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Pirates Morning Report: Jones Mows Them Down Again

Final Score: Pirates 2 Cardinals 0

Why The Pirates Won: Braxton Ashcraft may be the best overall pitcher this year for the Pirates, but Jared Jones has had the most dominant outings. For the third time this year he carried a no hitter or perfect game into the 6th inning. With one out in the top of the 6th the first and only hit of the game for the Cardinals came on a little 54 MPH blooper down the third base line traveling 136 feet. The Pirates needed such a performance as they could only manage 5 hits and needed some help from the Cardinals to score both runs. One of the runs scored on a wild pitch. Ryan O’ Hearn drove in the first run with a big two out hit in the 6th, driving in Oneil Cruz who had walked and got to second on a groundout. Luke Weaver had an interesting 8th inning. He threw 21 pitches, struck out the side and walked one. There was not a ball in play for the inning. In fact the Cardinals had 7 straight batters that did not put the ball in play.

Key Moment Of The Game: Gregory Soto of course, made things real interesting in the top of the 9th. His first 6 pitches did not find the strike zone. His 7th pitch barely caught the top of the zone. He went 3-2 before getting a called third strike. He went 3-1 on the next batter before getting him to foul a ball and swing at a pitch above the zone. Alec Burleson thankfully swung at the first pitch right down the middle and lofted a lazy 320 ft. fly ball to Bryan Reynolds to end the game. The Pirates have now won 5 in a row.

Next Game: Tonight the Cardinals in Pittsburgh. The blog is coming from San Diego this week where the Padres are trying to clinch the Wild Card spot. The Cubs Phillies and Padres are all tied with a record of 87-70. The Diamondbacks are 4 back with 5 to play. They play the Padres the final 3 games in San Diego. It is unlikely that these games will be meaningful but you never know. I will be watching the Padres this week so I may report on their games rather than the exhibition games the Pirates are playing. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Catcher

This will begin a series where I will look at each position on the Pirates, see where they rank currently at the moment, and who is responsible for the ranking good or bad. Then we will see what the Pirates need to do to improve the position or how to maintain a position that is good. I was going to mix it in with my summaries of the games but each position deserves a blog of their own. I know the season is not over but in order to get this done in a timely fashion and to ease the boredom of watching meaningless games I thought I would start now. What better place to start than the catcher the so-called quarterback of the team when it is on the field. Let’s get stated.

The Pirate catching position is currently ranked 19th in all of baseball. Henry Davis is the man most responsible for the ranking. He has had 291 plate appearances which is almost as many as everybody else combined that has played catcher. There are 270 players in baseball that have had 290 or more plate appearances as of September 20th. Henry Davis has an OPS of .585 which is up about 20 points higher since his little spurt over the last 3 or 4 games. There is one player in this group of 270 that has a worse OPS than Davis. There are two other players who are tied with him. This puts him tied for 267th out of 270 players who have had that many plate appearances. There are 457 players that have had 100 or more plate appearances. That is about 25 games which should be enough to establish some kind of pattern. Davis comes in at 417th in that group. If you haven’t figured it by now, he is one of the worse hitters in baseball. He is an outstanding defensive catcher in many ways, but this cannot offset such a dismal offensive performance, even at such a defensive position. Other teams may be able to afford such an anemic bat in the lineup, but the Pirates cannot. He leads all of baseball in throwing out runners trying to steal. He throws them out at a 46% rate. That is elite. He is not a good pitch framer which might explain why he is not good at the ABS system challenge, although he is getting better. There have been 29 catchers in baseball that have made 80 or more challenges. Davis has made 101. He has been right 55.4 % of the time. This places him 22nd out of the 29 catchers. At one time he was as low as 30th. He has a defensive runs saved score of +7. In the Saber Defensive Index, he is one of the top 25 best defenders in the National League and the 4th best catcher. Despite this solid fielding record, the catcher position of the Pirates is ranked 19th out of 30 teams. They need to do better than that.

