Final Score: Pirates 5 Phillies 2
Why The Pirates Won: Thanks to the powers to be, it was a game the Pirates could not have lost, even if they tried. As we all know, thanks to Greg Brown, the Pirates are trying to win games. The Phillies, not the Pirates, had a big hand in the Pirates ability to score. In the 2nd inning the pitcher, Christopher Sanchez was totally responsible for the Pirates 1st run. A walk, an error by Sanchez on a routine come backer to the mound, and two more walks accounted for the run. In the top of the of the 4th Pirates got two good hits to put runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Henry Davis struck out. Connor Joe hit a ground ball just to the right of Trea Turner, but as he went to field it, he slipped and fell with the ball hopping right over him into left field to make the score 2-0. In the top of 7th with runners on 1st and 3rd with one out, Ke’Bryan Hayes took a called third strike, but the Phillies catcher J. T. Realmuto was crossed up on the pitch, got hit in wrist and the ball got away allowing in the 3rd Pirate run. It wasn’t until the top of the 8th that the Pirates were able to score runs without the help of the Phillies. The Pirates went single, double, single to score 2 runs and stretch their lead to 5-1. Overall, the offense scored 5 runs on 9 hits and 5 walks. It was nice to see Henry Davis have a good game with 2 hits and a walk, scoring 2 runs and driving in a pair. Barry Falter pitched well again giving up 1 run on 4hits but only went 5 innings for some unknown reason, so the quality start streak ended at 7. He had thrown only 71 pitches. The bullpen did fine but did have one scary moment.
Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the bottom of the 8th the Pirates held a 5-1 lead. Josh Fleming got the first out easy enough but then walked the next batter and gave up a single to the next. In came Aroldis Chapman. Bryce Harper hit a low liner to right field that Bryan Reynolds made a diving catch. To make things interesting Chapman walked the next 2 batters to make the score 5-2. That brought up Brandon Marsh who Chapman struck out looking with the bases loaded and the threat was over. Bednar pitched a clean 9th that you knew he would in this game that the Pirates were destined to win. The Pirates improved to 10 and 4 remaining in 2nd place. Last night things went their way in a big way.
Next Game: This afternoon, Phillies in Philadelphia. Marco Gonzales takes the hill for the Pirates. It’s hard to believe that the Phillies generosity will extend to another game but who knows. The bats really did not come alive last night but a win is a win is a win. The Pirates will take them any way they can get them. The rotation continues to be strong and let’s hope we can ride that into some wins, until the offense can get rolling again. The only negative from last night was that Bryce Harper may be coming out of his hitting funk. That could lead to a bad weekend for the Pirates. Road trip 1-1, acceptable road trip 3-4.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 