Pirates Morning Report, Kiss It Goodbye

Final Score: Pirates 6 Reds 3

How The 2023 Pirates Did: They brought out the long ball last night, as Bryan Reynolds, Rudolfo Castro, and Diego Castillo hit home runs to account for all 6 runs the Pirates scored. Castro hit a 3-run homer followed up by the 2-run blast by Castillo that gave the Pirates a 6-2 lead in the 5th. As Bob Prince use to say, the Pirates kissed the Reds goodbye. Ke’Bryan Hayes had 2 hits and scored a run. Michael Chavis had 1 hit and a walk. Besides the home run Reynolds got another hit, a walk and scored another run. The 2023 Pirates got 8 of the teams 10 hits in a solid win. Bryse Wilson pitched pretty well giving up 3 runs in 5.2 innings and the bullpen barely hung on to preserve the win.

Key Moment of The Game: With Will Crowe laboring again in a 2nd inning of relief and Derek Shelton sitting on his hands hoping Crowe would get rocked again, the Reds had 1st and 2nd with no one out in the bottom of the ninth. Then on a 3-2 pitch, Jonathan India got called out on strikes on a pitch that barely caught the outside corner, but catch it, it did. The next batter TJ Friedl, who is left-handed, then hit a rocket but it was low and right at Jack Suwinski for the 2nd out. Crowe managed to get the third out on a ground ball to Ke’Bryan Hayes who stepped on third. Crowe threw 44 pitches but after the game Shelton told him he better be ready to pitch tomorrow night you out of shape pathetic excuse for a ballplayer, because we are not winning tomorrow, no matter what. Shelton said he could not believe that Crowe did not give up 4 runs to lose the game. He just does not understand what we are trying to do here. He may throw left-handed tonight.

Next Game: Tonight, the Reds in Cincinnati. Bringing up Castillo looked like a brilliant move by the Pirates after he hit the 2-run homer. They sent Park down to Indianapolis because he did not have a good process in his 1 at bat against the Mets, and he will work on that in AAA. He will get 1 at bat per game for the rest of the season. The 2023 Pirates improved to 5-6 and hopefully will get another opportunity against the lowly Reds.