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Pirates Morning Report: Dominant Performance By Pitching Staff

Final Score: Pirates 4 Reds 1

Why The Pirates Won: The trio of Braxton Ashcraft, Carmen Mlodzinski, and Gregory Soto combined to shut the Reds down. They gave up one run on just 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 10. The Pirate offense did not do much but was able to turn 6 hits and 7 walks into 4 runs, which was more than enough to win this game. They only had one extra base hit: a double by Marcel Ozuna. This was a game about the pitching for a change. Ashcraft went 5 innings and would have gone more if not for the rain delay. He threw only 69 pitches while limiting the Reds to just 2 hits. He did give up the home run, but even it was kind of cheap, traveling only 350 feet down the right field line. If this pitching staff can find some way to pitch like they did last year, then the Pirates should be able to make it to the playoffs. That is the big if.

Key Moments of the Game: The rains came down pretty hard at the top of the 3rd, but for some reason, the umpires did not stop the game. I do not know if that affected Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott, but he seemed to lose total command of his pitches. He walked 4 batters in the inning and gave up a single after the first walk. This led to the first two Pirate runs as he walked 2 with the bases loaded. The Reds got an out in exchange for a run, that made the score 3-0. Nick Gonzales stole 2nd base, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with just one out. Of course, Ozuna and Triolo left them stranded. The Reds opened the 7th with a double but could not get the runner around to score. They are just about as bad as the Pirates at situational hitting. They never threatened again the rest of the game.

Next Game: This afternoon, Reds in Cincinnati. The Pirates have a chance to gain a split in the series today. They have to go up against Chase Burns today who is 12-1 with an ERA of 2.40. This could turn out to be an unexpected win. A win the Pirates really need with them heading for Milwaukee for the next 4 games. Yesterday the Pirates picked up relief pitcher Camilo Doval. He had his best years in San Francsico from 21 to 23. You could almost say that he is the right hand version of Gregory Soto. There is one thing for sure about Dovel. He does not like pitching in Yankee Stadium. He has given up 29 runs this year and 23 of them have been there. At least he won’t have to pitch there anymore. It is not saying much but he does look like he is an improvement on what they have. The Yankees have not used him much only 4 times in the last 14 games, so he should be well rested. Can the Pirates get to Chase Burns today? Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Giving Up A Lead 101

Final Score: Pirates 7 Reds 8

Why The Pirates Lost: A complete pitching and fielding failure. The Pirates had 3 leads in this game and lost all of them in 4 outs or less. Paul Skenes did nothing well in this outing. He gave up 5 runs on 7 hits while walking 4 batters. It was even more nauseating to watch with the Pirate broadcast booth continuing to talk about all the success Skenes has had against the Reds and on the Red’s home field. Skenes could only go 4 innings throwing 100 pitches. We are beginning to see the Pirates pitching philosophy. If a pitcher is struggling, make sure he throws at least 95 to 100 pitches. If he is mowing the other team down, then 85 is the limit. Makes perfect sense. Just about as much sense as to bring an inexperienced 22 year old into a tight game in the 8th inning.

Key Moment Of The Game: The bullpen blew another save but it was helped along by the inexplicable throw by Nick Gonzales that allowed the deciding run to score. With 1st and 3rd and two outs in the bottom of the 8th, Nathanial Lowe hit a sharp ground ball right to Gonzales. He had all day to throw to 1st but elected to go to 2nd base where Brandon Lowe had to run about 60 feet to get to the bag. He could not hold onto the ball. The Reds had the lead. Did he not know that there were two outs? Was he trying to get a double play? Could we be looking at the next DH? The Pirates have lost 7 out of their last 9 games and are now below .500. During this stretch they have scored 7 or more runs 3 times and have won only one of those games.

Next Game: Tonight, the Reds in Cincinnati. Braxton Ashcraft goes tonight for the Pirates. The Pirates are in a downward spiral at the moment. How long it will last will determine if there will be meaningful games in September. Like any bad spell during a season the Pirates lose both high and low scoring games. The Pirates need to make a major move to shore up the bullpen. I am not too sure they will do it. Right now, this looks like another season that goes right down the drain.

