Pirates Morning Report, Just a Baseball Thing

Final Score: Pirates 0 Orioles 1

Why The Pirates Lost: When you don’t score any runs you lose. Getting away from the Brewers pitching staff seemed to silence the bats. There were some interesting takes from the game. The Pirates only struck out 6 times and Oneil Cruz had 3 of them. These new Pirates are at least putting the ball in play more. Apparently, Manny Banuelos could start the 8th last night and go into the 9th but could not face Kolton Wong on Wednesday in the top of the 10th. In the top of the 8th Shelton pinch hit for Cal Mitchell, with Greg Allen who is hitting .129 because there was a left hander in the game. Cal Mitchell’s splits are almost exactly the same against right and left hand pitching. Too bad Shelton did not get ejected earlier. Mitch Keller for the second game in a row danced through the raindrops and gave up only 1 run in 6 innings even though he did not have a 1-2-3 inning. It was another gritty tough performance by Keller, but despite what the Pirate website says, it was not a gem. All in all, it was a tough loss for the Buccos.

The Key Moment of the Game: Three times was a charm for the Orioles. They had led off with doubles in the 1st and the 3rd but could not bring them around to score. In the 6th, they led off with a double which set up the only run of the game. They needed a ball that hit Keller in the foot and seeing eye ground ball between Hayes and Cruz to finally score. The Pirates had a couple of minor threats late in the game but could not get the job done.

Next Game: Late afternoon, Orioles in Baltimore. The big question, is this the day that Van Meter gets back in the lineup? I can’t wait to find out. Do you think the Pirate management team ever look at analytics during the game? With the moves they make, or sometimes the lack of moves, it could not be possible. I will be curious to see if the bats can make a comeback today.