We believe

Mr. Clutch Rob Mackowiak shined as the Pirates rolled to a 8-4 victory over the Braves tonight, proof that his wife doesn't need to be delivering babies for him to come up big at the plate. Still, Atlanta catcher Johnny Estrada -- who was his usual monster self in the batting box -- ought to have been voted the game's #1 star for a series of teeth-clenching gaffes that sealed the victory for the Pirates. The seventh inning, in particular, was one of the strangest baseball things I've ever had the opportunity to see in person:

Paul Byrd gives up two singles to Bobby Hill and Abraham Nunez and gets yanked in favor of reliever Kevin Gryboski. Kendall gets on base with a clean single. Jack Wilson comes up next with a dismal grounder, but SS Rafael Furcal bungles the play (and gets charged with the inning's first error) as Hill scores and the bases are loaded. Up next: Rob Mackowiak. A chorus of fans chanting "grand slam! grand slam!," praying for some of his patented late-inning heroics. And then Mackowiak drives a fastball to left field. It's on the warning track! It could be his third slam of the season! But...it drops down for what looks like a double. Nunez scores, Kendall scores. Then Wilson slides across the plate and Mackowiak moves to third while Estrada mishandles the relay throw, and then -- miraculously -- the ball pops out of Estrada's hands towards the Pirates' dugout and Mackowiak scores.

Final damage: Estrada gets charged with one error (he also allows a run to score on a passed ball later in the 8th) and Mackowiak gets three rbi with his not-really-an-inside-the-park-home-run-but-too-strange-to-be-an-average-double trip to the plate. To quote Family Guy Peter Griffin: "It was freakin' sweet." I should also mention that the Pirates are now 48-50 for the season, hovering around the marks of "wild-card contenders" like Houston, the Mets and the Marlins. All this after falling to 15 games under .500 just a month ago. July has totally been Pittsburgh's bitch.