It was another 13 days between games, and I was itching to get back to the ballpark. I was also looking forward to the return of former Bucco Nate McLouth. Nate was one of my favorite Pirates in recent years, and watching him go from Jim Tracy’s doghouse in the early part of his career to an All-Star in 2008 was quite a treat.

Anyway the cloudy skys over PNC Park held up, and for the first time in a while there would be batting practice today. Upon entering at 5 the Pirates were just about done hitting. The first ball I had a chance on was a Ronny Cedeno ground rule double. It hit the fence on the hop mere centimeters away from my glove. It was no big deal because moments later Lastings Milledge hit a home run that I caught on the fly amid a sea of other gloves. Definitely one of the better snags I have had. The Pirates would wrap things up shortly after but not before Delwyn Young tossed me my second ball of the day.

The Braves were comming out and it was time to unleash my secret weapon

My dad’s ratty old Braves jersey. All but two buttons were missing on it, but it covered the Pirates logo on my Dri-Fit undershirt so that would do. The Braves are very lefty-heavy so I made my way into the seats in right-center field when the gates to the rest of the park opened at 5:30. I was just in time to see Jayson Heyward come to the plate. He would put on a show launching nearly every other ball into the seats. I had a very close call to getting one. It struck a seat a couple rows behind me and started rolling  down the row behind me. It was between me and two other people, and another fan beat me to it by a tenth of a second. I also slammed my often injured left knee off a seat going for it so I would be hobbling around the rest of the night.

Right afterwards, another former Pirate reliever Jessie Chavez threw me my third ball. He’s the one on the right talking with coach Eddie Perez

The fourth ball I would get came from reliever Takashi Saito. He scanned all the people against the fence and saw I was the only one in Braves gear. When he flipped the ball to me and thanked him, he responded “No, thank you.” Sweet.

When BP was nearly over a ball hit by Melky Cabrera got lodged in the fencing in front of me. I reached down and pulled it out and gave it to a kid who was repededly getting shut out by his annoying sisters.

It was now time to go up to my perch and watch the game.

It was yet another uninspired performance for the Pirates. Ross “The Boss” Ohlendorf got shelled and the Pirates were only able to get 3 singles off of Tim Hudson. Final Braves 7, Pirates 0. The Buccos have now gone 17 straight innings without scoring a run. Jayson Heyward had a great game going 3 for 4 with a rocket home run that probably could have killed somebody.

Despite the bad game I would like to applaud the team for two things.

1. Free scorecards in game programs. I got sick of paying $2 every game for one so I bought a scorebook from Dick’s Sporting Goods to keep my games straight. Well last night a free scorecard in the First Pitch magazine made it’s debut. Good call.

Here is my one from last night.

Probably hard to read but all you need to know is that the Braves had a lot of colored in diamonds, and the Pirates did not.

2. Andrew McCutchen Photo Wraps

This giveaway surprised me. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It will look good in my dorm at Ohio University next year.

I will also be attending tonights contest against Atlanta, as struggling starter Charlie Morton takes on Derek Lowe. I’ll have a recap of that as well. As always I leave you with my pull.

STATS

5 baseballs/ 11 total/ 2.2 per game

Record at games attended 3-2 (Bullington jersey record drops to 1-1)

Hot Dogs eaten 2/ 6 total