Final Score: Pirates 14 Rockies 3
Why The Pirates Won: This one is easy. Fourteen runs, 18 hits, 5 walks. All the starters got into the act with exception of Bryan Reynolds, who got tossed out of the game for arguing a called strike. Seven of the other 8 starters got at least 2 hits and Jack Suwinski walked twice and drove in a run on a sacrifice fly. It has been an amazing hitting series for the Pirates. The Pirates are 12-7 as they head home for a 7 game homestand. Johan Oviedo pitched a solid 6 innings and sometimes that is a hard thing to do when you have a big lead, but he did it with ease. He did walk 3 batters, which is a more than you would want but he gave up only 1 run and threw only 84 pitches.
Key Moment Of The Game: The fact that the Pirates scored 5 in the 1st and 4 in the 2nd and never let the Rockies even remotely get into the game says it all. They stepped on the the Rockies throat and never let up. I believe this shows a lot about this team. Now for the homestand.
Next Game: Tonight, the Reds in Pittsburgh. Roansy Contreras will start for the Pirates and now that they are at home, they need to keep up the momentum. They will play 4 against the Reds and 3 against the Dodgers. They need to bury the Reds and take two from the Dodgers. They should go 5-2 over these next 7 games if they want to consider themselves a contending team. At the very least they need to go 4-3. Again, it is way too early in the season to look at any set of games as the key to the season, but they need to keep the vibe going. Speaking of vibes, I was right about the “minor” injury to Ji Man Choi when I said he wouldn’t return until July 4th. Now, that seems optimistic. Fortunately, they have plenty of talent to replace him and seem to be doing ok without Cruz. Let’s go Bucs.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 