Monday planner: Baseball, baseball, baseball

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A look at the week ahead on DKonPittsburghSports.com:

• Monday: I’ll put a bow on the Sunday night game with this week’s Steelers PATs feature this afternoon, then fly back to Pittsburgh for a few hours.

• Tuesday: I’ll fly right back south to Atlanta to cover the Pirates-Braves series Tuesday through Thursday, virtually ensuring our site will be there for the playoff clinching. We’ll also do Tuesday 12 Qs, live from Turner Field, a bit later than usual. The goal is to share with you guys first-hand stuff from the clubhouse when we do it. Probably around 5 p.m.

• Wednesday: Another Pirates column from Atlanta.

• Thursday: Another Pirates column from Atlanta.

• Friday: The Friday Insider will be up in the afternoon.

• Saturday: Pitt vs. Akron, a 1:30 p.m. kickoff at Heinz Field, column to follow.

• Sunday: Steelers vs. Tampa Bay, 1 p.m. kickoff at Heinz Field, column to follow.

I’ll try to squeeze in some Penguins preseason, too. Not sure when.

Column: Pitt’s problems don’t run too deep

by • Columns •

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James Conner bursts away from the Iowa defense for some of his 157 yards Saturday. — PETE MADIA / PITT ATHLETICS

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Anytime a Pitt team loses, pretty much any sport — football, basketball, intramural frisbee golf on Flagstaff Hill — there’s this public rush to pull down the bright red lever and let the sirens wail.

Sorry, not feeling it.

Not on this sunny Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field, anyway.

“This hurts,” James Conner was speaking in the softest of tones shortly after the Panthers flopped in the second half, fell hard to Iowa, 24-20, and failed to open the season 4-0. “And now we know this feeling. We don’t want to feel it anymore. We want to change this program.”

I think they will. Call me crazy or burn a couch in my front lawn — oh, wait, that’s another school — but what I witnessed over the course of this game was what should have been been expected of an undefeated team that also had gone mostly unchallenged to this point: Their strengths remained strengths, right up until the opponent wised up, sharpened up and attacked the weaknesses.

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Column: Russell Martin, civic treasure

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Russell Martin is welcomed back to the Pirates' dugout after his home run Friday night. -- GETTY IMAGES

Russell Martin is welcomed back to the Pirates’ dugout after his three-run home run Friday night. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Everybody knew it. And don’t lie: You did, too.

So did Justin Wilson, even though he was seated way out in the Pirates’ bullpen, more than 420 feet away from Russell Martin in the batter’s box facing the Brewers’ Jonathan Broxton.

But don’t take Wilson’s word for it, because you wouldn’t believe him.

“J-Willie nailed it, I’m telling you,” fellow reliever Tony Watson would recall later. “He said, ‘Russ is taking this one out. Next pitch. Oppo.’ He even called where.”

How about in the dugout?

“It’s what you’re thinking,” bench coach Jeff Banister said. “It’s Russ. How can it not be what you’re thinking?”

How about in the crowd of 37,974, squeezed into every standing-room inch at PNC Park and, in that moment, standing even if they had seats?

They knew.

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Saturday site stuff: Giving full credit

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PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: ALEX MESSMER

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

A weekly look at what’s new and what’s coming on our site …

• Those who despise PayPal have been heard, and in a wonderful way. We just had our best week since our very first week in terms of new subscriptions, and it can’t be coincidence that nearly three-quarters of the newcomers came through our new credit-card option.

To those who trudged through PayPal beforehand to get here, thank you a dozen times over. But at the same time, we’re delighted to have finally found a way to make the process easier.

Please pass the word, if you know anyone who’d been discouraged by the presence of PayPal.

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News/views: Golden sunrise for Penguins’ camp

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

News with views from the Penguins’ opening of training camp, Friday at Consol Energy Center:

• Sidney Crosby skated, and I could pretty much end this little report right here. The captain was held out of the sprints that had absolutely everyone winded, even Kris Letang. But he did take a regular turn in drills, and yes, he was mostly with Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz.

“Hopefully, it’s not something I’ll have to miss any time with,” Crosby said of his injury without divulging it. “It’s something I’ve got to be smart with, but yeah, if I get the OK, I’ll be out there.”

That includes Saturday’s practices that are open to the public.

• Check out Dupuis looking all gassed — again, everyone did — in that red sweater:

Pascal Dupuis joins a long line of Penguins visibly exhausted by rink-length sprints Friday. -- DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Pascal Dupuis joins a line of Penguins visibly exhausted by rink-length sprints Friday. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Dupuis’ sweater meant no one was allowed to check him, but he still managed to get a good shot on Simon Despres at one point. By accident, of course. “We got tangled up,” No. 9 said with a wink.

