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The Pirates settle for two of three against the Tigers.
The Pirates didn't waste much time after Sunday's game getting prized reliever and last year's All-Star Evan Meek back in the bullpen. As MLB.com's Jennifer Langosch reports, a move has already been made, and former first-round pick Daniel Moskos is the odd man out of the big club's reliever rotation.
#Pirates have optioned LHP Daniel Moskos to Triple-A and have activated Evan Meek off the DLless than a minute ago via web 
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Jenifer Langosch
LangoschMLB
Most expected it would be either Moskos or Jose Ascanio on the move upon Meek's return. Moskos has been effective, pitching 4.2 scoreless innings in his first stint with the Pirates, but Ascanio is out of options, and the Pirates would have had to risk losing him on waivers if he was taken off the 25-man roster. Ascanio has a 4.91 ERA in Pittsburgh so far.
The Pirates entered Sunday's series finale against the Detroit Tigers on a four-game winning streak thanks to strong starting pitching and plenty of offense. With Paul Maholm on the mound, though, the run support disappeared and the Bucs were denied a sweep by manager Jim Leyland's squad in a 2-0 shutout loss.
Detroit's Rick Porcello conceded just one hit on the afternoon, besting Maholm, who allowed only two runs on six hits in 5.1 innings. The loss dropped Maholm's record to a dismal 1-7. He's now received just 14 runs of support in his 10 starts.
The bullpen had a nice day in the loss, too, but was also victimized by the lack of offense. Chris Resop, Daniel McCutchen, Jose Ascanio and Joe Beimel combined to throw 3.2 shutout innings to keep Detroit off the board following Maholm's departure. McCutchen had four strikeouts in his 2.0 innings of work. The bats simply couldn't get anything going, though.
"We did everything we could as a staff to minimize the damage." manager Clint Hurdle said in his post-game press conference. "Not a whole lot of offense going on for us."
Only the hot-hitting Ronny Cedeno managed a hit for the Bucs against Porcello. The Pirates attempted to mount a comeback in the ninth against Tiger closer Jose Valverde after Xavier Paul led off the inning with a single and Andrew McCutchen was hit by a pitch. However, Ryan Doumit struck out and both Garrett Jones and Neil Walker grounded out to end the threat.
Pittsburgh will now prepare to host the Atlanta Braves in a two game set beginning Tuesday at PNC Park. Charlie Morton and James McDonald will look to keep the team's streak of hot starting pitching intact as the Pirates get back into their National League schedule.
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 #DBE9ED;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}</style> <div class='bbpBox72428583775256576'><p class='bbpTweet'><a href="http://twitter.com/search?q=%23Pirates" title="#Pirates" class="tweet-url hashtag" rel="nofollow">#Pirates</a> have optioned LHP Daniel Moskos to Triple-A and have activated Evan Meek off the DL<span class='timestamp'><a title='Sun May 22 22:28:14 +0000 2011' href='http://twitter.com/#!/LangoschMLB/status/72428583775256576'>less than a minute ago</a> via web <a href='http://twitter.com/intent/favorite?tweet_id=72428583775256576'><img src=){kind=link}
Detroit Tigers' Jim Leyland Rants At Media
by Charlie Wilmoth
Detroit Tigers manager and former Pirates manager Jim Leyland has had it up to here with second-guessing by the media, and he let members of the press know that in a classic rant after they questioned his decision to remove Rick Porcello from the game on Sunday after Porcello had one-hit the Pirates through eight innings.
That's awesome.
For what it's worth, I think Leyland's decision was a completely defensible one. It was a close game, and Porcello is a young-pitcher. Leyland isn't obligated to buy into the romance of allowing Porcello to finish a one-hitter, and there's not even much romance attached to one-hitters anyway. Leyland's job is to help the Tigers win games, and thinking Valverde gave the team a better chance was completely reasonable.
Via.
May 24 2:52p