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Pirates Morning Report: Making More Bad Decisions

Final Score: Pirates 2 Reds 3

Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirate hitters continue to struggle, this time against mediocre pitching. Rhett Lowder, who carried a 5.71 ERA into the game, held the Pirates to 2 runs on 5 hits and did not issue a walk. The Reds bullpen, ranked 18th in baseball, held the Pirates scoreless the rest of the way, giving up 2 hits and 2 walks. The Pirates decided to do a bullpen game, and boy did they ever dance through the raindrops. The Reds could only score 3 runs, even though they had 9 hits and received 9 walks. They were 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base. The Pirates decided to go with 2 AAA pitchers, with one being on the IL for most of the season. Hunter Barco and Noah Murdock pitched a combined 5 innings. They threw 117 pitches, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits and 6 walks. At the end of the game, the Pirates made two bad decisions; one did not affect the outcome of the game because of the 2nd bad decision. In the top of the 8th, they pinch ran for Esmerlyn Valdez after he doubled with one out. They were taking their biggest bat out of the game on the chance that Billy Cook might make a difference on a single. The worse decision was not allowing Mason Montgomery to come out for the 9th, even though he had thrown only 7 pitches. The Pirates must not be able to figure out that when you are the road team and the game is tied going into the bottom of the 9th, you are going to have to get 6 outs in order to win the game. Your hottest reliever at the moment throws 7 pitches and then takes a shower. Amazing stupidity.

Key Moments Of The Game: If the Pirates had won the game, it would have been all the jams that Barco and Murdock worked out of. The key moment was when Gregory Soto came out to work the 9th. Elly De La Cruz opened the inning with a double, swinging at a pitch that was low and inside, ripping it down the left field line. Of the 18 pitches that Soto threw, only 5 were in the strike zone. He did get some chases, but obviously his command was way off. The Pirates intentionally walked the next batter, and after a strikeout, Soto walked the next batter to load the bases with one out. This brought Nathaniel Lowe up to the plate. He is hitting .091 against lefties. Soto fell behind 2-1 and grooved a fastball, which Lowe put in play to win the game. The Pirates have now lost 6 out of 8. I guess they are no longer surging, Greg Brown.

Next Game: Tonight, the Reds in Cincinnati. Paul Skenes goes for the Pirates tonight. Hunter Greene is making his 5th start since elbow surgery for the Reds. He has not been that effective in the 4 previous starts. The way the Pirates are hitting I am sure he will get better tonight. To begin this 15 game critical stretch the Pirates are 0-2. I must apologize because yesterday I said the Pirates were going to Chicago after Cincinnati. They are actually headed to Milwaukee. I blame it on vacation as the blogs were coming from Cape Cod. It looks like the Pirates may be going on vacation too.

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Pirates Morning Report: Bad End To A Disappointing Home Stand

Final Score: Pirates 0 Diamondbacks 3

Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirates could not score a run. They could only manage 5 hits and 2 walks, with no hits for extra bases. They only had 2 at bats with runners in scoring position only leaving 5 men on base. Jared Jones pitched a decent 6 innings giving up 3 runs on 4 hits walking 2 and striking out 5 while throwing just 77 pitches. As usual he was plagued by the long ball giving up a two run homer in the 4th. Even though this was just in the 4th you had the feeling that the Pirates were not going to score much on lefty Eduardo Rodriguez. They wound up scoring zero.

Key Moments Of The Game: Nick Gonzales opened the game with a line drive single to center. He was immediately erased when Brandon Lowe hit into a double play. The next 8 batters were retired. With one out in the bottom of the 4th, Lowe and Bryan Reynolds hit back to back singles. Esmerlyn Valdez grounded into a double play to end the inning. Jared Triolo in the 5th with 2 out singled and stole 2nd. The Password hit a sharp ground ball but right to the shortstop to end the inning. The Pirates got 1 hit the rest of the game.

Next game: Tonight Reds in Cincinnati. The Pirates embark on an 8 game road trip beginning tonight with four games in Cincinnati. Then they will play 4 in Chicago against the Cubs. The Pirates have lost 5 of their last 7 games. They have been shut out in 3 of those losses. Brandon Lowe tried to downplay the importance of yesterday’s game. Technically he is right. This season has 2 months and 53 games to go. A lot can happen. The Pirates could get hot and storm into the playoffs. But after this miserable 2-4 home stand does that seem likely to happen. Only time will tell.

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Pirates Morning Report: One Tough Loss

Final Score: Pirates 7 Diamondbacks 8 in 12 innings

Why The Pirates Lost: The Diamondbacks got off to a great start against Bubba Chandler. It was also a very fortunate start. With the exception of a triple in the first inning, they blooped and broke their bats for 8 hits scoring 5 runs in 4 innings. They scored a 6th run in the sixth inning when the Pirates decided to play their infield back. The Pirates made a spectacular comeback scoring 3 runs in the eighth and 3 in the ninth to send the game into extra innings. A major failure in situational hitting in the 11th and 12th cost them the game. The Pirates had a lot of bad luck in this game but in the end they failed miserably in basic baseball and strategy.

