What would life be without music? Think of all the great movie scores that would not exist. Would we even think about moving to the beat of a different drummer? Would we even know what a drummer is? It is hard to imagine the world without music. Personally, music has always been a means to a way to get things done, relax, increase the feeling of a good mood, absorb and acknowledge a bad mood. My life would not be near as good or as pleasurable without music. I cannot write much more, because it is something that I cannot even fathom. The best way I know how to sum this up is back in the 60’s NFL Films started putting real cool music to the weekly highlights and the rest is history. All I can say is thank God for music.
Pirates Morning Report: Pitching Duel? What Pitching Duel?
Final Score: Pirates 13 Cubs 7
Why The Pirates Won: They simply just out hit the Cubs. This has been quite an offensive series. There has been a total of 35 runs scored combined in the 2 games, 21 by the Cubs and 14 by the Pirates. This game looked like it should be a pitcher’s duel with both clubs sending out their best pitcher. The Pirates got to Justin Steele in the 4th inning in a big way, getting 7 runs in the inning, with 6 runs being charged to Steele. He could not get an out in the 4th inning, giving up 6 singles in a row. Josh Palacios got the big hit a 3-run homer to make the score 7-1. With Keller on the mound, you had to have the feeling that this one was in the bag, especially after having such an easy 4th inning. Wrong, Josh Palacios hater. The Pirates added a run in the top of the 5th on a Jared Triolo solo home run. In the bottom of the 5th the Cubs just started hitting rocket shots, and I do mean rocket shots off of Keller. In order, home run, single, single, home run, double, with none of the hits under 103 MPH. There was on one weak ground ball that resulted in an out. Again, Oscar Marin came out in the middle of all this, probably setting a major league record. For two games in a row, shortly after one of his worthless trips to the mound, a grand slam home run was hit. I was surprised that the Shadow let Keller stay in the game, but I guess in his warped mind, it was more important for Keller to get a pitching victory, rather than the Pirates winning the game. Somehow, he did manage to get the last 2 outs to pick up his 13th win. Fortunately, the bullpen came through, shutting down the Cub offense, allowing the Pirates to beat the Cubs for only the 2nd time this year.
Key Moment Of The Game: The 4th inning explosion by the Pirates. The Pirates wasted a golden scoring opportunity in the top of the 1st when they had 2nd and 3rd and 1 out. Connor Joe, taking a page out of the Daniel Vogelbach hitting instruction manual, took 4 pitches in a row, with 3 of them called strikes. Two runners in scoring position and Joe does not take the bat off his shoulder. There is an old adage, if you let a good pitcher off the hook in the 1st inning you will pay the price. If looked like this was going to happen when the Pirates went up and down in order the next 2 innings. However, in the top of the 4th the Pirates’ bats came alive, resulting in the big 7 run inning that carried the Pirates to victory.
Next Game: Tonight, Cubs in Chicago. Let’s hope that anybody attending tonight’s game does not have to go to work early tomorrow. The Pirates are sending Johan (100 Pitch 5 Inning) Oviedo to the mound. If Kyle Hendricks is having control issues, which sometimes he does, this could be the longest 9 inning game of the year. The longest 9 inning game this year that did not go extra innings is 3 hours and 58 minutes. This could be broken tonight.
Celebrate? They Should Be Banned
Holidays are the scourge of human society. These are days that are set aside to do things that are kind, caring, and acknowledging that we should be doing every day anyway. I am not going to bash every holiday separately except one that I do not know is even a holiday, but people certainly celebrate it. Halloween is the worst day of the year. It is a holiday of bizarre rituals and superstitions. It has caused people to be burned at the stake. In today’s world, parents send their 3 to 10 year olds out into the neighborhood to get things that they would not let them eat all year. Kids come home with 300 bars of candy and eat them in about 2 weeks, then try and hang the cat upside down on a bungy cord. The candy also rots their liver, destroys their pancreas and they have sleeping disorders until the next Halloween. Getting back to the real holidays. People make promises to themselves that they can’t keep. They go out the day before another holiday and drink so much that they do not even remember what happened and vow never to do it again. One holiday they stuff themselves with so much food that they have to take a nap one hour afterward. Some holidays cause so much stress and depression that suicide rates go up. We celebrate are so called independence with fireworks that make dogs and cats hide in terror and crap all over the house. They may shake and puke for up to a week afterward. Other holidays are to honor our service men who gave their lives for this country and also the current individuals that are serving our country today. However, the other 364 days of the year the government shits all over them. Some people think that this is a great day for families to get together. Why do you need a “special” day just to get together. The old adage of you can choose your friends but not your relatives becomes particularly true during the holidays. I have known some families that have had to have a family meeting during such joyous times. The bother-in-laws and sisters-in-laws were banned. Why does anybody need a holiday to get together, just get the ef together. Having written all of that do I enjoy any holiday. Really, I do not. But I am not going to be the party pooper. I enjoy watching my grandkids open their Christmas presents. I have prepared huge Thanksgiving Day and Christmas meals and loved every minute of it. But the fact of the matter is holidays cause more harm than good and this little blog has barely touched the surface.
