Pirates Morning Report, As The Ball Flies

Final Score: Pirates 5 Brewers 7

How the 2023 Pirates Did: There were 7 of the 2023 Pirates in the lineup last night thanks to a late scratch, which put Jason Delay behind the plate, who drove in one of the five runs. They got 7 of the 10 hits and drove in all 5 runs. The big blow was the 3-run homer by Oneil Cruz, which gave the Pirates a 4-3 lead. In the next inning Rudolfo Castro hit a solo blast to extend the lead to 5-3. Michael Chavis had a tough night going 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts. The left-handed relievers extended their scoreless streak to 5 and 2/3 innings. Unfortunately, the backend of the bullpen failed.

Key Moment of The Game: When Will Crowe was brought into the game. I think he has just run out of gas. He has seen a lot of high leverage situations this year and for the most part has performed well. This is his first year as a full-time reliever and I think it has taken its toll. He faced four batters, with one getting a single and two hitting home runs to win in walk off fashion 7-5. There were certainly other options out there, but The Shadow chose not to use them.

Next Game: Tonight, Brewers in Milwaukee. The 29 to 30 year old rejects were back in the lineup with the exception of Greg Allen. Tyler Heineman almost started, and I am sure we will be lucky to see 6 of the 2023 Pirates in the lineup tonight. Mitch Keller goes to tonight and I think he needs to have a good start. Even though he had a horrible looking line in his last game, he did seem to come back ok from his “arm fatigue”. Let’s hope there are good results tonight.