Williamsport Falls in Series Opener

A- Short Season
Willamsport at Staten Island (Down in Series 1-0)

9/10 Staten Island 1 Williamsport 0
9/12 Williamsport at Staten Island 7:10
9/13 Williamsport at Staten Island 7:10 * if nessesary

Indy and Altoona Force Game 5

AAA Indianapolis Indians (Series Tied 2-2)

WED 9/07 Buffalo 5 Indianapolis 1
THU 9/08 Buffalo 6 Indianapolis 5
FRI 9/09 Indianapolis 5 Buffalo 2
SAT 9/10 Indianapolis 1 Buffalo 1
SUN 9/11 Indianapolis at Buffalo 6:05 p.m.

AA Altoona Curve (Series Tied 2-2)

9/07 Akron 11 Altoona 7
9/08 Akron 6 Altoona 4
9/09 Altoona 3 Akron 0
9/10 Altoona,6 Akron 3
9/11 Altoona at Akron, 2:05

Williamsport Opens Series Tonight

Williamsport will face off against the Staten Island Yankees in a best of 3 series in the NY-Penn League playoffs,

9/10 Staten Island at Williamsport 7:05
9/12 Williamsport at Staten Island 7:10
9/13 Williamsport at Staten Island 7:10 * if nessesary

Minor Leage Playoff Results for Friday

For games already played the bold name is the home team.

AAA Indianapolis Indians (Down in Series 2-1)

WED 9/07 Buffalo 5 Indianapolis 1
THU 9/08 Buffalo 6 Indianapolis 5
FRI 9/09 Indianapolis 5 Buffalo 2
SAT 9/10 Indianapolis at Buffalo 7:05 p.m.
SUN 9/11 Indianapolis at Buffalo 6:05 p.m. * if necessary

AA Altoona Curve (Down in Series 2-1)

9/07 Akron 11 Altoona 7
9/08 Akron 6 Altoona 4
9/09 Altoona 3 Akron 0
9/10 Akron at Altoona, 7:05
9/11 Altoona at Akron, 2:05 * if necessary

Bombs Away! Bucs Win!

From the AP Wire

CINCINNATI Pittsburgh's Oliver Perez made his first start in more than 10 weeks, but it was Jason Bay and the Pirates who made Cincinnati's Luke Hudson look rusty.

Bay continued his recent road success by hitting a pair of two-run homers, leading the Pirates over the Cincinnati Reds 8-4 on Friday night.

Bay went 2-for-4 to improve to .400 (28-for-70) with 20 RBI and 20 runs in his last 20 road games.

Nate McLouth and Jack Wilson each had two hits and scored two runs to help send the Reds to their third loss in four games, all on their current homestand.

Perez made his first start since breaking his left big toe on June 26 at St. Louis. The left-hander lasted 4 1/3 innings, two outs short of the minimum needed to qualify for a win, and gave up five hits and three runs with two walks and five strikeouts. He threw 89 pitches, 54 of them strikes.

Ryan Vogelsong (1-1) relieved Perez with runners on first and third and got Adam Dunn to hit into an inning-ending double play to get credit for the win.

Bay homered in the second and eighth innings for the Pirates, who won consecutive games for the first time since mid-August.

The Pirates capitalized on Hudson's control problems in the first, scoring two runs on just one hit, McLouth's leadoff single. Hudson, who threw 29 pitches in the inning, hit Jack Wilson and walked Bay before walking Craig Wilson with the bases loaded and giving up Rob Mackowiak's sacrifice fly.

Pittsburgh added three runs with two outs in the second inning on McLouth's single to right, Jack Wilson's double down the left-field line and Bay's 27th homer.

The Pirates made it 6-1 in the third on Mackowiak's leadoff walk, Freddy Sanchez's one-out double and Perez's sacrifice fly, his first RBI of the season.

Hudson (6-8) was replaced after hitting McLouth, his third hit batter in 2 2/3 innings. He allowed six runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts.

