Final Score: Pirates 1 Red Sox 8
Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirates have now lost 4 in a row. In 36 innings of baseball the Pirates have scored runs in only 4 innings, for a total of 6 runs. You could have Sandy Koufax and Warren Spahn pitching for you and probably would have lost 3 of 4. Unfortunately for the Pirates they didn’t have anybody close to those guys. Quinn Priester started for the Pirates and continues to have big problems at the Major League level. In 4 and 1/3 innings he gave up 5 runs on 7 hits, including 3 home runs, walking 1, while striking out 2. One of the runs were unearned but the error was made by Priester, which begs the question, should the run be unearned when the pitcher makes the error? Roansy Contreras had a rough outing giving up 3 runs in 2 innings including, what else, a home run. The Pirates are now 11-9 and have been out scored 17- 2 in the last 2 games.
The Key Moment Of The Game: You would have to say it was the very 1st inning when Priester gave up the 2 home runs. Even though it was only two runs you just knew that last night was not going to be the game when he turned things around. I think it is way too early to give up on this guy (remember Glasnow) but he has been super bad, with almost all of his outings averaging a run per inning. He will probably get a couple more opportunities with Gonzales on the shelf. If he can get that one strong start he may be on his way, but right now that looks like one big if.
Next Game: This afternoon, Red Sox in Pittsburgh. Mitch Keller takes the mound today but it is the Pirate offense that needs to find itself if the Pirates are going to turn this thing around. But get this, they are going up against a pitcher named Kutter (I Kid You Not) Crawford who at the start of the year was a below average pitcher with a record of 9-15 and an ERA of 4.58. This year he has pitched 21 innings and given up just 1 run, for an ERA of 0.42. Looks like the perfect set up for these goofy Pirates to break out of their slump.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 