Pirates Morning Report: Keller Gets Rocked, Pirates Lose 5 In A Row.

I know this is mid-afternoon but with the late game and I had an early tee time not enough time to watch the game and give the report but here we go.

Final Score: Pirates 5 Dodgers 9

Why The Pirates Lost: Mitch Keller got rocked for 7 runs on 7 hits walking 2, striking out 5 in just 4 innings of work, while throwing 95 pitches. He gave up 2 home runs, and really got knocked around in the bottom of the third. He gave up 5 runs on a walk, a Shohei Ohtani 448 foot blast, another walk, a Freddie Freeman double, Will Smith single, a wild pitch, and finally a Miguel Rojas single to make the score 6-0. Not what you would call a stellar Keller outing. The Dodgers added another 2 run homer off Domingo German to complete their scoring. The Pirate offense outhit the Dodgers 11 to 8 and did put 5 runs up on the board. Oneil Cruz had a home run and drove in another run and Joey Bart hit a 3 run homer to cut the lead to 7-4 at the time. They did strike out a whopping 16 times. That’s quite a process you have going on there, Pirate offense. When the Pirates lost 13 out of 16 games in mid April it was the offense that fell flat by not scoring more than 2 runs in 13 of those games. This losing streak can be attributed to the pitching staff just falling apart. These last 5 games the Pirates have given up 6, 6, 9, 7, and 9 runs. That’s an average of 7 runs per game. It would be hard for the 1927 Yankees to overcome that.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the big 5 run third inning for the Dodgers it was Will Smith fighting off a high inside pitch, and blooping it 68 MPH down the right field line to drive in 2 runs to make the score 5-0, that really sealed the deal. A luck hit but there were no other lucky hits on some the line shots that were hit off Keller. Not a heart-breaking loss this time as the Pirates fall further out of the wild card picture.

Next Game: Tonight, Dodgers in L. A. Paul Skenes goes tonight for the Pirates and let’s hope that he can stop the slide. The game is on an hour earlier and I do not have to leave as early in the morning so the Morning Report will be back in the morning once again.