Just an addition to the Sports Network recap: With two outs in the fifth, Ryan Doumit, who the Pirates are trying to pretend is an outfielder, stopped short on a ball hit his way. This led to three runs coming across in the inning, and those three runs ultimately made the difference in the game. I was at the game and it looked like a conservative play by a guy who doesn’t know how to play the outfield, which made some sense at the time – you don’t want Doumit diving and missing. When I got home to watch the replay, though, it looked much worse – there was no reason Doumit couldn’t have run forward a few feet and caught the ball, and if he had, the game might have turned out differently.
Doumit is clearly a terrible catcher, but at least his bat plays there. He’s not much of an outfielder or first baseman, either, and his hitting isn’t nearly good enough to justify these sorts of defensive lapses.