Final Score: Pirates 1 Red 3
Why The Pirates Loss: The bats continue to nap. The first 6 batters made outs which meant the Pirates had made 21 outs in a row over the last 7 innings. The Pirates only run came on Bryan Reynolds 1st home run of the season and they could only muster 5 other hits, 4 of them singles. They went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. The Pirates have scored 8 runs in 3 games, but 3 of those were gifts from the Reds on walks and a wild pitch. They have had 19hits but there have been a lot of swinging bunts and bloopers. They were fortunate to get the opening win but 1-2 sounds a lot better than 0-3. Vince Velasquez pitch very similar to his predecessors, giving up home runs and could not get past the 5th inning. He only walked one and struck out 3. Another only ok performance by a Pirate starter. The bullpen pitched shutout ball over the last 4 and a third innings, but Will Crowe really needed some leather to keep the Reds from scoring. DUJ was able to throw a scoreless inning even though he gave up a rocket shot double.
The Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates started the top of the 8th with 2 fluky hits by Castro and Cruz, which gave them 1st and 2nd with no outs. Reynolds hit a fly to right that got Castro to third. McCutchen then hit a pop up to short right field that could not bring Castro home and Santana ended an 0-4 day by grounding out to 1st, with no runs scoring, essentially ending the game.
Next Game: Tonight, Red Sox in Boston. Johan Oviedo will start tonight in Bean Town, and we will see how the young right-hander is able to handle the Red Sox in Fenway Park. Hopefully the Pirates bats will perk up. Ke’Bryan Hayes is hitting below 100. I know it is early but that is not a good sign that he has figured anything out at the plate. The Pirates for some reason always seem to get off to a slow start batting. It just looks like something they are going to have to push through. Hedges is still 0 for April.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 