Pirates Morning Report: Thank God, Just Two More Cubs Games
Final Score: Pirates 1 Cubs 14
Why The Pirates Lost: They were playing the Cubs. Even for a Cub game some of the game’s stats were mind blowing. The Cubs used 5 pitchers despite the score. The Pirates struck out 16 times. The offense produced only 4 singles and a home run for their only run. The Cubs had 8 extra base hits, including 4 home runs. The Pirate pitchers walked 6 and hit a batter along with giving up 12 hits. There was one good thing that happened in this blowout loss. Quinn Priester pitched 6 innings and gave up “only” 4 runs. He is off the run an inning schneid. His ERA has finally dropped below 9. Now we can say he is making progress. Then there was the major league debut of Kyle Nicolas. He showed he was a true Pirate pitcher by hitting the first batter he faced, and after getting one out, walked the next two. In the middle of all this Oscar Marin went out to the mound for another one of his worthless trips. He must have told him to just throw the ball over the middle of the plate, because that’s what he did, the result being a grand slam home run. Why did it have to stop raining?
Key Moment Of The Game: When it stopped raining.
Next game: Tonight, Cubs in Chicago. The Pirates are 1-10 against the Cubs this year. If they could have been 5-6 a .500 season could have been a possibility. Mitch Keller is going out on the mound tonight, but it is against their ace, Justin Steele. It would be nice to see Keller outpitch Steele tonight and get the win.
Pirates Morning Report: One Is Better Than None
Final Score: Pirates 3 Yankees 2
Why The Pirates Won: The up and down pitching staff was up yesterday limiting the Yankees to 2 runs, 4hits and 3 walks. The Pirate offense was not much better but was good enough to push across 3 runs to eke out the win. The Pirates had a bullpen day with Selby 2 innings, Jackson 4 and 1/3, Borucki 2/3, Mlodzinski 1 and Bednar getting the save pitching 1 inning. On offense Andujar hit a solo home run, with Delay and Peguero getting the other 2 RBI’s. On a side note, the Pirates, continuing from the game before, did go 28 batters before they got a man on base. They did not quite make 30 in a row. The Pirates were able to salvage the final game of the series for a 4-3 homestand. Now, they head out for a difficult 9 game road trip playing the Cubs, Reds, and Phillies. The last 4 series the Pirates play are all against playoff contenders. The Diamondbacks are quickly becoming Pirate fans.
The Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the 7th with the score tied at 2-2, the Pirates had a runner on 2nd base with two out and Jason (I Wish I Was AS Good As The Pirate Broadcast Booth Thinks I Am) Delay at bat. The count was 0 balls and 2 strikes when this happened on the next 3 pitches. The first pitch was a curve ball that just caught the inside corner of the plate just below the letters but was called a ball. The second pitch Delay fouled one down the right field line that just went out of play by about 2 yards. The third pitch Delay hit an 82 MPH ground ball toward 3rd that just hit the inside edge of the third base bag and went into the corner to score the go ahead run to make the score 3-2. The Pirates’ luck had returned, and the bullpen made it stand up the rest of the way for a victory over the Yankees.
Next Game: Tomorrow, the Cubs in Chicago. Naturally the Pirates do not know who is going to pitch on Tuesday. At the minimum the Pirates need to win 3 out of the 9 games to get to 75 wins. I don’t know why I am focused on 75 wins. It just sounds like a nice round number to get to as far as wins are concerned. The Pirates will play meaningful games in September. They are just meaningful to the other team. Go Bucs! Break somebodies’ heart.
Early Lesson
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.
I don’t know if you would call it a lesson but I wish I had discovered meditation earlier in life. I started meditating in my early forties and there is no doubt it is the key to life. I would have been a much better person if I had started twenty years earlier. For those of you that don’t meditate all I can say is start. There are many apps that can get you started. Many of these apps have advocated 10 minutes as sufficient to meditate. I disagree. I believe the minimum you should do is 20 minutes. Meditation is like any endeavor, just start out slowly. If you were going to start on a jogging program the first day you would not run 5 miles. Start out by meditating for one minute and over a thirty day period work up to the twenty minutes. You can take even longer but just do it. Your life will change forever.
