Final Score: Pirates 5 Cardinals 7
How The 2023 Pirates Did: The 2023 Pirates did pretty well but Will Crowe had another poor outing which led to the defeat. J. T. Brubaker pitched ok but his old nemesis the long ball came back to haunt him, as all 3 runs he gave up, came via the home run. The Pirates had leads of 3-0 and 4-3 but could not hold on to them. The 2023 position players had very good games. Oneil Cruz continues to swing a hot bat going 2 for 4 with a home run and a walk. Jack Suwinski really woke up with the bat, going 3 for 4 with a home run and 2 RBI’s. Rudolfo Castro hit a home run and everybody else in the lineup got on base via a hit or a walk. The 2023 Pirates played themselves a very good game but were done in by the fact that management refuses to believe that Will Crowe is just plain worn out. In his last 7 appearances he has an ERA of 8.53 and a WHIP of 2.05. Now, that’s the guy you want to bring in the top of the 9th with the game tied. There were many other options out there.
Key Moment of The Game: The first pitch just on the inside middle of the plate, belt high thrown to Nolan Arenado with 2 outs and the base loaded in the top of the 9th. Who did Will Crow think he was facing Ke’Bryan Hayes? Arenado lashed it into the left field corner for a bases clearing double to give the Cardinals a commanding 7-4 lead. It was a tough way for the 2023 Pirates to go 4-5.
Next Game: This afternoon, Cardinals in Pittsburgh. Right now, the Pirates have the third worse record in baseball as the Oakland A’s have been really slumping. They are now 3 ahead of Oakland and 4 ahead of Washington in the loss column but the Pirates have plenty of time to fall to the worst in baseball. It will be interesting to see if the 2023 Pirates take the field for the 6th straight game. There are not that many 29+ year old rejects to play. All that is left is Gamel, Newman, Heineman, and Allen. I don’t know how much we are going to see of them since the bullpen is doing such a good job of keeping the No. 1 pick in the draft in play.