Month: June 2023

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Pirates Morning Report: Just Like The Steelers

Final Score: Pirates 5 A’s 9

Why The Pirates Lost: Roansy Contreras had a terrible outing only getting one out and giving up 6 hits, 2 walks, and was charged with 7 runs. Despite such a poor performance the Pirates had their chances to get back in this game. They could not do it despite getting 9 hits and 7 walks. They were able to score 5 runs but they had several opportunities to score more. They did close the lead to 7-3, but then fell behind 9-3, before closing the gap to 9-5. They never were able to put any real pressure on the A’s. The homestand is now 4-2 and looks like it could be headed for a 5-4 finish or even worse. The less said about this game, the better. The Pirate’s record has fallen to 32-29.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates had failed on previous opportunities earlier in this game, but none more than in the bottom of the 7th. The A’s had just added on to their lead and score was 9-3. With one out, the Pirates started another A’s induced rally. Delay walks, McCutchen singles, and Reynolds walks. Connor Joe walks to force in a run. The Pirates had cut the lead to 9-4 and the big hit would have gone a long way to getting them back in the game. Carlos Santana hit into a double play and the inning was over. Not all double play balls can go between the defender’s legs. In the bottom of the 9th the Pirates got something going again, by loading the bases after they scored their 5th run, with only one out. There was no key hit to be found and the Pirates went down to defeat for the second straight time to the lowly Oakland A’s

Next Game: Friday night, Mets in Pittsburgh. Maybe the Pirates were looking ahead to this series and just did not pay attention to the A’s. They certainly did not use the top half of their bullpen much. The did play down to the level of their opponent just like the big bad Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, the Steelers lost to the Raiders when they were in Oakland a couple of times in recent years when the Raiders were pretty pathetic. Tomorrow the Pirates 61 game report.

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Blow Out Loss, Will Good Things Follow.

Final Score: Pirates 2 A’s 11

Why The Pirates Loss: The offense could not get the 2 out hit. Even though the Pirates won the first game of the series, this has been the big difference. In the Cardinal series, the Pirates scored all their runs with 2 outs. In this game they were 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 9 runners on base. Mitch Keller had his 3rd mediocre performance in a row. In fact, you could call this outing just plain bad. It is concerning that Keller just seems to be getting worse not better. In just 5 and 1/3 innings he gave up 8 hits, charged with 5 runs, walked 4, while striking out only 1 batter. At least we did not have to listen to the Pirate booth talk about so many games in a row with 8 strikeouts. There was still some hope going into the 8th inning with the score 5-2 A’s, when Chase De Jong entered the game. De Jong pitched a splendid 2 innings giving up 6 runs, on 5 hits, including 3 home runs, walking 1, striking out 2, while throwing 53 pitches. However, all is not lost for De Jong. He got calls from numerous players who are considering participating in the home run derby, asking if he would be their pitcher. The loss sent the Pirates tumbling out of 1st place with a record of 32-28.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the first the Pirates are facing a pitcher that has not won a game and has an ERA of over 8. Marcano opens the game with a double and Reynolds walks. McCutchen flies out. Jack Suwinski hits a perfect double play ball that goes right between the 2nd baseman’s legs, that scores Marcano and the Pirates have 1st and 3rd with one out, instead of the inning being over. It looks like the A’s are going to give us another one. Connor Joe pops out, Josh Palacios flies out and Pirates let a golden opportunity slip through their fingers. Starting pitcher James Kaprielian goes on to pitch a nice solid 6 innings, giving up only one more run to get his 1st win of the season.

Next Game: This afternoon, the A’s in Pittsburgh. The Pirates have bookend blow out losses around their 6 game winning streak. Maybe another good streak will start after this blow out loss. The A’s have only won 2 games in a row twice this season, although they recently beat the Atlanta Braves 2 in a row in Oakland. Roansy Contreras starts today for the Pirates. The year has not been kind to Contreras so far. He has been very up and down. Maybe he will find something today. I will admit I have softened some on the importance of this series. If the Pirates lose today it won’t be the disaster that I felt it would be when the series started. I think it is more important for Contreras to throw a good solid game today than what the final result will be. On Friday will be the 61 Game Report which will take a hard look at the 2023 Pirates with close to 40% of the season played.