Pirates Morning Report: Easy Loss
Final Score: Pirates 3 Yankees 6
Why The Pirates Loss: Another complete team loss. Poor starting pitching and batters that thought the game was only 3 innings. Luis Ortiz pitched a mediocre 4 and 2/3rds innings giving up 4 runs, 6 hits, walking 6, while throwing 88 pitches. The bullpen gave up the other 2 runs on 3 hits while walking just one. The last 21 batters for the Pirates did not get a hit or a walk. The only good news about that is they contributed heavily to the game only going 2 hours and 37 minutes. It will give us something to watch today to see how long they will keep this streak going. Could they go 30 some batters before they get a hit or walk? Do not bet against it. This was about as lackluster of a performance by Pirates as they have had all year. It was amazing to me how Derek Shelton stayed awake during the game. He must have because he made the big 9th inning move, with the score 6-3 and a runner on 1st base with 2 out, bringing in the left hander Jose (Do I Have To) Hernandez to face the left-hand hitting Estevan Florial. He was showing his team that this game is not over. This inspired the Pirates so much that they made 3 outs in 9 pitches, including a strikeout, to end the game.
Key Moment Of The Game: The first inning set the tone for the game. Three walks and 2 hits resulted in 3 runs for the Yankees with 2 of the walks scoring. The big hit was a 2 out single by Estevan Florial that made the score 3-0. The Pirates made a game of it for 3 innings but then the bats went to sleep, and the Yankees added insurance runs they did not need, to win easily. Another way of putting it, the Pirates had an easy loss.
Next Game: This afternoon, Yankees in Pittsburgh. No matter what the Pirates do today the homestand will be disappointing. Maybe they will surprise on this tough 9 game road trip they are about to embark on. There are 13 games to go. They have to win 6 to get to the 75 win mark. You do not want to hold your breath.
Pirates Morning Report: Their Luck Runs Out
Final Score: Pirates 5 Yankees 7
Why The Pirates Lost: A disastrous 9th inning where the Yankees scored 4 runs thanks to some horrible pitching and fielding by the Pirates. Up until the 9th the game had gone the Pirates way thanks to a less than stellar outing by Gerrit Cole. Johan Oviedo was able to basically survive one of his typical ridiculous outings. Oviedo gave up only 1 run, on 4 hits, 5 walks, striking out 7 in 5 excruciatingly slow painful innings. For the 2nd time in 3 games the opposing pitcher got hit in the head with a ball. This time off the bat of Ji Hwan Bae that went off pitcher Anthony Misiewicz’s head out into right field, to tie the game at 3-3. Later in the inning Ke’Bryan Hayes got a low hop single to drive in 2 runs to give the Pirates a 5-3. It looked like at that time the breaks were continuing to go the Pirates way and the 4th win in a row was about to happen. Colin Holderman came in to pitch the 9th inning.
Key Moment Of The Game: Simply put, Holderman was horrible. He showed everybody how not to pitch. He threw 4 straight sinkers to D J LeMahieu. The 4th one on a 1-2 count was ripped into right field for a single. He throws a 5th sinker to Aaron Judge, a sweeper not close to the plate, then a sinker that gets ripped to left field for a single. He walks Gleyber Torres on 5 pitches, 3 of them being sweepers that don’t come close to the plate. He does get Stanton to pop up for the 1st out. Next, he walks in a run after getting ahead of Estevan Florial and his .167 batting average 0 and 2. The score is now 5-4. Despite all that, the inning would have been over on a double play, if anybody on the Pirates realized that Bae cannot play second base. He threw the ball into the dirt that got by Alfonso Rivas and the Yankees had the lead 6-5. Rivas should have made sure the ball did not get by him, but as it turned out it probably would not have made a difference, since Holderman got lit up for 2 more singles and the runs would have scored anyway. Holderman pitched 1 inning giving up 4 runs, 4 hits, and 2 walks. Mercifully the Pirates went down quickly in 9th to bring the game to a close at the 3-hour 15-minute mark.
Next Game: Tonight, Yankees in Pittsburgh. We will see if the Pirates can bounce back from such a disastrous game. In order to have that 5-2 homestand they will need to win the last 2 games of the series. It has been a while since the Pirates blew a game like this, but they kept flirting with it, and this time they fell to defeat.