Hudson has allowed a combined 11 runs in 5 2/3 innings while losing his last two starts after going 4-1 with a 3.64 ERA in August.

Dunn hit his 11th homer of the season against left-handers and 37th overall with two outs in the first inning. Dunn also scored from second on Wily Mo Pena's two-out single in the fifth.

Reds rookie Chris Denorfia led off the bottom of the fifth with his first career hit, a home run to make it 6-3. Rich Aurilia led off the sixth with a bunt single up the third-base line, moved to third on Sean Casey's single to center and scored on Pena's sacrifice fly.

Bay added another two-run homer off Kent Mercker in the eighth for an 8-4 lead.

Minor Leage Playoff Results for Thursday

For games already played the bold name is the home team.

AAA Indianapolis Indians (Down in Series 2-0)

WED 9/07 Buffalo 5 Indianapolis 1
THU 9/08 Buffalo 6 Indianapolis 5
FRI 9/09 Indianapolis at Buffalo 7:05 p.m.
SAT 9/10 Indianapolis at Buffalo 7:05 p.m. * if necessary
SUN 9/11 Indianapolis at Buffalo 6:05 p.m. * if necessary

AA Altoona Curve (Down in Series 2-0)

9/07 Akron 11 Altoona 7
9/08 Akron 6 Altoona 4
9/09 Akron at Altoona, 7:05
9/10 Akron at Altoona, 7:05 * if necessary
9/11 Altoona at Akron, 2:05 * if necessary

A Lynchburg Hillcats (Eliminated 2-0)

9/07 Frederick 3 Lynchburg 2
9/08 Frederick 7 Lynchburg 6

Pirates Snap Home Streak

Pittsburgh Pirates interim manager Pete Mackanin joked that he hoped his first win would come in a laugher.

Mackanin didn't get his wish Thursday afternoon at PNC Park, but he was in no mood to complain after the Bucs rallied for an 8-7 win in 12 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks, to avoid becoming the first club in franchise history to drop 11 consecutive home games.

The marathon game of nearly four hours featured numerous late-inning lead changes before catcher Humberto Cota gave the Pirates their first home win since Aug. 23 with an RBI single in the bottom of the 12th off Arizona reliever Buddy Groom (0-1). Four innings earlier, Cota had given the Pirates a 5-4 lead heading to the ninth.

Cota, who has seen his playing time dwindle with the emergence of rookie catcher Ryan Doumit, downplayed his clutch performance.

Cota's eighth-inning efforts nearly went for naught when Bucs closer Jose Mesa served up a three-run home run to Diamondbacks first baseman Tony Clark in the top of the ninth inning. For the usually reliable Mesa, it was his third consecutive blown save.

The Pirates are on the road this weekend for 3 games against the Cincinatti Reds then off to take on the St. Louis Cardinals for a 3 game series as well.

Minor League Playoff Results for Weds

For games already played the bold name is the home team.

AAA Indianapolis Indians (Down in Series 1-0)

WED 9/07 Buffalo 5 Indianapolis 1
THU 9/08 Buffalo at Indianapolis 8:00 p.m.
FRI 9/09 Indianapolis at Buffalo 7:05 p.m.
SAT 9/10 Indianapolis at Buffalo 7:05 p.m. * if necessary
SUN 9/11 Indianapolis at Buffalo 6:05 p.m. * if necessary

AA Altoona Curve (Down in Series 1-0)

9/07 Akron 11 Altoona 7
9/08 Altoona at Akron, 7:05
9/09 Akron at Altoona, 7:05
9/10 Akron at Altoona, 7:05 * if necessary
9/11 Altoona at Akron, 2:05 * if necessary

A Lynchburg Hillcats (Down in Serries 1-0)

9/07 Frederick 3 Lynchburg 2
9/08 Frederick at Lynchburg 7:05 pm
9/09 Frederick at Lynchburg 6:35 pm (if necessary)

NY-Penn Playoffs, Williamsport In!