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played Highland Springs Score 75 Greens In Reg. 7 Putts 28

The Good: I drove the ball well in the spacious fairways of Highland Springs. My iron game was good even though I only hit 7 greens I had a lot of fringes hit. I got it up and down 6 out of 11 times with one chip in on the 2nd hole for a birdie. The putting was good, particularly the lag putting, having many tap ins for par. Chipping was good with only two yips. The weather was great and the course was in great shape. Reverted back to a swing I used in 2005 and 06 and went to a putting method where I let my arms hang naturally down and it seemed to work to get me back in the groove a little bit.

The Bad: Could have had some better chips, as I was not in trouble all day. Other than that it was a very good day. They do happen once in a while.

The Luck Of The Round: I always consider a chip in good luck, even though it was good chip and went into the hole at the right speed. Certainly, did not have any bad breaks today.

Next Round: Thursday at South Park.

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Pirates Morning Report: The A’s Said Take It. The Pirates Finally Said Yes.

Final Score: Pirates 5 A’s 4

Why The Won Pirates Won: The A’s made sure of it. They gave up 10 walks, had little discipline at the plate, and dropped a blooper that was generously ruled a hit, that allowed the Pirates to score 5 runs. The Pirates scored all 5 runs on what was essentially non-hits. The blooper that was dropped, 2 walks with the bases loaded, and 2 sacrifice flies. The Pirates were 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position and left 9 runners on base. The one hit was the bloop “double” by Connor Joe. Oviedo pitched pretty well going 7 innings, giving up 3 runs, 2 earned, 2 walks, while striking out 5. The bullpen was shaky but scraped by thanks to the A’s. The top of 8th was another gift-wrapped job by the A’s. Rob Zastryzny gave a nice DFA performance giving up a walk, a double, a line drive out, and another walk to allow the A’s to tie the game, 4-4. Angel Perdomo came in and hit a batter on an 0-2 pitch to load the bases. He goes 3 and 1 on the next batter but threw the next 3 pitches in the strike zone, to strike the batter out. Nick Allen came to the plate to help the Pirates out. Perdomo threw the next 5 pitches out of the strike zone but fortunately Allen swung at 2 of them. Did he use to play for the Pirates? The 6th pitch was finally in the zone, and he flew out to center to end the inning.

Key Moment Of The Game: Colin Holderman came on to pitch the 9th, and you knew it was going to be exciting. Esteury Ruiz led off with a base hit up the middle. The Pirates threw him out trying to steal on a bang-bang play, where he never had his lead hand on the bag. Thank you, A’s. Then Holderman gives up a double. A bit of bad luck, as a bloop fell in for a hit and the A’s had runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Somehow Holderman buckled down, like he usually does, and got a short fly ball to centerfield that could not score the run. He struck out the last batter and the Pirates had a 5-4, thank you very much, win to climb 5 games over .500 into first place.

Next Game: Tonight, the A’s in Pittsburgh. Hopefully the Pirates will play better tonight. You cannot depend on a team giving you 3 straight games. We do have Keller going tonight and this would be a good time for him to get back on track. The Pirates need 2 more wins.

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Golf Diary

The Rounds: Round 1 Black Hawk Score 84 Greens In Reg. 4 Putts 34

Round 2 Riverview Score 80 Greens In Reg. 8 Putts 34

The Good: The weather, the condition of the courses, and the beer after the round.

The Bad: Too brutal to go through but the stats speak for themselves. Putting was horrible and the whole game stunk out the joint. Whenever you go through spells like this and believe me, I have gone through them many times, you basically think that they will never end. The only thing I am doing well and a lot of, is fishing. Fishing for one solution after another with no results. It is a frustrating time.

The Luck Of The Round: I am even getting some good breaks and cannot take advantage of them. Tomorrow is another day. Don’t let the sun catch you crying. Pretty deep, huh

Next Round: Tomorrow, Highland Springs.

