Pirates Morning Report, Three Road Wins in a Row, Even With That Lineup.

Final Score: Pirates 5 Marlins 1

Why The Pirates Won: God only knows. With a lineup featuring at least 4 players who probably won’t be on the team next year, the Pirates cruised to victory. The big surprise of the game was the play of Yu Marisnick. No relation to Yu Chang, but similar baseball skills. Only hitting .168 coming into the game, he raised his average almost 30 points, with a double and a 2-run home run, in his first game back from the injured list. The bottom third of the order had 5 hits, drove in 2 runs, and scored 3. It was quite a day for the bums. It didn’t hurt that Mitch Keller pitched his best game of the year, going 7 innings giving up 1 run on 5 hits and ZERO walks. Way to go Mitch. Many of the Marlin players are on suicide watch, losing to the team that the Pirates put on the field. There is also the rumor that 11 of the Marlins players are going to be DFA’d today because of the loss.

Key Moment of The Game: It was early in this game. The top of the first the Pirates got the first two men on base, but then Chavis and the Turtle struck out. Diego Castillo saved the day by getting a soft liner to drop in centerfield, to score both runs to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead. Kevin Newman got a big 2 out hit in the 2nd inning to drive in the 3rd Pirate run and Keller protected it well going the strong 7 innings.

Next Game: Tonight, Marlins in Miami. Even though there is a lefty going again for the Marlins, Marisnick probably did himself in by having a big game, so he probably won’t start. Management is pulling out all stops to end the 3-game road winning streak. They have not announced the pitcher yet. Right now, they are leaning toward Van Meter. Michael Perez is rumored to be playing right field. This is getting serious.