Final Score: Pirates 3 Braves 2
Why The Pirates Won: This was a game that could have had a plethora of headlines. The Kelly Era Begins. My God, Ji Hwan Bae is back. After looking at the original starting lineup, the headline could have read, Are you sure Shelton was fired? At the last minute, Tommy Pham was scratched. Two players that I think should not even be on the team came through last night. Hence the headline, the one hundred club comes through. Yes sir, the dynamic duo of Jared (.150 average) Triolo and Alexander (.136 average) Canario each hit solo home runs to lead the Pirates to a scary 3-2 win over the Braves. Andrew McCutchen drove in the other run with a 2-out double that barely missed being a home run. Bailey Falter pitched 6 strong innings, giving up just 2 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 3 batters. Don Kelly did show that Derek Shelton was gone. He was on top of the game. He had Caleb Ferguson warming up in the bullpen in plenty of time. Kelly brought him in to face the left-hand pinch hitter Alex Verdugo. Ferguson struck him out. Good golly, Miss Molly, we have ourselves a manager. His biggest move was putting Dennis Santana back in the closer role. He should have never been taken out of it. Yes, he almost blew the save. That is the key word, almost.
Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates only had 5 hits and no walks. They made the most of them by scoring 3 runs. This is a far cry from scoring 1 run on 10 hits and 4 walks. They did strike out a lot, but no game is perfect. I thought one of the big moments of this game was the very first inning. The Pirates were reeling from a 7-game losing streak. Falter got one out in the 1st. He then gave up a single and a walk. The 4-5 hitters were coming up for Atlanta. Falter got them to pop out and strike out to end the inning. Big hits there, and the Pirates fall behind right at the start of the game. After a somewhat shaky 2nd inning, Falter retired 12 of the next 13 batters he faced. The Pirate bullpen danced through the raindrops the last 3 innings but held on to snap the 7-game losing streak. They have win number one as they face the beasts from the East. They desperately need to find a way to win 3 more.
Next Game: This afternoon, Braves in Pittsburgh. Andrew Heaney, coming off a couple of bad starts, will take the hill for the Pirates. Even though the Pirates won, the offensive woes continue. Now that the losing streak is over, the players may loosen up a little bit. The offense could come alive. Ji Hwan Bae is back on the team. He would have been the last player that I would have brought up. Maybe with Kelly, as the manager, Bae will somehow find himself. He was not lighting it up in AAA like he was last year. If this guy could somehow find himself and have some kind of offensive production, it would be a major boost to this team. There does seem to be some managerial hope. How will that translate into wins? Only time will tell. Man, it sure would be nice to get those IL players back sooner rather than later. It was rather invigorating to see a solid baseball game played by a team called the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 