Final Score: Pirates 1 Padres 2
Why The Pirates Lost: The Padres moved to 21-11. The Pirates fell to 12-22. The Padres have a manager. The Pirates do not. The Padres play the best players that are available. The Pirates do not. Matt Gorski, who was brought up on April 24th, has had 13 plate appearances in 9 games. Liovar Peguero, brought up May 2, has yet to make an appearance. The Padres play heads-up hustling baseball. The Pirates do not. The Padres position their players properly. The Pirates do not. The Padres can win games when they are having an off day. The Pirates can’t win games on one of their better days. In a game where the Pirates had 6 hits and 8 walks, they only scored one run. They left 10 men on base. This wasted another excellent start by Bailey (It’s Shelton’s) Falter. Falter has had his ups and downs this year, but when he is on, he is one tough pitcher. He gave up a Manny Machado home run and one other hit over 7 innings. The Padres only had 3 hits for the game but made them pay off for a 2-1 victory.
Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates were leading 1-0 going into the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Oneil Cruz. They made two quick outs to start the inning. Enmanuel Valdez singled and moved to second on a passed ball. Ke’Bryan Hayes lined a single to center field. Valdez, who is not the fleetest runner, was thrown out at the plate by 6 feet. Why he was sent only the Shadow knows. The Pirates loaded the bases in the bottom of the 5th with 2 outs. Alexander Canario, with his .132 batting average, struck out. What a shock. He swung at a pitch that went over the inside third of the left-hand batting box. The score was tied 1-1 going into the top of the ninth. Fernando Tatis Jr. took over the inning. David Bednar got ahead of Tatis 0-2 on two splitters that were low. He threw a third splitter that was right down the middle, thigh-high. That was some nice pitch sequencing plus terrible location. Tatis drilled it 107 MPH into left field between short and third. By the time Alexander (I Swing At Everything) Canario lumbered over to get the ball, Tatis had a hustling double. Luis Arraez grounded out weakly to third, not advancing Tatis. Tatis stole third by getting such a big jump there was no throw. Bednar struck out Machado. On the first pitch to Xander Bogaerts, it bounced about 6 feet away from Joey Bart. Without hesitation, Tatis scored to give the Padres the lead 2-1. In the bottom of the 9th, Oneil Cruz walked for the 4th time in the game with one out. Bryan Reynolds lined out to Machado, who easily doubled off the clueless Cruz.
Next Game: This afternoon, Padres in Pittsburgh. No matter what happens today, the home stand has been a disaster. You can’t sugarcoat this one. After having a nice West Coast trip, the Pirates have really laid an egg at home. Maybe we will get to see the young players today. Isiah Kiner-Falefa went on the IL yesterday. I am sure the Pirates will play the injury card, rationalizing this horrible record. Every team has injuries. The difference is that other teams replace the player with the best player available. The Pirates play the worst players on the team. I will write again. The Pirates have the players; they just don’t play them.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 