Stopper

Sweet sweeet victory. Huge. After pissing away last night's game, the Pirates came back and won big-time tonight. They take the series from the Phillies, who were a consensus pick as one of the top teams in the NL.

Jose Mesa got his second quick and easy save. Nice. Bobby Hill had two hits. Excellent. Jack Wilson had two hits. Gravy. Kendall backed up Smizik's article with a clutch walk and a clutcher RBI single. Yes. Mondesi struck out on a bad pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth, and then came back with the big two-run homer in the seventh. More like this please.

Other thoughts. Why is Randall Simon hitting cleanup? A league-average slugger (.440 SLG) does not belong in the four-hole ahead of Craig Wilson. Randall Simon is a good baseball player, but in the power department he's more like Rob Mackowiak than Jim Thome.

Vogelsong's lines are looking like Ramon Ortiz with all the Ks and homers. He gave up something like four taters in the spring; it will be interesting to see if he's going to be one of those 30-tater starters like Jake Peavy or Ramon Ortiz. Don't get me wrong - we'll take it and like it too. That was a stellar, huge, clutch, stopper-like performance tonight. The Pirates let one slide away last night and Vogelsong came back and pitched like the team had momentum going into the game.