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Pirates Morning Report: Rich Hill Does It Again

Final Score: Pirates 2 Cardinals 1

Why The Pirates Won: Rich Hill went up against another very hot pitcher and outpitched him through 6 and2/3 innings. The Pirates scored their 2 runs in the first inning after 2 were out. There was a lot of traffic on the base paths during the first 3 innings. In fact, there was not a 3 up 3 down half inning until the bottom of the 4th inning. Hill followed up with two 3 up 3 down innings in the 5th and 6th. Despite all the base runners, the Pirates could only score those 2 first inning runs, and the Cardinals did not score at all. The Pirates were 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position and left 9 men stranded. The Cardinals failed to get a hit in 6 tries with runners in scoring position and left 8 men on base. The Cardinals broke through in the top of the 7th when Andrew Knizner hit a solo home run to make the score 2-1. Yohan Ramirez pitched a perfect 8th and Bedar got the save allowing a hit with 2 outs but striking out the last batter to give the Pirates their 5th win in a row.

Key Moment Of The Game: The first inning set the tone for the game. Tommy Edman opened the game with a double that Jack Suwinski almost made a spectacular catch on but probably kept it from being a triple. Paul Goldschmidt moved him over to third on a fly ball to right. The Cardinals kept Nolan Gorman in the 3rd slot even though he hits only .227 against left handers, and Hill was able to strike him out. Then Hill did what he does best. He got Nolan Arenado to hit a bullet right at Ke’Bryan Hayes to end the inning. Contrast that with what the Pirates did in the bottom of the first. With one out Reynolds and Suwinski had back to back singles to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Carlos Santana popped out for out number 2. Ke’Bryan Hayes then hit a hard ground ball off the glove of Goldschmidt for a single to load the bases. Ji Hwan Bae hit a soft line drive single to center to drive in the 2 runs. Hill and the bullpen were able to make the 2 runs stand up to pull out the win.

Next Game: Tonight, the A’s in Pittsburgh. The Pirates must keep the momentum going against the team with the worst record in baseball. Let’s hope they do not pull a Mike Tomlin Steeler’s move and play down to their competition. This is a must win 2 out of 3 games or this 5 game win streak has been wasted. The Pirates need to bury the A’s.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pattern Broken Equals 4 Wins In A Row

Final Score: Pirates 4 Cardinals 3

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates were able to survive an impromptu bullpen game, where everyone did not perform all that well. Overall, the bullpen was solid with the two newest members, Angel Perdomo and Yerry De Los Santos performing very well. I will have to come up with an abbreviation for Santos. His name is longer than the dearly departed DUJ. On the offense side of the ball, they were able to produce some 2 out lightening, scoring all 4 runs after 2 were out. Ke’Bryan Hayes hit another home run. Not a misprint. Colin Holderman who has been solid but always seems to keep it interesting, did a little more than that in the bottom of the 8th. He could only get through 4 batters getting one out, then giving up a single, home run and a walk. Shelton made the move and Yohan Ramirez made him look good, by getting 2 outs on only 8 pitches. Bednar gave up one hit in the 9th, but nothing else, and the Pirates had the 4-3 win to move to 30-27

Key Moments Of The Game: Another frustrating day for the Cardinals as they could not do much with 6 hits and 4 walks. They were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and left 7 men on base for the game. On the other hand, the Pirates had the big 2 out run scoring 6th inning. It opened with a rare Nolan Arenado error. After two were out, pinch runner Ji Hwan Bae was at 2nd base. Bryan Reynolds walked. On a 3-2 pitch, Connor Joe ripped a double off the base of the left field fence to score the 2 runs. Carlos Santana followed with a pop up down the left field line that fell in for a hit and the Pirates had 3 unearned runs. That fluky little 4th run proved to be the difference in the ball game.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cardinals in Pittsburgh. Miles Mikolas goes for the Cardinals today and he has not given up a run in 15 innings. Rich Hill goes for the Pirates and the last time he hadn’t given up a run in 15 innings was when he was in high school. Just kidding! The last time Hill faced a similar situation the Pirates rocked the starting pitcher and Hill threw 6 shutout innings. If that happens again the Pirates will get the sweep. Finally, the pattern of the team that won the first game of the series lost the series ended yesterday. That has happened in the last 4 series that the Pirates have played, and it only went their way once. Ok boys let’s sweep those damn Cardinals.

