Final Score: Pirates 11 Mariners 6
Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates exploded for a record tying 7 home runs. Mitch Keller did not have his best stuff last night and did get roughed up for 6 runs, 7 hits, 2 walks, while striking out 8. What is amazing is that the Pirates let him come out for the 7th inning this time. He promptly gave up a walk and a home run to make the score 10-6. Since we won, we won’t need the long nonsensical explanation we got the last time when they took him out after 6 innings. They must have loved the way he was pitching from the stretch last night, since he got to do it so much.
The Key Moment Of The Game: In the top of the 5th Bryan Reynolds tripled in 2 runs with nobody out. The next 2 Pirate batters made outs that did not score the run, and it looked like for the 2nd time in the game they were not going to get a runner in from 3rd with less than 2 outs, and the score would remain 4-2. Jack Suwinski ended all that thinking when he took a 1-1 curveball and smashed it into the right field seats. Ke’Bryan Hayes followed with another homer and the Pirates had a 7-2 lead. They continued to add onto their lead and won the game fairly easily.
Next Game: This Afternoon, Mariners in Seattle. Vince Velasquez makes his return to the rotation today hopefully to start up right where he left off. This is the third series in a row that the Pirates have won the first game. In the previous two they lost the next 2 games. That pattern needs to stop today. Will the offense continue to produce or was this just a blip, like before, on the radar. This will determine their success.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 