Pirates Morning Report: Poor Lineup Construction

Final Score: Pirates 2 Cardinals 4

Why The Pirates Lost: Did the Pirates think that Sonny Gray was left handed. The splits on Gray are right handed batters hit .168 and left handed batters hit .243. He has walked lefties 12 times and righties 8 times. So, what do the Pirates do, they start a lineup with only 2 left handed batters. Connor Joe hits .288 against lefties and .235 against righties. Edward Olivares hits .246 against lefties and .212 against righties. Neither one of them should have been in the lineup against one of the best right hand pitchers in the National League. The Pirates scored only 1 run off of Gray and 2 runs for the game. Are the Pirates about to start on another stretch of games where they only score 2 runs a game for about 10 to 12 games in a row? I would have loved to have been at the meeting that was responsible for that lineup card. Baily Falter had another mediocre outing, getting knocked around for 8 hits that resulted in 3 runs, in just 4 innings of work. There were two possible significant things that happened in this game. Henry Davis hit a home run. Will this give him some confidence and momentum to start hitting. We probably won’t know today because at 24 years of age Henry is just not physically able to catch a day game after a night game. Kyle Nicolas, who I felt should have been sent down immediately, pitched a dominant 2 innings striking out 5 of the 6 batters he faced with no walks. He only got to a 3-ball count once. There is no question Nicolas has great stuff, but you have to get it over the plate. Hopefully he has found something, and this was not just some fluke.

Key Moment Of The Game: When The Shadow took out the lineup card and the 1st inning. The Pirates started the game with a walk and Bryan Reynolds doubled to put runners on second and third with no one out. From there, Gray struck out the side on 10 pitches, on his way to retiring 12 batters in a row. In the crazy NL Central the Pirates fell from second to last in one night.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cardinals in St. Louis. Mitch Keller goes for the Pirates as they try and win their third series in a row. I am sure the Pirate brass will be meeting early to construct another stupid lineup. My guess is that they will think that both Nick Gonzales and Oniel Cruz will need a rest. After all, they got 3 of the Pirate 6 hits last night. Plus, they are at that fragile age of 25.