Final Score: Pirates 2 Cardinals 1 in 13 innings
Why The Pirates Won: It was hard to tell. Did the Pirates have great pitching, or were the Cardinals just as bad as the Pirates offensively? Keller did have a solid 7 and 1/3 innings, giving up 0 runs on 4 hits. The bullpen was just as good, going 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up 0 earned runs on just 3 hits. Neither team scored a run in the first 9 innings. The Pirates did not get a hit until the 7th inning. The Pirates had only 5 hits for the game. They did receive 9 walks. Both teams struck out 10 times. Both third base coaches made terrible decisions sending runners home. The Cardinal third base coach was worse since there was nobody out when their runner was thrown out. Neither team scored in the 10th or 11th inning with a runner on second and no outs. The game mercifully ended in the 13th with a 2-1 Pirate victory.
Key Moments Of The Game: In the top of the 8th, the game was still scoreless. The Cardinals had 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. Wilson Contreras hit a high pop-up just in front of home plate. Joey Bart could not really locate the ball. Endy Rodriguez came crashing in from 1st base. Bart and he had a horrible collision, and the ball pop-out onto the ground just in front of home plate. The runner on second was running all the way. Ke’Bryan Hayes managed to pick up the ball and tag him out at home. A strange but decisive play that kept the game scoreless. Tommy (I Only Get Big Hits In Extra Innings) Pham got a 2-out single in the bottom of the 12th. This tied the game at 1-1. The Pirates received their 8th and 9th walks to start the bottom of the 13th to load the bases. Andrew McCutchen had a rough 0 for 6 game. He hit a rocket right at the shortstop. The shortstop bobbled it just enough to prevent a double play. The Cardinals might have gotten the runner going to third, but the catcher looked the wrong way. Joey Bart came through with a deep fly ball single on a 3-2 count. The Pirates had an ugly victory, but it was their first series win of the year.
Next Game: Tomorrow night, the Reds in Cincinnati. Barry Falter will be looking to have a bounce-back start like Keller had yesterday. Only the Shadow knows who will be playing on Friday night. Tsung-Che Cheng started yesterday. I was right that Adam Frazier was still at 2B. Cheng had what I thought were two pretty good at-bats. Then, the Red Sox reject pinch-hit for him for some unknown reason. For some unknown reason, Derek Shelton is still managing this team. Maybe the Reds will play as badly as the Cardinals did and we can win another series.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 