Pirates Morning Report: Looks Like 11 Runs Are Enough.

Final Score: Pirates 11 Braves 5

Why The Pirates Won: The offense lit up the sky with 11 runs on 14 hits, and 2 walks. Nick Gonzales with 2 hits and 4 RBIs and Edward Olivares with 3 hits and 2 RBIs led the way. The disappointing surprise, Jarod Triolo added a 2-run homer. Barry Falter, without a doubt has been the pleasant surprise of the season, pitched shutout ball over the first 7 innings only giving up 4 hits. He got touched up for 3 runs in the top of the 8th, thanks to a 3 run homer by Ronald Acuna Jr. Luis Ortiz came in after that and continued the bullpens pitiful performance. He walked 2 even though the Pirates had an 11-3 lead. That led to 2 more runs when Travis d’Arnaud doubled. After that Ortiz did settle down getting the next 4 batters out, securing the win for the Pirates.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates got two big 2 out hits early in the game, that accounted for 4 or their first 5 runs. In the first, Nick Gonzales ripped a single to center to drive in the first 2 runs of the game. With 2 out in the 3rd Yasmani Grandal hit a double to right field that scored 2 more runs for the Pirates giving them a 5-0 lead. The Pirate offense did add on in this game to get the run total to 11, which put my confidence level at about 7 that the Pirate bullpen would hold the lead. They did, to give the Pirates a surprisingly easy win against the Braves.

Next Game: Late Afternoon, Braves in Pittsburgh. Mitch Keller takes the mound for the Pirates today and he has been very effective in his last 3 starts. Unfortunately, the Braves are throwing a right hander, which means that we will probably see Rowdy (Rawhide) Tellez, especially after the ringing endorsement that Ben Cherrington gave him the other day. It is rather sad when a GM doesn’t admit his mistake and just say I wasted over 3 million dollars. For you youngsters out there I call Tellez, Rawhide because that was the name of the character that Clint Eastwood played in the TV series Rawhide, Rowdy Yates. If Tellez had played that character only 1 out of 15 cows would have been branded.