If you believe that Davis can find a way to become a little below average hitter, then the Pirates should give him another shot next year. I do not believe that so in my view it is time to cut the ties with the former no. 1 pick in the entire draft. I think there are many good teams out there that can afford to take Davis because they do not need any offense from the catcher position. He could go to a team that has a good offensive catcher with Davis as the backup. Rafael Flores Jr. has shown enough to be part of the catching tandem next year. Endy Rodriguez should be given one final chance to see if he can get through a season without serious injury. The upside is just too great not to take the risk. He will be only 27 next season. His OPS this year was .840 which is almost 300 points higher than Henry Davis. The Pirates have catchers in their minor league system that could step in to back up Flores if Rodriguez cannot stay healthy. Other than trading Davis I do not think the Pirates need to look for a catcher in the free agent market or the trade market to improve the position. With a little luck Rodriguez should be a huge upgrade. If Flores can continue to improve this could be a position for the Pirates that could be in the top 10 next year.

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Late Home Run Gives The Pirates The Sweep

Final Score: Pirates 4 Royals 3

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates played one of their better defensive games, making many spectacular plays in the field. The home run was their friend, with Oneil Cruz tying the game 1-1 with his 20th home run of the season. Rafael Flores Jr. put the Pirates ahead to stay with his 10th home run, a two-run shot in the bottom of the 8th. The Pirates had a bullpen game, “again”. Five pitchers combined to give up 3 runs on 9 hits, walking one while striking out 8. Carmen Mlodzinski pitched 3 innings, giving up 2 runs on a two-run homer in the 7th, surrendering a 2-1 lead. Wilbur Dotel and Yohan Ramirez pitched 2 scoreless innings each. Mason Montgomery survived a 2-out double that wound up on third when Jake Magnum had trouble picking up the ball, to record his 16th save. The Pirates move to 2 games above .500 with a record of 79-77.

Key Moments Of The Game: The game was tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the 6th. Michael Wacha had limited the Pirates to 3 hits including the Cruz homer. Cruz swung at the 1st pitch of the inning and lined out to centerfield on a ball that was hit 111 MPH. Then the Pirates went foul ball crazy. It took Nick Gonzales 10 pitches to fly out fouling off 4 pitches. Ryan O Hearn and Flores fouled off 3 pitches each in 8 and 9 pitch walks. Spencer Horwitz fouled off 2 of the first 4 pitches he faced. On the 5th pitch he lofted a 68 MPH blooper right out over 2nd base to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. It was the 33rd pitch of the inning for Wacha giving him a whopping 113 pitches for the game. He was mercifully taken out of the game after that frustrating stretch. Rafael Flores Jr was the big hero with his home run in the bottom of the 8th. It was another gritty meaningless game for win the Pirates.

Next Game: Tuesday night, the Cardinals in Pittsburgh. The Cardinals have been a bit of a thorn in the side of Pirates winning 6 of the first 10 games in the series. The Pirates are 3 games ahead of the Cardinals in the standings. There are just 6 games left in the season. Looking forward to the baseball playoffs. There is something to be said for the fact that I and the Pirates will just be watching them. They can slice this any way they want in the Pirate broadcast booth but this season was a big disappointment.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Home Run Their Way To Victory.

Final Score: Pirates 6 Royals 5

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates survived a 13-hit barrage by the Royals by hitting 3 two-run homers to pull out a nice 6-5 win. Ronnie Simon hit his first career homer to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead. Jake Mangum hit another two-run shot in the 4th to stretch their lead to 4-1. Bubba Chandler struggled for over 4 innings, giving up 8 hits and being charged with 3 runs. Camilo Doval had a tough 7th inning, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits to allow the Royals to take the lead 5-4. In the bottom of the 8th, Rafael Flores led off the inning with a single. On a 1-1 pitch, Brandon Lowe took a 94 MPH cutter and drilled it 401 feet into the right-center field seats to give the Pirates the lead 6-5. Mason Montgomery came in to pitch the 9th. After giving up a leadoff walk, he retired the side in order, with the game ending on a sliding catch of a foul pop-up by none other than Henry Davis. I guess the Pirates don’t have the tiebreaker with the Padres, so they are eliminated from the playoffs. Maybe they can finish above .500. That would be something. Not much, but something.

