Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Show They Can At Least Hit AAA Pitching

Final Score: Pittsburgh 11 Cardinals 1

Why The Pirates Won: The Cardinals put a AAA pitcher, with not that great of a record, on the mound and the Pirates lit him up for 8 runs on 8 hits, 4 walks, with the Cardinals making an error to help things along. Everybody had a pretty good day except the horrendously slumping Jack Suwinski. He struck out 3 times, once with the bases loaded where he took all 5 pitches, a Turtle move by the way. With only 2 legitimate starting pitchers on the team the Pirates went the piggyback route this time and did well. Thomas Hatch pitched the first 3 innings giving up 2 hits and one walk. Bailey No Falter Insurance, sorry I just couldn’t help it, pitched the final 6 innings only giving up 1 run, 3 hits, walking 2, while striking out 8. He picked up his first win of the season. The pitching was more impressive than the hitting since they did it against major leaguers. It was a nice touch to see Josh Palacios have a big game, a home run and 5 RBI’s in front of his family.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Cardinals did have some traffic on the base paths in the first 2 innings of the game. Looking like the Pirates, they could not get the big hit or fly ball to knock in at least one run. Starting with the 3rd inning, other than giving up the home run, the Pirate pitchers retired the next 13 batters in a row. The Pirates broke it open in the bottom of the 4th highlighted by the Palacios 3 run home run. Similar to the Pirates the home run was preceded by a mound visit by the pitching coach, that did not help whatsoever. It is easy to see why the Cardinals are in last place similar to the Pirates.

Next Game: Tonight, Cardinals in Pittsburgh. The Cardinals are sending Adam Wainwright to mound tonight, and he has really been struggling. Maybe the Pirates should bat Jack Suwinski all 9 times and see who comes out of their slump first. Johan Oviedo, one of the two starting pitchers the Pirates have, takes the mound. Which Oviedo will we see? Only the Shadow knows for sure.