Key Moments Of The Game: There were many big moments in this game. The two out hitting in the eighth and the big home runs by Brandon Lowe and Bryan Reynolds that enabled the Pirates to tie the game and send it into extra innings. The game boiled down to the eleventh and twelfth innings. The Pirates were able to hold the Diamondbacks scoreless thanks to an intentional walk and double play. The Diamondbacks pulled the same strategy and got the same double play. The Diamondbacks scored in the 12th inning with a bunt and a base hit. Nick Gonzales opened the bottom of the 12th by swinging at the first pitch and grounding it to third without advancing the runner. Endy Rodriguez struck out. This brought up Tyler Callihan who for some strange reason pinch ran for Marcell Ozuna in the 8th inning. He was 0 for his last 13 with 8 strikeouts. He made it 0 for 14 with 9 strikeouts to end the game.

Next Game: This afternoon Diamondbacks in Pittsburgh. This is a significant game because if the the Pirates win they will have the tie breaker against the Diamondbacks. Lose and they will have a 2-4 home stand going into a stretch where they play the next 11 of 14 games on the road. This is the 15 game stretch that will make or break the season. In the middle of all this is the trade deadline. Will there be meaningful games in September. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Didn’t Give This One Away

Final Score: Pirates 3 Diamondbacks 2 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Won: The bullpen did the job. They held the Diamondbacks scoreless over the last 4 and 2/3 innings of the game. They held them to 2 hits while only walking one. Mitch Keller had his second good start going 5 and 1/3 giving up 2 runs on 6 hits while walking one. The whole staff came up big when they needed to, allowing only 2 hits in 14 at bats with runners in scoring position. The Diamondbacks left 10 runners on base. Brandon Lowe had a big game going 3 for 5 with 2 RBIs, including the game winner. Bryan Reynolds drove in the tying run in the bottom of the 8th. The Pirates did not give this one away. Maybe this will start a trend.

Key Moments Of The Game: Keller was doing well going into the top of the 6th. Things began to unravel as the inning opened with 2 singles. Keller struck out the next batter. An infield hit loaded the bases. Max Kepler took a low changeup and ripped it down the right field line for a double to drive in 2 runs. I was a little surprised it did not clear the bases. In came Yohan (Doing Better Than I Thought He Would) Ramirez. He got Tyler Locklear to ground out to Jared Triolo who threw the runner out at the plate. He battled Adrian Del Castillo for 8 pitches getting him to ground out to first to end the inning. In the top of the 10th Mason Montgomery over came a Nick Gonzales throwing error to hold the Diamondbacks scoreless. This put runners on second and third with one out. In a battle royal Montgomery struck out Gabriel Moore on an eleven pitch at bat. He fouled off 7 pitches. On the first pitch of the at bat, Max Kepler hit a solid line drive but right to Jake Magnum in center to end the inning. Brandon Lowe got the game winner and the Pirates had a big win. Two more to go.

Next game: Tonight, Diamondbacks in Pittsburgh. Bubba Chandler goes for the Pirates. Chandler has pitched better the last 6 weeks culminating with his best performance of the year against the Yankees limiting them to just 2 hits in 6 and 1/3 innings. He walked just one. After the debacle with the Cubs the Pirates really need a sweep. No sense speculating on the Esmerlyn Valdez wrist injury. We can just hope it is nothing serious. Can the Pirates keep this going?

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Pirates Morning Report: Eight Runs Just Enough To Avoid Sweep

Final Score: Pirates 8 Cubs 7

Why The Pirates Won: The bats came out of their slumber to score 8 runs on 11 hits to go along with 3 walks. Recent call up Shawn Ross, who has a career minor league batting average of .188 hit a big 2 run home run in the bottom of the 2nd to get the Pirates rolling. Earlier in the inning Esmerlyn Valdez hit a solo homer to tie the game 1-1. Ryan O’ Hearn hit the big blast in the bottom of the 3rd, a grand slam to give the Pirates a 7-1 advantage. In the bottom of the 5th Valdez drove in the 8th run which proved to be the deciding run. The trio of Braxton Ashcraft, Carmen Mlodzinski and Mason Montgomery came close to blowing the lead. Combined they gave up 7 runs on 12 hits while walking 2. However the Pirates held on to avoid a disastrous sweep and keep the wild card a distinct possibility.

Key Moments Of The Game: You cannot over emphasize how big the 2 run homer by Ross was. There were 2 outs when he took a 3-2 cutter and drilled 438 feet into the left field seats. After giving up 3 runs in the top of the 4th Ashcraft really settled down to retire the side in order the next two innings. In the top of the 8th Mlodzinski started the inning giving up 3 straight hits. This made the score 8-5 with the Cubs having runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out. Mlodzinski was able to retire the next 3 batters with no further damage. Montgomery, after giving up a lead off single was able to strike out Pete Crow-Armstrong for the first out in the top of the 9th. He then threw a 1-1 curveball right down the middle to Seiya Suzuki and he hit it into the seats to suddenly make the score 8-7. Michael Busch battled for 8 pitches but finally grounded out to first. This brought up Pirate killer Ian Happ. Montgomery mowed him down on 5 pitches and the Pirates had a much needed win.

