"Forget the game.

It was largely forgettable, anyway: Zach Duke lost his third in a row as the Pirates lost to Los Angeles, 5-1, Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.

Focus, instead, on the real reason Duke was sitting at his stall, staring forward, scowling, while left completely alone: Two of the Pirates' batters were hit by pitches early in the game and, in the fifth inning, Andrew McCutchen was brushed back on successive pitches by reliever Ramon Ortiz, the second one toward his head.

And, when Ortiz batted in the sixth, a rare plate appearance for any reliever and a golden chance to follow the baseball code of retribution ...

Nothing.

A fastball and three curves produced a strikeout, but not so much as a shiver out of Ortiz.

"I had to step up and retaliate," Duke said. "I dropped the ball.""