Here, however, the Pirates' Wednesday afternoon greeting was, "Welcome to The SHO." Entering the opener of a two-game set against the White Sox, the Bucs had tossed three straight shutouts, 30 consecutive shutout innings and five shutouts in six games.
Like just about everyone else, Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle didn't know how best to characterize his club's pitching dominance. But he knew the best way to treat it.
"The shutouts, the scoreless innings caught (51, by Francisco Cervelli), the no man to third base (in 28 straight innings), we were talking about that last night on the plane," Hurdle said.