Final Score: Pirates 3 Tigers 5
Why The Pirates Lost: There were 3 reasons the Pirates lost this game, taking them in order. The lineup card. Why you do not start your most dynamic player in a day game against a right-handed pitcher I have no freaking idea. In this day and age line up cards are made by committee supposedly with the analytic department contributing. You are not playing baseball today. I think this is called rest. I cannot think of one rational reason that Oneil Cruz was not on the field. Secondly, the Tigers to their credit played some unbelievably defense yesterday. It saved them at least 3 to 4 runs. The ninth inning failure. There is no question David Bednar dug is own grave with his control issues but the 3 hits that he gave up went out at the scorching speeds of 75, 53, which gave the Tigers the lead, and 90 MPH. Bednar’s obvious problem was his curve ball. SO WHY IN THE HELL DO YOU KEEP THROWING IT? THIS ISN’T A SPRING TRAINING GAME. Just live and die with you fast ball that day. Who is calling those pitches? You cannot control how the Tigers play defense, but you can control who you put on the field and what pitches you throw. They booed Bednar as he walked off the field, but this loss was clearly on the Pirate management team. It was a shame because it wasted the best pitching performance of the year by Martin Perez and a 2-home run game by Edward Olivares. Perez gave up 1 run on 6 hits, did not walk anybody and struck out 7 going 8 strong innings. This dropped his ERA below 2 for the season.
Key Moment Of The Game: It came in the bottom of the 5th with Pirates leading 2-1. Alika (I Don’t Know Why I Started Either) Williams led off with a single on a 99 MPH liner to left. Jared Triolo hit a 104 MPH ground ball that the Tiger 2nd basement, Colt Keith made a great grab, spun and threw Williams out at second. One out later Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a 102 MPH deep line drive to wall in left that Riley Greene leaped up and grabbed saving a home run. All of the Pirates balls were hit almost 10 to 50 MPH harder than any of the balls that the Tigers hit in the 9th inning. No question, this is hard defeat to swallow, especially with a tough road trip looming. but the Pirates will just have to move on. All we can hope for is that the Pirate management team doesn’t think that Oneil Cruz needs 3 days rest for his prematurely aging 25 year old body.
Next Game: Tomorrow, Phillies in Philadelphia. Jared Jones will make his third start of the year hoping to extend the quality start streak to 7 games. The sad thing is the Pirates are just 4-2 during the streak. The Pirates will play 4 in Philadelphia and 3 in New York against the Mets. If the Pirates can have a 3-4 road trip, I will consider it a success. A lot of this will depend on how much rest this aging young team will need. The management team is burning the midnight oil trying to figure this out. If I was them, I would concentrate more on pitch selection.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 