Pirates Morning Report: Keller Mows Them Down
Final Score: Pirates 2 Nationals 0
Why The Pirates Won: Mitch Keller pitched a dominant 8 innings giving up only 2 hits and a walk while shutting out the Nationals. The last 22 batters for the Nationals did not get a hit. Both pitchers pitched well with each team getting only 3 at bats with runners in scoring position, with no hits for either team. It would have been nice to see Keller pitch a complete game but the consensus was that he was done, so they brought in the overworked David Bednar to pitch the 9th. Fortunately, he only took 10 pitches to preserve the win. It makes you think that the Pirates do not have any long term use for Bednar. Just use him up and let him go. We will see if they use him tonight if the situation dictates. The Pirate bats weren’t much better getting only 5 hits but 2 of those left the ballpark. Home runs by Jack Suwinski and Alfonso Rivas would give the Pirates the 2 runs they would need.
The Key Moment Of The Game: Right in the top of the first it did not look like that this was going to be such a good day for Keller. He gave up a soft liner for a single on the first pitch of the game. On the 2nd pitch of the game a ground ball to short was dropped by Liover Peguero and the Nationals had runners on 1st and 2nd with no one out. One fly out later, CJ Abrams was picked off 2nd for the second out and Keller struck out the next batter ending the inning. The Nationals never really threatened again the rest of the game getting only one more hit.
Next Game: Tonight, the Yankees in Pittsburgh. Gerrit Cole will start for the Yankees tonight, facing Johan (Dr Jekyll Or Mr. Hyde) Oviedo. You can always hope that Cole will have an off night, but the key to the game will be which Oviedo will be on the mound. The dominant Oviedo, or the uncomfortable, I have gas build up Oviedo. These Yankees are barely above .500. It is not unreasonable to expect the Pirates to take 2 out 3 games, but this game will be the key. Win here, and a sweep is very possible.
Pirates Morning Report: Foul Lines Are The Pirates Friends
Final Score: Pirates 7 Nationals 6 Whew!
Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates knew how to use the foul lines, while putting up an early 7-1 lead after 4 innings. Quinn Priester had just pitched a solid 3 innings retiring all 9 batters he faced. The top of the 5th he gave up a solo home run, no big deal, easily retiring the other 3 batters. But in the top of the 6th an all too familiar pattern raised its ugly head. He could not get anybody out. Walked the first batter. A 100 MPH double was next. Next pitch a 105 MPH home run. Two pitches later a 93 MPH ground ball single to left. In a blink of an eye the score was 7-5, with no outs. Out of the game went Priester with his 9.00 ERA intact. According to the Pirate web site he had made progress. In came Ryan (Who Is Definitely Better Than I Thought He Would Be) Borucki to shakily put out the fire, thanks to a double play ball. Then there was the debut, of Nationals pitcher Jackson Rutledge. He gave up 4 runs in the first inning on 6 hits, but two of the hits were pop flies down the left field line that were fair by no more than 6 to 12 inches. He gave up a 2-run home run to Bryan Reynolds in the bottom of the 4th that hit the right field foul pole. If those 3 balls are just 1 foot left or right, he may have given up only 2 runs instead of 7. To top things off, in the 4th inning, his catcher hit him in the head trying to throw a runner out at 2nd base. The ball went off Rutledge’s head out to shallow right field. It is an understatement to say that this was not his night.
Key Moment Of The Game: David Bednar came into the top of the 9th with the score 7-5. After Alika (You See Why Tampa Bay Let Me Go) Williams dropped a foul pop up, Bednar quickly got into trouble. He walked that batter, who should have out, gave up two singles and the score was 7-6 with runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out. A chopping ground ball that the Pirates could only get the runner going to second put runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Then the battles began. Pinch hitter IIdemaro Vargas worked a 7-pitch walk to load the bases. This brought up C. J. Abrams. Bednar blew a 97.5 MPH fastball right by him over the heart of the plate on a 3-2 count. Mercifully, Lane Thomas swung at the first pitch, flying out to center field, and the Pirates had a very fortunate 7-6 win.
Next Game: This afternoon, Nationals in Pittsburgh. The Pirates need to do better than this but the worst thing that will happen is they will get a series split. Mitch Keller will start today. Do you think he will be alright pitching in less than a week? Frankly, I think his arm is literally going to fall off in the bottom of the 4th. I think the guy that needs the rest is Bednar. Bednar should not pitch for a least 2 games in a row, no matter what the circumstances, for the rest of the season. Of course, we all know that the Shadow knows best.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 