Final Score: Pirates 3 Padres 2
Why The Pirates Won: In a game where hits were hard to come by, 5 for the Pirates, 4 for the Padres, the Pirates hit 3 of theirs out of the park to score 3 runs. Johan Oviedo, even with shaky control, walking 3, hitting a batter, and giving up 3hits, managed to hold the Padres to 1 run over the 6 innings of work. The bullpen was flawless in the 7th and 8th innings retiring 6 in a row. The home runs were hit by Ji Man Choi, Bryan Reynolds, and Carlos Santana. The win enabled the Pirates to have a .500 road trip record of 3-3. It broke a streak of not winning a game that Oviedo started since June 5th. It was Oviedo’s first win since May 12th. It did not come easy.
The Key Moments Of The Game: Carlos Santana hit a home run in the top of the 9th inning to give the Pirates a 3-1 lead and that insurance run was the difference in the game. In the bottom of the 9th David Bednar came in for the save and struck out Manny Machado on 6 pitches with 5 of them strikes. Xander Bogaerts had what could have been considered a lethal at bat getting a 12-pitch walk. A single and a hit batsmen loaded the bases with one out. The Padres sent up Juan Soto to pinch hit. Bednar never threw him a strike and he never swung, and the score went to 3-2 with the bases still loaded. Taylor Kohlwey on the second pitch hit a weak pop up to the third baseman. That left Trent Grisham who swung, and foul tipped a third strike right into the mitt of Endy Rodriguez. With that the Pirates won the series, had a .500 road trip, and broke the Oviedo jinx.
The Next Game: Tomorrow, Phillies in Pittsburgh. The Pirates will play 12 out of the next 16 games at home but the competition is tough. They play the Phillies and Tigers at home, then go on a brief 4 game road trip against the Brewers and finish up with 4 against the Braves and 3 against the Reds at home. With the exception of the Tigers, all of these teams are at least 8 games above .500 and in playoff contention. This stretch of games will finish up on Aug. 13. If the Pirates are going to salvage anything of this season, this is the time to do it. Winning 13 out of 16 games would put them right back in the mix. Baseball can be a funny game. We will see if the Pirates can play a big joke on the rest of the league.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 