Key Moments of the Game: Bubba Chandler danced through the raindrops figuratively and literally in the first four innings of the ballgame. He retired the side in order in the first. In the second, he gave up two singles but no runs, thanks to a double play. In the third, he surrendered a home run and then two singles but no more runs. In the top of the fourth, he gave up two singles and hit a batter but managed to keep any runs from scoring. In the top of the fifth, he did not get an out. Don Kelly brought in a reliever, which was a miracle. Chandler had thrown 90 pitches, which I am sure was the biggest factor in his removal, not the fact that he was stinking up the joint. He brought in Brandon Eisert with runners on first and second and no outs. The Royals quickly executed a double steal to put runners on second and third. The Royals made it 4-2 with a ground out to first. Michael Massey laid down a bunt down the first base line. Ryan O’Hearn picked up the ball and shuttled it between his legs to Eisert to get Massey at first base. It scored another Royals run, but now the bases were empty. Eisert gave up another single but got the last out of the inning on a fly out to left field. With the exception of Doval, the Pirate bullpen did not give up a hit the rest of the way.

Next Game: This afternoon, the Royals in Pittsburgh. With a rainy day predicted in Pittsburgh the Pirates will try and go for the sweep. Looks like another bullpen day for the Pirates as they refuse to let their young pitchers start a game and see how they can do. More on that later in the month. The Pirates have always shown they play well in meaningless games. Maybe Mother Nature will stop them today. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Several Players Have Big Day As Pirates Defeat Royals

Final Score: Pirates 8 Royals 5

Why the Pirates Won: Led by Konnor Griffin, who went 4 for 5, the Pirates put 8 runs on the board. The game started out as if the Pirates might give one away. They had 3 hits in the 1st inning, with one being a double, and they did not score a run. In the 2nd inning they had a walk and a double with one out and could not score. They finally broke the ice in the 3rd scoring 2 runs on a Brandon Lowe 2 run homer. Griffin was not the only Pirate who had a big day at the plate; Bryan Reynolds went 2 for 5, with both hits being doubles. Oneil Cruz went 3 for 5 and scored 2 runs. Griffin, Brandon Lowe, and Spencer Horwitz each had 2 RBIs. Henry Davis went 1 for 3 to bring his OPS up to .585, and he may not be the worst hitter in the league anymore. Not all the news was good, as Paul Skenes got knocked around pretty well. He did finish strong, managing to go 6 innings and retiring the last 8 batters he faced. Before that, he had given up 5 runs on 6 hits, including 2 home runs. Skenes saw his ERA rise to 3.91. The Pirates remain 8 games out with 8 games to play.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates had just tied the game in the bottom of the 5th. Skenes breezed through the top of the 6th. The Pirates had a chance to take the lead in the bottom of the inning. They had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out but failed to score. Brandon Eisert came on to pitch the top of the 7th. He had not given up a run in his last 4 outings since his September call-up. The Royals got a bloop single off him that went off Nick Gonzales’s glove. He walked the next batter. The Royals gave the Pirates an out with a bunt that moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Eisert struck out Carter Jensen on a 3-2 pitch. This brought up Bobby Witt Jr. Then, lo and behold, Don Kelly made a move. It is a good thing I do not have a heart condition. Witt does hit lefties a little better, and by God, Kelly made the move bringing Yohan Ramirez to face Witt. He threw him 4 straight sweepers and got Witt to ground out to third to end the inning. In the bottom of the 7th, the Pirates had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, thanks to a single, a hit by pitch, and a wild pitch. Ryan O’Hearn struck out, and Ronnie Simon popped out. Spencer, who seems to have finally found his groove in the last 7 games, singled to left field to drive in the 2 runs. After the Royals committed the sin of walking Henry Davis, putting runners on 1st and 2nd, Konnor Griffin got his 4th hit of the game to make the score 8-5. Ramirez and Gregory Soto finished up the game, and the Pirates climbed back up to .500. Too bad the Pirates are not in the American League.

