Final Score: Pirates 1 Royals 5
Why The Pirates Lost: For the second straight day the Pirates outhit the Royals but lost. What is even more amazing, both games were not even close. Oneil Cruz had a tough day out in centerfield and the defense was bad overall. Mitch Keller was the beneficiary of the bad defense going 6 innings giving up 4 runs, 3 earned, on just 4 hits and a walk. Unlike the Pirates the Royals know how to take advantage of their opportunities. Oh my, that Pirate offense is so hard to watch. They struck out 13 times to strike out a total of 27 times in the first two games of the series. That is half the outs by strikeout. The Royals had a hard time staying awake in the field. The Pirates stranded 13 runners yesterday to go along with the 10 they left on base the game before for a grand total of 23 runners in two games. At least the Pirates are able to watch how the game should be played.
The Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates were behind 1-0 going into the top of the 5th. Adam Frazier hit a soft low liner to centerfield. Oneil Cruz tried to make a diving shoestring catch and he just missed it by a couple of inches. The ball skipped by him and Frazier stood on third with a lead off triple. If he would have played it safe, and held Frazier to a single, it would have been possible that the Royals may not have even scored a run if the inning had played out as it did. Instead they were able to score 2 runs in the inning to take a 3-0 lead. In the next inning the Royals scored a run when Jared Triolo whiffed on a ground ball after a double. They added their 5th run when Cruz missed judged a fly ball in the top of the 7th. Just another day at the ranch for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Next Game: This afternoon, the Royals in Pittsburgh. Jared Jones goes for the Pirates this afternoon to see if they can salvage one of the games of the series. We will probably see a crazy Sunday lineup today but who knows. Triolo is starting to hit toward the end of the season. He looks like he is becoming a top player in meaningless games. I am sure he will be back next year. Thank God the end of the season is near.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 