The Williamsport Crosscutters have qualified for the playoffs for the fourth time in the last five years after a 4-3 win over Staten Island Wednesday night at Bowman Field.

Williamsport will meet the Staten Island Yankees in a best-of-three semifinal series.

Game 1 Saturday Sept 10th 7:05 at Williamsport
Game 2 at Staten Island
Game 3 at Staten Island (if necessary)

International League Playoff Schedule

To make it 3 teams in the Pirates System so far to qualify for the playoffs the Indianapolis Indians will face off against Buffalo in a best of five serries in an attempt to advance to play for the Goveneor's Cup in 2005.

First Round
WED 9/07 Buffalo at Indianapolis 8:00 p.m.
THU 9/08 Buffalo at Indianapolis 8:00 p.m.
FRI 9/09 Indianapolis at Buffalo 7:05 p.m.
SAT 9/10 Indianapolis at Buffalo 7:05 p.m. * if necessary
SUN 9/11 Indianapolis at Buffalo 6:05 p.m. * if necessary

Southern League Playoff Schedule

The Pirates Advanced Level A team has made the playoffs in the Southern League and will face off in a best of three series against Frederick starting tonight the schedule is as follows.

NORTHERN DIVISION

Wed., Sept. 7--Lynchburg at Frederick 6:30 pm
Thu., Sept. 8—Frederick at Lynchburg 7:05 pm
Fri., Sept. 9—Frederick at Lynchburg 6:35 pm (if necessary)

Eastern Leage Playoff Schedule

The Pirates AA Team the Altoona Curve will face off against the Akron Aeros in a best of five series in the Eastern League Playoffs for the Southern Division Championship

Game One
Wednesday, September 7
Altoona at Akron, 7:05

Game Two
Thursday, September 8
Altoona at Akron, 7:05

Game Three
Friday, September 9
Akron at Altoona, 7:05

Game Four (if necessary)
Saturday, September 10
Akron at Altoona, 7:05

Game Five (if necessary)
Sunday, September 11
Altoona at Akron, 2:05

Vote for Man of the Year

Jack Wilson has been named the Pirates canidate for MLB's Man of the Year, their reason is as follows.

Pittsburgh Pirates: Jack Wilson
This past July, Jack hosted the inaugural Bowling with the Bucs charity tournament, which raised over $10,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He also served as the 2005 Honorary Chairman of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Hop-A-Thon, an event that raised over $200,000 for blood cancer research, and is active in the Junior Pirates Rookie Ball Program and the Pennsylvania Anti-Tobacco Campaign.

To vote go to: MLB Man of the Year (You will have to regester with mlb.com just to warn you)

McClendon Let Go.

PITTSBURGH -- After watching a once-promising season slowly devolve into a likely last-place finish, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Dave Littlefield decided that a change was in order.

As a result, Lloyd McClendon, the Bucs manager since Oct. 23, 2000, was relieved of his duties on Tuesday, thus ending months of speculation that McClendon's position within the organization was tenuous, at best. Bench coach Pete Mackanin was named as the interim manager for the remainder of the season.

Littlefield pointed to the Pirates' 25-51 record since reaching the .500 mark on June 11 as the primary factor in his decision to fire McClendon.

"Ultimately, what it came down to is we just weren't playing well," said Littlefield. "We certainly have not been winning as regularly as we thought we could. As the games unfold, I thought that our execution wasn't improving.

Source Pirates.com

Sorry for the Lag in Posts

I just want to apologize for the gap in posts that occured, it was mostly due to family issues and also issues do to the hurricane down in the Gulf Coast.

Duke NL Rookie of the Month

In a season that hasn't been as successful as the Pirates hoped it would be, rookie Zach Duke has given Pittsburgh a reason to be positive for the future.

During the month of August, Duke has especially impressed. The Pirates left-hander went 3-0 over five starts and was voted the National League Rookie of the Month for his effort.

Duke led all rookie starters with a 2.83 ERA and finished the month with 28 2/3 innings pitched, allowing nine runs on 27 hits, and striking out 17.