Final Score: Pirates 3 Cardinals 4
Why The Pirates Lost: Yesterday I wrote that I thought Henry Davis, Nick Gonzales and Oneil Cruz would not start for various stupid reasons, and I was right on the first two. Gonzales the hottest hitter on the team could have been used as the DH. He could have been used as a pinch hitter in the 9th. Instead, he was not used at all because the Pirates play these games as if they are meaningless. I should feel grateful that they at least scored 3 runs and got off the 2 run schneid. The Pirate offense got 7 singles and 5 walks but could only produce the 3 runs. This was not enough as Mitch Keller gave up two long balls on his way to pitching 6 innings, giving up 4 runs on 8 hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out 4. Not a bad performance, but with the pathetic lineup that started he needed to be better than that. The last 5 batters in the order did not have a batting average higher than .210 or an on base percentage of .290. League average is .241 and .311 Jack Suwinski did not put a ball in play striking out 3 times and walking once. The other 4 did not too bad, getting on base 7 times. It all added up to a frustrating loss for a fan, as the Pirates continue not to play the best players.
Key Moment Of The Game: The lineup card was huge again. In the bottom of the 3rd with the game still scoreless, Masyn Winn got a one out triple. Keller struck out the next batter for the 2nd out. Paul Goldschmidt worked the count to 3-2 after falling behind 1-2. Keller left a 93 MPH cutter over the plate thigh high, and Goldschmidt blasted it over the right center wall to make the score 2-0. Keller got touched up for a run in the 4th, got out of a jam in the 5th, but gave up the leadoff home run in the top of the 6th which was the margin of victory for the Cardinals. The loss kept the Pirates firmly entrenched in last place.
Next Game: Tonight, the Rockies in Denver. The Pirates have not announced who is going to start the game. Who knows what they are going to do? Maybe they will start Grandal. The last two games have been lost even before the Pirates have taken the field. The lineups were bizarre. The Pirates lost 2 out of 3 to a Cardinal team that is floundering and old. I will just have to assume we are in for a really weird weekend, and I don’t think the high altitude will have anything to do with it.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 