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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Have Winning Season Big Whoop

The Pirates beat the Tigers 4-2 to finish the season 82-80. It was nice to see Konnor Griffin lead off the game with a home run. It was also nice to see Mason Montgomery bounce back from his blown save on Saturday. He did not throw a curve ball yesterday. Another nostalgic moment as a second Pirate played his last game in the Major Leagues, Billy Cook. He went out with a bang getting a double that drove in a run and he later scored the final run of the season. This winter he is one of the three nominees for the Wasted Roster Spot award. No matter how you spin this season it wound up being a big disappointment. This team had the talent to make the playoffs but was mismanaged into mediocrity.

I will be traveling a lot during the next week which will cut into my ability to watch the wild card round of the playoffs. Here are my fearless predictions. Red Sox over the Yankees. White Sox over the Astros. Padres over the Cubs. Braves over Phillies. I would love to see a Rays-Brewers World Series especially with the labor dispute looming over the horizon. Playoff baseball is my favorite time of the year.

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Pirates Morning Report: Tigers Walk It Off

Final Score: Pirates 3 Tigers 4

Why The Pirates Lost: Everything was going well for the Pirates going into the bottom of the 9th. The score was 3-1 Pirates and the bullpen had held the Tigers to 1 run on 7 hits to go along with 3 walks. The way Mason Montgomery has been pitching the game looked in the bag. It started out fine with Javier Baez striking out. Max Clark singled and Hao-Yu Lee doubled. Both balls were hit 100 MPH. Kevin McGonigle hit a weak ground ball to second for the 2nd out of the inning. A run scored to make the score 3-2. Eduardo Valencia came to the plate. He pulled a curve ball barely foul down the third base line. Montgomery threw 3 straight fast balls. One was a ball and 2 were fouled off. That’s when the decision was made to throw the curve ball. Valencia hit it out for the walk off win.

Key Moments Of The Game: Again the Pirates failed miserably at situational hitting. Henry Davis got thrown out at third for the last out of the 5th inning. Even when he gets a rare hit Davis finds ways to make outs. We only have one more game to go. Thank God

Next Game: This afternoon Tigers in Detroit. This is the last chance for the Pirates to have a winning season. If they win today they will have 82 wins, 10 short of what I thought they would have. Jared Jones is going for the Pirates today. I am not too sure why he is pitching today. All year long the Pirates have talked about limiting innings and now they are going to pitch Jones in a meaningless game. Let’s hope he survives it. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Seven Runs Not Enough

Final Score: Pirates 7 Tigers 8

Why The Pirates Lost: For the 9th time this year the Pirates scored 7 or more runs but lost the game. Last night the pitchers reverted back to their old selves. They gave up 10 hits and walked 7 for the game. It was a comedy of errors in the field as the Pirates could not catch pop ups, line drives, had ground balls go between their legs, and best of all, struck out a batter with 2 outs and the bases loaded that scored 2 runs when the ball got away from Flores. This was in the bottom of the 3rd when the Tigers scored 4 runs on 2 hits after there was 2 outs and nobody on base. No other way to say it, this game was a debacle.

Key Moment Of The Game: Bubba Chandler as usual could not find the strike zone. In 2 and 2/3 innings he walked 4 and was charged with 6 earned runs. Nice way to end a very disappointing season. This game could have been a lot worse if it were not for the Tigers going 2 for 17 with runners in scoring position and leaving 11 men on base. The Pirates made a game of it by scoring 5 runs in the 8th highlighted by Rafael Flores Jr. 3 run homer. The Pirates went out quietly in the 9th to put the fans out of their misery.

Next Game: This afternoon, Tigers in Detroit. This game is significant because Justin Verlander is making the final start of his Hall of Fame career. The Pirates will be trying to get their 82nd win so they can have a winning season. They did not look like they were that interested in doing that, the way they played last night. Maybe it was that exhausting trip to Detroit that did them in. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Skenes Finishes Strong

Final Score: Pirates 2 Cardinals 1

Why The Pirates Won: Paul Skenes pitched a strong 6 and 1/3 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits, walking 2, while striking out 8 to reach 200 for the season. The bullpen went the last 2 and 1/3 innings with Mason Montgomery striking out the side in the top of the ninth to get his 17th save. The Cardinals bullpen game was almost just as effective but the Pirates were able to score a run in the bottom of the 8th without getting a hit. The Pirates will at least have their first non losing season since 2018. The San Diego Padres clinched a playoff berth last night beating the Dodgers 4-2. They still have a chance to be the top Wild Card team and host all 3 games in the first round.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the 8th Ronnie Simon drew a 7 pitch walk with one out. The 3rd pitch to Spencer Horwitz was in the dirt and bounced away from the catcher. Simon took off for 2nd and the throw went into center field allowing Simon to go to 3rd base. Horwitz lifted a 98 MPH fastball just above the knees some 337 feet to center field to easily score Simon. Montgomery was dominant in the 9th to preserve the 2-1 win.

Next Game: Tonight the Tigers in Detroit. The Pirates do have a chance at a winning season. Bubba Chandler will go for the Pirates. On another note the position evaluations for the Pirates will have to be delayed until at least September 30th. It is too hard to maneuver around Baseball Reference on my I pad. I will mix those in during the playoffs. The season is winding down. Hopefully the Pirates will get to 82 wins. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: Just Can’t Win 6 In A Row

Final Score: Pirates 1 Cardinals 5

Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirates offense was pretty much out to lunch. They could only muster 6 hits as 5 players in the lineup went hitless. The bullpen game was not good early with Brandon Eisert and Khristian Curtis giving up 5 runs on 7 hits during the 3rd and 4th innings. The Pirates were never in this one as they just cannot win more than 5 games in a row. The Pirates won’t do this but everyone that attended this stinker should be given their money back.

Key Moment Of The Game: There really weren’t any except the way the Pirates limped home in this one. Their last hit was in the 6th inning. In the bottom of the 5th Ryan O’ Hearn opened the inning with a double. As usual the Pirates could not move him around to score. This team has no concept of what baseball is all about. That is why they will be watching the playoffs.

Next game: This afternoon, Cardinals in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes will be making his final start of the season. It has been one strange season for last years Cy Young award winner. A mystery season to say the least. Maybe he can finish it with one last great start. Stay tuned.

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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.