It happens every time

When the Pittsburgh Pirates see Chris R. Young penciled in as the opposing starting pitcher, they get an ill feeling.

The Pirate batters feel sick because they can't solve Young whatsoever. Following his stellar performance last night, the San Diego rightthander has pitched 23 2/3 innings against Pittsburgh in his career, surrendering just seven hits and two runs while going 3-0. And those two runs came on a Joe Randa home run that broke up Young's no-hit bid in the ninth inning against the Bucs late last season.

The opposing Pirate pitcher feels none too well because he knows he'll receive no offensive support. That was the case for Paul Maholm yesterday. He'd given up only two runs entering the eighth inning, then watched Jonah Bayliss give up a grand slam to Khalil Greene to put the game totally out of reach. (Actually, it was out of reach as soon as the Padres scored their first run.)

But the most nauseous of all must be Pittsburgh general manager Dave Littlefield. He had Young in the Pirates' minor-league system in 2001-02, and Young had pitched well, compiling an overall 16-12 record for Class-A Hickory. In 2002, Young posted a 3.11 earned run average while striking out 136 batters in 144 innings.

When Littlefield had the opportunity to acquire journeyman reliever Matt Herges, though, he traded Young. That didn't work out so well for the Pirates, who released Herges the following spring training.

Young has to be happy, not only because he's pitching for a decent team. Given the history of pitchers in the Pirates organization, if he would have hung around, he'd probably be recovering from Tommy John surgery right around now.