Final Score: Pirates 0 Phillies 1
Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirate offense continues to get worse. This is hard to believe but true. Teams are so confident against the Pirates that for the third time in the last 9 games they have brought in a pitcher for the bottom of the 9th with an ERA of around 7. In all 3 instances, they got the save in a one run game. The offensive stats are mind-blowing. They struck out 14 times. Oneil Cruz may have had the 4 worst plate appearances of anybody in baseball this season. He struck out 4 times. He swung at the ball 10 times. He had 3 foul balls and 7 swings and misses. If this is due to his back, then he needs to go on the IL. At least they need to get him out of the leadoff spot. Please put McCutchen there. Henry Davis got a hit to raise his average to .150 to reach the Triolo line. After 5 innings, the Pirates had 5 hits. They would get one hit in the last 4 innings. They ended the game by having 5 of the last 6 batters strike out. They were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position. What is amazing about that is they got 4 runners in scoring position. I read somewhere that the Pirates are closing in on the record for most games in a row without scoring over 4 runs. All of this offensive incompetence wasted Paul Skenes’ most dominant outing of the year. He relied more on his fastball and it paid off. He was touching 100 MPH again. His control was back. He threw 102 pitches, and 71 were strikes. He threw an 8-inning complete game, giving up 1 run on 3 hits. He struck out 9 and walked 1. It was a great performance. Too bad it was wasted on the Pirates.
Key Moment Of The Game: The score was 1-0 going into the top of the 7th. The Pirates actually got something going. Ke’Bryan Hayes walked. Alexander Canario singled to left field. It was right here that the Pirates showed they are one of the worst teams in baseball. One of their talent-blocking free agent signings, Adam Frazier, bunted the ball right back to the pitcher, who easily threw the runner out at 3rd base. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, on a 2-1 count, swung at a pitch high and inside. He grounded into a routine double play. Only on the Pirates is a 2 balls 1 strike count not a hitter’s count. All of the great hitters through the years look for a pitch high and tight to drive somewhere. Yeah, right. The Pirates went quietly the rest of the way.
Next Game: Tonight, Reds in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are at home for the next 7 games. They play 3 against the Reds and 4 against the Brewers. The competition becomes somewhat easier. Despite their gigantic offensive problems, the Pirates went 3-6 against the beasts in the East. They don’t seem to be doing anything about their offensive woes. They do not seem to be doing anything about some of their bullpen issues. A major league roster has 26 players. You can easily say that 6 players on the Pirates should not be on this team. That is almost a quarter of the team. Here is the list: Triolo, Davis, Pham, Frazier, Wentz, and Rainey. Without even activating anyone from the IL, the Pirates have the players to replace them that are better. I have written about this many times, but this will be the last. The Pirates have the talent. They just choose not to play them to save a few bucks.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 