Pirates Morning Report: Quite A Contrast

Final Score: Pirates 7 Guardians 10

Why The Pirates Lost: This one is easy. One team had a manager. The other team did not. Stephen Vogt, manager of the Guardians, made various moves throughout the game. I may not have agreed with every move he made, but he managed the game. Derek Shelton did nothing. He has that chart in front of him. I think it is a racing form, quite frankly. No pinch hitters when situations were screaming for them. He left Kyle Nicolas in to take a beating when the game was still in doubt. I have always been in Kyle Nicolas’s corner. For whatever reason, the Pirates did not think he should be on the opening day roster. They felt that his spring was not good enough to be on the team. At AAA Indianapolis, he had an ERA over 11.00. What made them bring him up in the first place? It had nothing to do with performance. The Pirate offense came to life after the game was pretty much over. They scored 7 runs on 11 hits. Everyone got at least one hit except Jack (Please Pinch Hit For Me) Suwinski. Suwinski had a stretch where, over the course of two at-bats, he did not swing at 5 strikes in a row. One of them was called a ball. The Pirates did the best they could, considering they don’t have a manager.

Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the top of the 7th, the score was 5-2 Cleveland. Kyle Nicolas came in to pitch. It was obvious to everyone but Derek Shelton that Nicolas just did not have it. He gave up a single and a walk. He did strike out the next batter, who swung at a pitch almost in the dirt. He walked the next batter to load the bases. This is when he should have been taken out of the game. The Pirates did not even have anybody warming up at this point. They could have brought in Justin Lawrence, who pitched a meaningless 9th. Nicolas gave up 4 runs. Tim Mayza then gave up a hit that scored the 5th run of the inning. This made the score 10-2. If the move had been made earlier, the Guardians might have scored only 2-3 runs. The late Pirate rally would have had more significance. Shelton was too busy trying to figure out how much to bet on the 6th race.

Next Game: This afternoon, Guardians in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes pitches today on his own bobblehead game. I felt last night’s game was one of the most discouraging of the season. When will they get Carmen Mlodzinski and his 7.41 ERA out of the rotation? When will they send down Jack Suwinski? The Pirates want Bednar and Holderman back as soon as possible. Why? Other than Nicolas’s blowup last night, the bullpen has performed admirably over the last 3 weeks. This management team is atrocious. Enough said.