 man?

So I imagine there will be a time in the not-so-distant future where the Pirate send Tabata back down. Assuming this happens, does he have to be DFA'd and then if so, he could be picked up by another club (and be on the hook for his remaining contract)?

Let him play and hope he does enough over the next month or so to get trade partner

Break in my schedule so:

Pirates Lineup:
1. Gregory Polanco (L) RF
2. Neil Walker (S) 2B
3. Andrew McCutchen (R) CF
4. Starling Marte (R) LF
5. Jung Ho Kang (R) SS
6. Pedro Alvarez (L) 1B
7. Josh Harrison (R) 3B
8. Francisco Cervelli (R) C
9. Francisco Liriano (L) P

Man, Tabata...talk about going in the wrong direction. This is a dude bringing bad juju from the word "go". For those not in the know, lets have a short review: jogging/misplaying balls in outfield, running to first like he's pulling a plow, and the one I really can't stand is constant mugging and acting like a clown in dugout with zero standing. Sigh

JOSE.JOSE.JOSE.JOSE.
JOOOOOSE
JOOOOOSE

Looks like the Cubs got tired of the Phil Coke experiment...DFA'd.

Lets see, we can expect, in some cases, hope Tabata fails, or we could hope he gets a few at bats before he chills out and gets on base a bit. After all, on base does matter!

Speaking of the Twins, looks like Miguel Sano continues to shake off the rust from being out last year and may hit the bigs this year.

Crap...

Not a good start.

Polanco has only 11 hits this month. Only 3 extra base hits (all doubles).

Gonna have to hit the breaking ball tonight guys....

Come on Frankie....

Forty pitches already....come on Frankie....

Liriano needs to see a psychologist

Looks like the 1 game winning streak is in peril.

The sloppy season continues.

Say what you want about Tony... But at least the guy blocked pitches. Cervelli looks like Rod Barajas.

pull him. he obviously doesn't have it tonight

Once again, this team appears unprepared to compete.

Boo these bums. Hurdle needs the buck up and start treating these guys like pros and take off the kid gloves. You don't wanna give an effort I'm sure someone in AAA will.

Wow. So it looks like the Pirates won a game, got full of themselves that all of their problems are solved and come out looking like this.

Reminds me of another Pittsburgh team from this past season.

Good thing I'm not wasting my time in baseball tonight. so does Matte get benched for that pathetic display? wow 2 run finger as I'm typing Frankie doing his best Locke impression. Wow are these guys a mess.

Highest paid player on the team is a pitcher with 1 win in his first 7 starts.

Anyone know how Wilfredo Boscan looked in a uniform before he was sent down? Did he even get a uniform?

Good night.

It's ok folks....Cutch and crew say not to worry.

People paid money to see this. They all have my sincerest condolences.

Marte needs to be pulled from the game. That was disgraceful.

maybe a 17-0 loss is just what they need

Sloppy game....Is there no inspiration for this team?

Talk is cheap....need to see the results on the field. Josh's article yesterday was spot on.

Ok after that Marte swing, time to turn this crap off. Y'all have a good night.

Ugh. Looks like a Pawn Stars re-run night.

Hurdle needs to man up and and send a message to his team. Marte not ready to play.

Kant seems to be the most consistent Bucco these days.

Hey, he's Starling Marte, All Star.

No need to hustle.

Cue Jose Tabata...

Never a good sign when you're cheering for Tabata to come to the plate

Nice job Polanco....

This will be like Friday. They'll probably come back and lose 7-6 or something. Then after the game Hurdle will tell us how proud he is of them and how wonderful everything is.

I think we can now officially chant that Liriano is O-VER-RA-TED!!!

Can someone see well enough through their brown paper bag, to get Liriano a diaper?

I guess it would've been wishful thinking for Hurdle to pull Marte in favor of Tabata.

Again....WHY is Liz on this team???

Folks who turn on their TV without knowing the score now and see Liz on the mound in the top of third must experience a queasy and unsettling feeling.

And now our offense goes right back in the toilet.

If this bunch just did a full swap with Indy would they really be any worse? I know one thing. Youd have 9 players out there who werent just out there whistling past the graveyard and pretending some fairy godmother is going to come along in June or July and anoint them with magical stardust. "Its May therefore none of this matters" Thats the attitude.

I like Hurdle as much as I've liked anybody as a man. But this team is underachieving, and he's gotta do something with them soon.

