Final Score: Pirates 4 Cubs 5 in 10 innings
Why The Pirates Lost: They’re playing the Cubs. The Pirates did not play a bad game, but it was not good enough to beat the Cubs, losing to the Cubs for the 7th straight time. The offense was not great, but they did manage to score 4 runs on just 6 hits and 5 walks. Josh Palacios crushed a home run into the Allegheny to tie the game 3-3 in the bottom of the third but did little else the rest of the game. He has had some big moments for the Pirates, but the bottom line is this, is slash line is 207/247/384, with an OPS+ 68. He is 32% worse than a league average hitter. He needs to go. The opener pitching rotation worked pretty well, although I do not know why they did not use Borucki to start the game. He was up during the game, so he was available and has had good success as the opener. Andre Jackson after getting off to a slow start pitched very well giving up just the 2 runs on 6 hits, walking no one, striking out 2. Overall, not a bad performance by the Pirates, but it fell one run short.
Key Moments Of The Game: It may be simplifying things just a bit, but this game boiled down to 2 bloops that contributed to or directly led to Cubs’ runs. The first was by Yan Gomes in the top of the 2nd. He blooped a ball that had an exit velocity of under 60 MPH into right field that got him on base, eventually scoring the 3rd run of the game. The second came in the top of the 10th by a Pirate nemesis, Ian Happ. This blooper was scorched at 71.4 MPH and then was muffed by Connor Joe to let another run score, providing the margin of victory for the Cubs. It would be hard to say if the runner on third, where he would have been if not for the Joe error, would have scored on the fly ball to Suwinski. We will never know. What we do know is that the Cubs continue to beat the Pirates. If this continues the Cubs should send 1% of their playoff checks to the Pirates.
The Next Game: Tonight, Cubs in Pittsburgh. The other Pirate major league starter Mitch Keller will take the mound tonight. This is Star Wars night. Maybe in another universe, the way the Pirates think would make sense. Will the Cubs make it 8 in a row? Who knows, only the Shelton knows.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 