Next Game: Tonight Royals in Pittsburgh. Bubba Chandler will go for the Pirates facing left hander Noah Cameron. I was going to do an essay on the Pirate catchers today but with Henry Davis having his little hot streak I felt it would only be fair to hold off. There is plenty of time to evaluate this team position by position. We will see how he does the rest of the weekend. The Pirates have an off day on Monday. This could be elimination day for the Pirates. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Salvage One Game Of The Series, On The Brink Of Elimination

Final Score: Pirates 7 Brewers 4

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates put on a remarkable two out lightening inning scoring 5 runs after two were out and nobody on base. The next 8 batters got on base in various ways and the Pirates jumped out to a 5 to 1 lead. The bullpen game worked out well. Wilber Dotel and Khristian Curtis went 5 and 1/3 innings giving up 2 runs on 4 hits walking 4 while striking out 5. Luke Weaver’s poison ivy must be acting up again as he could only get through 2/3 of an inning giving up 2 runs on 3 hits. Mason Montgomery got the last 4 outs of the game to get his 14th save. Stop the presses! The worst hitter in all of baseball Henry Davis hit a big 2 run homer in the bottom of the 8th to give the Pirates that nice 3 run cushion going into the 9th. More on him over the weekend. The Pirates find themselves 8 games behind the relentless Padres for the last wildcard spot with 9 games to go. The Pirates could be eliminated tonight.

Key Moment Of The Game: It was all the 2 out scoring the Pirates did in the bottom of the 2nd inning. A lot of it was helped along by the Brewers playing very un-Brewer like baseball. It started off innocently enough with a 5 pitch walk to Ronnie Simon. Jared Triolo got an infield single up the middle. Henry Davis loaded the bases on catcher interference. Konnor Griffin took an inside fastball and ripped it down the left field line for a double scoring 2 runs. Oneil Cruz took an up and in fastball and hit a soft liner to left center field to drive in two more runs. Both hitters got the hits with 2 strikes on them. The Brewers gift wrapped the 5th run with a hit by pitch, a walk and another hit by pitch to make the score 5-1. The Brewers as usual made it interesting cutting the lead to 5-4 going into the bottom of the 8th. The Henry Davis miracle happened, and the Pirates were able to win the final game of the series to avoid being swept at home

Next game: Tonight, the Royals in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes goes to tonight. It would be fitting if the Pirates got eliminated on “Paul Skenes Day”. Because these games are basically meaningless the Morning Report will take a little different format. The synopsis of the game will be even briefer as I take a look at the Pirates position by position on how they did in 2026 and where the Pirates will need to improve in 2027. This team deserves a more in depth look than just an end of the season wrap up. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Brewers Showing How It Is Done

Final Score: Pirates 4 Brewers 5

Why The Pirates Lost: The Brewers have a manager. The Pirates do not. For the second series in a row, we saw a manager on a team that is going to make the playoffs making move after move after move when it came to the bullpen. Our manager sits on his hands talking to his incompetent pitching coach while a lead dissolves away with no one even warming up in the bullpen, let alone being brought into the game. The Pirate offense had a very strange game. They hit 3 home runs that accounted for all of the Pirate runs. You could say they had 3 runs on 4 hits. They collected 8 other hits and a walk but could not produce another run. In fact, they had only 2 other at-bats with runners in scoring position. Brandon Lowe’s 2-run homer came with Konnor Griffin on 2nd base. The Padres won last night, putting the Pirates 8 games behind them with 10 games to go. Elimination is on the horizon. All Pirate fans can only think of what might have been if the Pirate managerial staff knew what they were doing.

Key Moments of the Game: The Pirates gave away the lead in the top of the 7th in typical Pirate fashion. The Brewers scored 2 runs on 2 hits and 2 walks, and Carmen Mlodzinski was allowed to do all of this. The Pirates had no one warming up in the bullpen as the inning progressed. In fact, the Pirates let Mlodzinski come out for another inning; they were so pleased with his work. Christian Yelich got the big hit to make the score 5-4. Too bad he did not have to face a left-hander, as his batting average is 32 points lower against lefties. Do the Pirates even know what high leverage means? I do not think so. This was the spot that Mason Montgomery should have been put into the game. In the bottom of the 7th, the Pirates put runners on 1st and 2nd with one out. Of course, they had to earn their runners with two singles. Bryan Reynolds grounded into a double play. In the bottom of the 8th, an opening single was erased on a double play. Oh, by the way, during the two innings, there were two pitching changes made. This is how games are won, Don Kelly. They are not won by putting Billy Cook in to run with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th.

