Thank God the old Pirates showed up

There has been a team masquerading as the Pirates this year. They've been playing .500 ball, not clobbering teams, but doing what they need to do to win. Even the Pittsburgh fans don't really beleive it. They haven't started showing up yet. They are probably afraid, not having seen a winner since Barry Bonds was a skinny finesse guy who could hit homers too.

Thank God for the slumping Dodgers the old Pirates showed up last night, at least in the last half of a game. Thank God also that Ted Lilly showed up and pitched a decent game. Kevin Correia, the Padres castoff who has looking like the ace the Pirates have been missing for years, looked like he was singing the Dodgers to sleep again, until Aaron Miles, who a few months ago was pondering his career choices outside of baseball, had a little bunt single that kept them alive in the sixth inning. This led to an Andre Ethier run-scoring single and a three run bomb from Matt Kemp, all the way to a 10-3 victory.

Nice job for Miles. Always the scrappy middle-infielder, it was surprising to me that he couldn't find a job in the offseason and barely made the Dodgers out of spring training. It was funny, because when I searched him on Yahoo, he was still listed as a member of the Cardinals and was wearing a Cubs uniform in the picture. Oh the life of a journeyman! (Even with his "paltry" salary he'll make more playing ball for six months than I will in ten years, but that's another story) He doesn't have alot of speed or power, but is a decent fielder and can be counted on to hit about .280 (.370 in his last ten games). With the Dodgers injury woes and guys like Dee Gordon and Ivan De Jesus not quite ready for prime time, he's a great guy to have around.

Now lets see which Pirates show up tonight, and which Dodgers show up tonight. But at least for tonight, there were many things to be thankful for when I said my prayers.