Final Score: Pirates 8 Blue Jays 1
Why The Pirates Won: Even though it took him 106 pitches, Mitch Keller pitched another solid 6 innings. He gave up 1 run on 5 hits, 1 walk, while striking out 8. Then Luis Ortiz piggy backed him with 3 very strong innings only allowing 1 hit, no walks, striking out 3 while throwing only 36 pitches. The bats came alive right in the 1st inning, highlighted by a Ke’Bryan Hayes 2 run homer to take a 3-0 lead right off the get go. The Pirates continued to add on, finishing strong by scoring 5 runs in the last 5 innings and collecting 11 hits for the game. It was hard to believe that this was the same team that played the night before. The Pirates will have a chance for a series win today.
Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the 1st with Pirates just getting that 3-0 lead, Keller gave up a one out triple to Daulton Varsho. He walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on 5 pitches and the Blue Jays had 1st and 3rd with one out. Keller struck out Bo Bichette on 3 pitches. This brought up Daniel (The Turtle) Vogelbach, the famous Pirate leadoff hitter. Can you believe that the Pirates had this guy leading off to start the 2022 season. Typical for The Turtle he did not swing at the first 5 pitches to work the count to 3-2. Unbelievably he swung at the 6th pitch which was out of the strike zone to strike out. If he had taken it in the usual Vogelbach fashion, the Blue Jays would have loaded the bases. Instead, Keller got out of the inning with no runs scoring. Keller did give up a run in the bottom of the 6th but by then the score was 6-0 Pirates.
Next Game: This afternoon, Blue Jays in Toronto. This will wrap up this brief road trip and determine if it will be a winning or losing road trip. The Pirates in their own goofy way still have not announced the starting pitcher. I almost don’t want to know. The Sunday goofy lineup may be at its peak today. Well, I just looked on the website and they say it will be Quinn Priester. Who is going down? Only the Shelton knows for sure. I wish I could just understand their thinking. Tuesday starts a homestand against the Dodgers and the Twins. They need to get their act together now.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 