Next Game: This afternoon, Brewers in Pittsburgh. The Brewers can win the season series with a win today. At least the game is in the afternoon and the evening won’t be ruin by the Pirates. The Pirates did break their home run mark for the season last night. This is what this team has always been about all year. Individual records and not trying to win ball games. Fortunately, this mess is coming to end soon.

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Pirates Morning Report: To Quote Joe Block, That Is Why The Pirates Are The Pirates And The Brewers Are The Brewers

Final Score: Pirates 1 Brewers 5

Why the Pirates Lost: The Pirates wasted 9 hits and 2 walks to score 0 runs. They were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. The Pirates are the Pirates. Their only run scored was on a home run. The Brewers scored 5 runs on 8 hits and 6 walks. They did not hit a home run. They were 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position. The Brewers are the Brewers. Oneil Cruz was called out on strikes in 4 consecutive at-bats. For the game, he swung at more pitches outside of the strike zone than at pitches in the strike zone. The Pirates are the Pirates. The play that Joe Block referred to involved a baserunning blunder by the Pirates where they should have tied the game 1-1 but instead had one runner standing on third and another runner heading to third. The Brewers did manage to throw out the runner going to third despite laughing the entire time. Yes, the Brewers are in first place with the best record in baseball. The Pirates can only wonder what might have been if they knew how to play baseball. Thank you, Joe Block, for that gem.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates, in the bottom of the 4th with one out, had 3 singles in a row. Instead of scoring a run or at least having the bases loaded with one out, the Pirates wound up with runners on 1st and 3rd and two outs. With 1st and 2nd occupied, a ground ball went past the 3rd baseman off his glove into left field. Nick Gonzales and the 3rd base coach did not see it for some reason. Ryan O’Hearn did see it and headed for third. Ryan O’Hearn meet Nick Gonzales. One of you does not belong here on third base. And they say sitcoms are dead. Tune in tonight.

Next Game: Tonight the Brewers in Pittsburgh. The Pirates did not lose any ground last night as they remain 7 games behind the Padres with 11 games mercifully to go. The Padres poor history in Colorado continued as their 8 game winning streak was snapped 9-3. The Diamondbacks also lost which was huge for them and are still 3 games back in the lost column. Jared Jones goes tonight for the Pirates. He has been spectacular his last two starts going 13 innings giving up just 4 hits and no runs while striking out 17. Hopefully the Pirates will have enough sense to make this his last start of the season. The Brewers will counter with Logan Henderson who is 10-3 with an ERA of 2.34. Another solid starter for the Brewers. What blunder will the Pirates do tonight. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Weaver and Montgomery Come Through Again.

Final Score: Pirates 4 Cubs 3.

Why The Pirates Won: Bubba Chandler danced through the raindrops for 5 and 1/3 innings, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks. He struck out 2 and surrendered a 2-run home run while throwing 90 pitches. See, the Pirates will let you throw over 82 pitches; all you have to do is struggle. Pitch counts are meaningless to this coaching staff. Carmen Mlodzinski escaped a jam created by Chandler in the 6th and pitched a scoreless 7th, allowing only a walk. Luke Weaver and Mason Montgomery retired the side in order in the 8th and 9th, enabling the Pirates to salvage the last game of the series. The offense did not do much but did enough, managing to score 4 runs on 9 hits and 5 walks. They were 3 for 6 with runners in scoring position. Brandon Lowe got the big hit, a pinch-hit single to drive in runs 3 and 4. In the bottom of the 6th, Chandler tried to give it back, but even Don Kelly saw that he did not have it and went to the bullpen just in time. The A team did the job.