Next Game: Tonight Diamondbacks in Pittsburgh. It’s Keller vs. Kelly in the first game of the series. The Diamondbacks are the team directly in front of the Pirates for the final Wild Card spot. A sweep here would take some of the bad taste that the Cubs series left. It was good to see the bats wake up. They need to continue to do so if the Pirates are going to pull off the sweep.

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Pirates Morning Report: This Is Why You Do Not Give Games Away

Final Score: Pirates 0 Cubs 11

Why The Pirates Lost: The offense continues to slump. One run in the last 27 innings of regular baseball. Paul Skenes pitched a great 4 innings but then fell apart for the next 1 and 1/3 innings. The bullpen stunk giving up 6 runs in 3 and 2/3 innings. The only pitcher not to give up a run was Tyler Callihan. Of course, he is not a pitcher. Ron Marinaccio showed how great waiver deals are. He pitched 1 and 1/3 innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and did not have a ball hit under 90 MPH. The new Pirate pitching theory, pitch to hard contact. Look, blowout games are going to happen. That is why giving away games like the Pirates have all season will come back to haunt you.

Key Moments Of The Game: Skenes had struck out the side in the top of the 4th. The top of the fifth started off harmlessly with a pop out to Henry Davis. Then 4 straight hits and before you could say this game is over it was 3-0 Cubs. Two of the hits were weak liners under 80 MPH but were placed perfectly. After that our waiver built bullpen did their thing and the rout was on.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Pittsburgh. The offense is going to have to come out of their funk or the Pirates will be swept today. Jameson Taillon is pitching for the Cubs. The Pirates have hit him pretty well at times. The Pirates lose today and you can feel the season slipping away.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Give Another One Away But This Was A Total Team Effort

Final Score: Pirates 2 Cubs 3 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Lost: Everyone contributed to this loss. The offense could not get runners in from 3rd with less than 2 outs. The manager made his usual horrible decisions. The bullpen gave away the deciding run. Only the starting pitching namely Jared Jones could hold its head up high. He went six innings giving up one run on 2 hits, walking 1 and striking out 5. He threw 83 pitches. Unfortunately one of the hits was a solo homer by Pete Crow-Armstrong. The Pirates had their chances but could only plate 1 run despite getting 8 hits and 3 walks in regulation.

Key Moments Of The Game: In the bottom of the 5th the Pirates opened the inning with 2 walks, a bunt single, and an infield single to plate 1 run. They had the bases loaded with nobody out and the top of the order up. Jake Magnum and Nick Gonzales both hit very short fly balls to the outfield that could not advance any runners. Bryan Reynolds struck out. Crow-Armstrong hit his homer the very next inning to quickly tie the game. In the bottom of the 7th the Pirates had runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Gonzales hit a 266 foot fly ball to left. Ian Happ made a great throw to nail Henry Davis at the plate. Yohan Ramirez pitched the top of the 10th. He got 2 outs sandwiched between an infield single putting runners on 1st and 2nd. That’s when Ramirez started to lose control. Don Kelly paid no attention. He fell behind Dansby Swanson 2-0. He threw a fastball right down the middle and Swanson drilled it 105 MPH into center field to score the go ahead run on a bang-bang play at the plate that was not overturned. Ramirez then threw 2 straight balls to Crow-Armstrong that weren’t even close, eventually leading to an intentional walk. This is where Ramirez should have been taken out. Kelly sat on his hands. After all the game was only on the line. Ramirez walked Seiya Suzuki on 4 straight pitches with only one being remotely close to the strike zone, walking in the deciding run of the game.He had thrown 8 out of 9 pitches for balls. He should have never been allowed to that, hence, a 3-2 loss.

Next Game: Tonight Cubs in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes goes for the Pirates tonight. He has won his last 3 starts and they all have been good but not dominant. The Pirates need to bounce back from that gift wrapped win they gave the Cubs last night. The offense has been held pretty much in check the last 2 games. This can happen to any offense. Hopefully they will snap out of it soon.

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Pirates Morning Report: Their Newest Acquisition

The Pirates acquired relief pitcher Ron Marinaccio from the San Diego Padres on, what else a waiver deal. The best thing you might say about the deal is it got them to DFA Dennis Santana. At first glance Marinaccio doesn’t seem much better. He has appeared in 33 games for the Padres and has an ERA of 4.79. However, he had two bad outings where he worked a total of 2 innings and gave up 9 runs. Take out those two outings and that brings his ERA down to 3.20, which is more in line with his lifetime ERA of 3.50. No matter what, this is not a deal you can get all that excited about. Hopefully the Pirates can do better than this. I am sure Marinaccio will be put to the test this weekend. The last time he pitched was the 18th so he is well rested. You never know though. I am sure Don Kelly is just itching to put future DFA candidate Brandon Eisert back into a high leverage situation with the game on the line. The wild card home stand starts tonight..