If this final month is to have any meaning at all for the Pirates, it'll likely be found on the mound.
Jameson Taillon's strange summer, one that was frighteningly interrupted by a monthlong bout with testicular cancer, can be summarized through statistics both arcane and advanced. Or, for maybe the most accurate picture, it's basically been two good starts, two bad starts, two good starts, two bad starts ...
So maybe it really will mean something that, on this sad, soggy Saturday night at PNC Park in which a couple of way-out-of-it opponents faced off in front of maybe two-thirds of the 23,529 people announced as having purchased tickets, Taillon's performance ranged from effective to electric: He hung six zeroes on the Reds, conceding two singles, a double and a walk to help the Pirates prevail, 5-0.
"You see the bodies starting to fall, the pitcher getting involved in the throw ... you never know what's going to happen. John did a good job reading the situation. We'll take it."