Key Moments of the Game: One thing is for sure; Henry Davis was not involved in any of them. He went 0 for 4, not hitting a ball over 300 feet or over 98 MPH. This dropped his sparkling batting average down to .164. The Cubs were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position. In the second inning, the Cubs had runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out and did not score. It was in the 6th inning that they left this game on the table. After one out, they got a single, a double, and a walk to load the bases. In came Carmen (Why Was He Not in This Role All Year) Mlodzinski. He got a weak ground ball out that did score a run, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. After falling behind Michael Conforto 3-0, he intentionally walked him to load the bases once again. On a 2-1 pitch, he induced Pedro Ramirez to hit a lazy fly ball to Jake Mangum in right field to end the inning. The Cubs never threatened again.

Next Game: Tomorrow night, the Brewers in Pittsburgh. The Pirates picked up no ground on the Padres as they won again, sweeping the pathetic Giants in San Francisco. The Pirates could not do that at home. The Padres play tonight; they go to Colorado to play the Rockies, where believe it or not, they have had some problems. When the dust settles, the Pirates will either be 6 or 7 games behind them with 12 games to go. Even Greg Brown says they have to win every game. Stay tuned.

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Pirate Morning Report: Synopsis Of The Season In One Game

Final Score: Pirates 3 Cubs 4

Why the Pirates Lost: In a game that the Pirates desperately needed to win, they put Oneil Cruz at the top of the order. He has not performed well in that role. They batted Konnor Griffin 4th for the first time in his career. It was not surprising that they went a combined 0 for 9 with 2 strikeouts. Nick Gonzales and Rafael Flores were on the bench while Henry Davis and Jacob Gonzalez played. It only got worse when it came to handling the pitching. Paul Skenes gave up 2 runs in 7 innings of pitching, throwing only 82 pitches. Skenes did not come out to pitch the 8th inning. In his last 3 innings, he faced just 9 batters thanks to a double play ball. Eight times this year, Skenes has thrown between 92 and 109 pitches, struggling through anywhere from 4 to 6 innings. What a philosophy. When a pitcher is struggling, let him throw a lot of pitches. When he is mowing them down, stop him at 82. Then the Pirates bring in Gregory Soto to pitch the 8th. Don Kelly just sits there, and watches Soto walk 2 batters and hit 2 batters to blow a 3-2 lead. All of this happened after 2 were out. The Pirates’ broadcast booth said that Luke Weaver and Mason Montgomery were not available; why, I do not know, as they did not pitch on Friday. Montgomery was warming up in the bullpen in the 9th in case the Pirates rallied, so I guess he was available. Available for nothing. Meanwhile, everyone got to see what a real manager does, as Craig Counsell made strategic move after strategic move. No move was better than taking out the left-hander in the 9th and bringing in a right-handed pitcher to face Bryan Reynolds. This mystified the Pirates’ booth. Reynolds’s OPS is 42 points lower when batting left-handed. I bet Counsell was the only one in the stadium who knew that. Reynolds struck out to end the game. The game that put the Pirates 7 games back of the last wild card spot in the loss column was a synopsis of the entire season: a poorly constructed starting lineup, not taking a pitcher out when he is struggling because no one is warming up in the bullpen, and taking out the starting pitcher when he is doing well, even though his pitch count is low. The sad thing is we are probably going to have to watch the same thing next year.

Key Moments of the Game: In a nutshell, handing in the lineup card, taking Skenes out after 7 innings, and sitting on your hands while watching a pitcher blow the game. Soto threw 31 pitches in the inning, finding the strike zone just 10 times. Kelly stood in the dugout and watched all of this. He did not get Ramirez warming up until after Soto hit a batter, making the score 4-3 Cubs. The Pirates have had some key injuries; make no mistake about it. Poor lineup construction and poor in-game management are the reasons this team is not going to make the playoffs. What the Pirates do makes no sense at all.

Next game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. The Cubs will be going for the sweep. I am sure that Henry Davis and his .167 batting average will make his third consecutive start, since lefty Matthew Boyd is pitching for the Cubs. Davis hits .127 against lefties, but he does bat right-handed. I expect that Luke Weaver and Mason Montgomery will be able to pitch today but who knows? Stay tuned.