Final Score: Pirates 0 Angels 9
Why The Pirates Lost: Quinn Priester reverted back to giving up his obligatory 1 run per inning and Pirates got back to not scoring at all. It is hard to say who was worse. At least Quinn Priester is just one person. The Pirates only had 3 hits and a walk. They had 2 at bats with runners in scoring position. You’ve heard of groupthink. This was groupstink. Priester started out fine, pitching the first 3 innings like his previous 2 starts. He gave up one hit no walks, mostly getting soft contact. Then the top of the 4th came.
The Key Moment Of The Game: The 4th inning started off innocently enough. A ground ball that found a hole on the right side of the infield and a weak fly out to right field. In a blink of an eye everything went to hell. There was a stolen base, but the next batter walked on 4 straight pitches. Priester for lack of a better term went into the twilight zone. With runners on 1st and 2nd, up stepped 35 year old, I’ve seen better days, Kevin Pillar. This led to the strangest pitch sequence I saw all year. The first pitch Grandal set up outside but as Priester started his pitch he moved quickly inside and Priester missed inside. OK. The next pitch Grandal set up outside, stayed there, and Priester missed inside again. ? The third pitch Grandal did the same thing, set the target up outside. This time Priester put the pitch on the inner part of the plate about thigh high and it was blasted into the left field seats. Did he even look at the catcher? The next inning his brain fog continued as he butchered a play on a comebacker to the mound where they had a runner dead to rights between 2nd and 3rd. Either that or Rawhide Rowdy had been working with him showing how not to do it.
The Next Game: This afternoon, Angels in Pittsburgh. The Pirates need a win tonight to be able to go 4-2 against the Angels and the Rockies who have won a combined 21 games. I honestly think that with this current group, the bats are never going to come alive. Right now, no one is really hitting. There will be a day off tomorrow and then the Pirates start a 10 game stretch where they play 7 against the Cubs and 3 against the Brewers with 7 of those games on the road. This stretch of games could determine how the rest of season is going to go. It would be the perfect time to turn this thing around. If they don’t and lose 8 out of 10 with the continued non hitting, the season could be over early. Will management make any moves on Thursday or Friday. Only The Shelton knows.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 