How cute, Pedro goes all Bobby Bo on us.

Polanco.

Less doe, more lion.

Vance Worley out of the bullpen as former Twins castoff night continues at the ballpark.

Can't even put up a fight against the Twinkies !!! Ricky Nolasco - are you kidding me !!!! I want to see some more SWAGGER from these deadbeats. Can't wait until Hurdles press conference at end of game to hear all the POSITIVES he took from this game!!!!!!!!

Glad to see Cervelli and Worley in such good spirits in the dugout

Maddux very tough tonight.

What? Ricky Nolasco?

No need to worry as losses mount.

Rest assured they're all GOOD losses. Everyone relax.

Charlie Morton - more rehab starts than big league wins.

Golly gee whiz, aren't they spunky ?

Tracking the positives is Job One for Manager Clint Hurdle. Sadly, beyond "Everyone reported to the Clubhouse on time" may not be quite enough...

Jose

ROOT just posted the last time pirates came from a seven run deficit was at Minnesota in 2001. I was at that game at the Dome, it was incredible.

The faux comeback continues. Don't want to get too close too fast.

Should Worley continues to pitch well in relief, the team may want to consider giving him a start sometime this season.

Bucs need a shake up for sure. Not sure what steps NH can take, but the team is sleep walking and is simply doesn't take Hurdle's manner as a threat. Hurdle needs to explain to the troops this end now. From here your future with the Pittsburgh Pirates is up to each player.Lack of hustle, head everywhere but in the game is on Hurdle at this point.

Looked like that tree may have inflated the ball into the boat?

Kang with the takeout slide...I didn't think pirates did fundamentally sound things such as that

Fra-gee-lay Cervelli...must be Italian!

So not able to watch so can someone please explain how three runs managed to score on a single without an error being committed?

Good thing they didn't give Mercer one of those "way before they needed to" contracts.

By the way, isn't going into someone else's boat without their permission to take something that isn't yours somehow against the law ?

Polanco has left 6 men on base tonight. McCutchen, Alvarez and Stewart 3 each.

Cutch. 0 for freaking 5.

Is there any low pitch the Pirates will not chase?

A richly deserved loss.

So much for this team getting on a hot streak.

The good thing is that Locke starts tomorrow, oh wait....

I hope Gayo is on the phone with Marte.

Liriano has now been the starter in 3 losses where Pirates scored a total of 18 runs. In a season where Pirates have 17 games scoring 3 or less, can't afford to lose these types of games with your opening day starter going

Pirates 10 wins in last 25 games. They need to go 33-9 to match their mid-season record of 2 years ago (51-30). They need to go 23-19 to match their 41-40 mark last year.

On the bright side, the Pirates June record the last 4 years has been 16-11, 17-10, 17-9 and 17-10.

I don't understand this unless he is being showcased for a trade.

All is well JOSE is back!!!

It's starting to get to that time of the season where it's not early anymore. Its the end of May, and the Pirates really haven't shown me much to say that they're going to turn this thing around.

Liriano hasn't looked right for a while now. I don't know what's wrong with him, but there's something off with him, there's something off with the whole team in fact.

The Starting pitching is a mess right now, Polanco is really struggling at the plate right now, and it still looks McCutchen is still not the same. The more I look at this team, the more I see it as a team that won't contend this year. This team has so many holes in it.

How many times in the past few years we heard that they aren't playing fundamental baseball? Really? These guys are professionals and these guys just make the same mistakes. Where are the bats at? This was suppose to be one of the top hitting teams in the NL. Bullpen is still shaky. Not sure when or if this team is going to turn it around. Too many question marks!

It is interesting how one bit of non-hustle can be a turning point in a game. Marte's nonchalant effort on the Mauer hit led to three extra runs -- the difference in the final score. In addition Liriano is frustrating to watch. Once his rhythm goes off the rails, he can really stink up the joint. Pirates also reverted to their season-long penchant for leaving tons of runners on base. Oh well. I'm sure Clint will find all sorts of "positives" from this game. No worries. I'm sure winning ways will return on Wednesday with Jeff "Batting Practice" Locke on the mound.

Ugh!!!!

Very disappointing performance

Tonight's loss is all on Liriano... don't care about Marte's brain fart. Liriano just gave up meatballs and the Twins capitalized. Can't play catch up baseball every freaking game!