Final Score: Pirates 8 Brewers 6
Why The Pirates Won: They brought out the long ball with 4 home runs that accounted for 6 of the 8 runs. The bullpen has had a revival, as they protected the 1 run lead for 3 innings. I have been ripping the left-handed relievers for some very poor performances, but Manny Banuelos did the job yesterday. He came in with a runner on 2nd and nobody out and went strike out, harmless fly ball to left, and strike out to end the bottom of the 6th. This was in a part of the game that the Brewers were breaking back every time the Pirates had a taken a lead. This time they did not.
Key Moment of The Game: Craig Counsell brought in a right hander to face Ke’Bryan Hayes in the top of the 9th. He promptly walked Hayes to put runners on 1st and 3rd with 2out. With the 3-batter rule, this allowed The Turtle to face a right-handed pitcher. Doing it the only the way The Turtle can, he took 5 straight pitches to get to a 3-2 count. He then launched the 6th pitch over the center field fence, to give the Pirates an 8-4 lead. It turned out, they needed those 3 runs, as the Brewers scored 2 runs on a McCutchen home run, in the bottom of the inning to make the final 8-6 Bucco’s.
Next Game: Tonight, Marlins in Miami. A surprising series win in Milwaukee, especially with the number of runs the Pirates scored, against one of the better pitching staffs in the National League. The lineup was pretty good yesterday, so maybe management is giving up on the high draft pick for next year. The bullpen has come alive again and was a big reason the Pirates took the last two games of the series. Can we fry some fish next?
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 