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played South Park Score 78 Green In Reg. 10 Putts 34

The Good: My driving came back today and my iron game was good. Course and the weather beautiful.

The Bad: My putting was off as it has been for about the last 2 weeks. Had two 3 putt greens and really never made anything all day. The birdie putt I made was from about 6 feet. The short game was not good. Even though driving and the irons were good I still managed to hit some awful shots that cost me strokes each time. I could not execute the shot that I needed to score. Made many mental errors today.

The Luck Of The Round: Luck was not a factor all day. I struck the ball pretty well all day and I needed no good bounces to save the day. The bottom line, I should have scored better than what I did.

Next Round: Tomorrow, Black Hawk in Beaver Falls.

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Pirates Morning Report: From 5 Batters, 5 Runs To Great Comeback Win

Final Score: Pirates 7 Cardinals 5

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates had a huge bottom of the 7th scoring 6 runs highlighted by Ke’Bryan( That’s Right I Did It) Hayes’ 3 run home run, followed by Josh(Maybe I’m Not Just A Triple A Player) Palacios’ solo home run to cap a big comeback from a 5-0 deficit. Roansy Contreras had one of the oddest pitching performances of the season. The first 2 and 2/3 innings he gives one hit, strikes out 5 with no walks. The next 5 batters all get hits, including 2 home runs, scoring 5 runs. The next 1 and 1/3 innings he gives up 1 hit and strikes out another batter. He threw 83 pitches in those 4 innings and his day was done. What happened with those 5 batters? The Pirate bullpen did “shut down” the Cardinals the rest of the way but it was harrowing.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates’ two 2 out homers in the bottom of the 7th were huge, but the Cardinals inability to add on after scoring 5 runs, despite the Pirates’ pitchers trying their best to give them runs was the key to this victory. How about these 2 pitching lines. Rob Zastrysny, 1 inning, 1 walk, 2 hits but 0 runs. Cody Bolton was even “better”, 1 and 2/3 innings, 4 walks, 2 hits, but 0 runs. Bolton threw 46 pitches and only 18 were strikes. The Cardinals loaded the bases 3 straight innings but could not score a run. As it turned out, this certainly cost them the game, and the Pirates won their 3rd straight in spectacular fashion to improve to 29-27.

Next Game: This afternoon, the Cardinals, in Pittsburgh. The Pirates send Luis Ortiz to the mound to break the pattern of what happens to the team that wins the first game of the series. Will the Pirates be able to get on a roll on this homestand? Any games in June you cannot consider critical but if this team is going to contend, now is the time to step up and yesterday, they did it big time. It is time to make a move.

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played Indian Run Score 80 Greens In Reg. 9 Putting 35

The Good: The weather and the course was in great shape. The course was fast and dry. My iron game was pretty good with 9 GIR’s and had many good looks at birdies.

The Bad: My driving was off again although a little better than Wednesday. My putting was bad again with many putts just not finding the hole. Of the 9 greens I missed, I did not get it up a down one time. I hit pretty good chips and pitches but could not make a putt. I had a pretty good stretch on the front nine where I hit 5 out of 6 greens in regulation but again could not make a putt. I had 4 really good looks at birdies, including one of 3 feet but could not convert. I managed 4 GIR’s on the back nine and did make one putt of about 7 feet for my only birdie of the day.

The Luck Of The Round: On 9, 10, and 11 I hit 3 tee shots where the ball should have been lost and wound up in play smelling like a rose. I could not take advantage of my good fortune as I bogied all three holes. I skipped my drive across a lake on 9. Wound up just 2 yards to the right of high grass on 10. Hit a low hook on the 11th hole that went between two trees and wound up in the fairway only 116 from the middle of the green.

The Next Round: Saturday, at South Park.