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Interview: Simon Despres, Penguins

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Simon Despres will be one of the Penguins’ spotlight players in this training camp that formally pushed off Friday morning with the first practices at Consol Energy Center. I spoke with Despres about the pressure to finally step up into a full-time role, about being buried by the previous coaching staff and about Mario Lemieux’s remarks to me about Despres earlier this summer.

And if you missed it, here was my Penguins training camp preview column.

There will be more about the first on-ice day of camp later this afternoon.

Friday Insider: Marte didn’t appreciate back seat

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

fridayinsiderA weekly feature aimed at rounding up a whole lot of odds and ends from a whole lot of time spent around our local teams …

• Starling Marte is best buds with Gregory Polanco. The two hang together, in the Pirates’ clubhouse and in the outside world. Both are Dominican. Marte is only three years older.

And yet — and I’m going to be careful in wording this — I can tell you that Marte wasn’t all that thrilled when all of Pittsburgh was almost hysterically clamoring for Polanco early this summer. Again, not because of any issue with Polanco the person or the player. “He’s a great hitter,” Marte told me at the time. “I want to see him here, too.” But there also was a bit of a chip with the sentiment. “I’m here, too. I can play.”

Well, flash forward to Thursday night and the 3-2 edging of the Red Sox at PNC Park, in which Marte’s 13th home run — a bomb to the bleacher walkway — that made the difference. Seven of those home runs have come in the past 35 games. So have 19 RBIs. And since the All-Star break, he’s batting .356. Not many have been better, and no one tops his .616 slugging percentage.

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Column: Five faceoff factors for Penguins’ camp

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The double-doors to the Penguins’ locker room open to reporters Thursday morning. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

There’s no crying in hockey, either.

For all 32 forwards, 17 defensemen and six goaltenders reporting to the Penguins’ 48th training camp on this 18th of September, the only number that matters to this most starcrossed of franchises is 16, that, of course, being the playoff victory total of the Stanley Cup champion. And make no mistake. For all the Taylor Chorney, Reid McNeill, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond types taking the ice for the opening session Friday, any roster with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on it will come with nothing less than that expectation.

I loved the way newcomer Christian Ehrhoff put it Thursday, this after a year of fishing pucks out of his own net in Buffalo: “I was with the team that was 30th in the league, and it was no fun. Everybody knows what the Pittsburgh Penguins are, how they’re always contending for the Cup. I don’t expect that to change.”

Nor should he. Or anyone.

I could get into all kinds of reasons why, or I could just cut it off by saying the Rangers were the Eastern Conference rep in the final last spring. They were right there. The Kings were a good bit better. A handful of Western teams undoubtedly were a good bit better. But that New York team was right there. And, as I don’t need to remind anyone, the Penguins held New York’s spot before sadly, sloppily conceding it.

That’s how close they were.

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Column: Never forget that No. 7 is No. 1

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Ben Roethlisberger is crushed by the Ravens' Courtney Upshaw Thursday in Baltimore. -- GETTY IMAGES

Ben Roethlisberger is crushed by the Ravens’ Courtney Upshaw on Thursday in Baltimore. — GETTY IMAGES

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Marcus Gilbert allowed Elvis Dumervil to get around him. And to go right through him.

But on this day, the Steelers’ right tackle wasn’t allowing anything to slip by.

He stood in the locker room and faced wave after wave of cameras, microphones and reporters with pointed questions about his perfectly miserable performance Thursday in the 26-6 loss at Baltimore. The room was open to media access for a half-hour, and he was at his stall answering for 25 minutes of it.

“You’re out there for 60-some snaps, and you have those two plays … it’s frustrating. It is,” Gilbert was saying with the first of those waves. “You can’t take those back. But you can’t give them up, either. I know I’ve got to be better. And I will be.”

He’d better be.

Because it isn’t just those two plays. Gilbert allowed two sacks in the opener against the Browns, as well. That total of four ties him with the Redskins’ Tyler Polumbus for most in the NFL by a tackle — left or right — with only two other players, the Cowboys’ Doug Free and the Packers’ Derek Sherrod, having as many as three. Add the two QB hurries Gilbert’s given up, and you’re now easily quantifying the worst offensive lineman in the league.

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Column: The pen is mightier than before

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Russell Martin connects on a two-run blast in the second inning Tuesday at PNC Park. -- GETTY IMAGES

Russell Martin connects on a two-run blast to right-center in the second inning Tuesday at PNC Park. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Tony Watson held the game in his left hand, essentially, and only he and Russell Martin knew what was coming next.

Except that they really didn’t.

“I called for a changeup. I know that much,” the catcher was telling me after the Pirates’ 4-0 blanking of the Red Sox on Tuesday night at PNC Park. “What happened to it after that …”

What happened to it after that was that Yoenis Cespedes, Boston’s light-tower-power with the 21 bombs, swung over it for strike three to end the eighth inning and, in all reality, bury any chance for a Red Sox rally. Two were aboard, two were out, and it was all or nothing.

Nothing won in a landslide.

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