Final Score: Pirates 1 Reds 0
Why The Pirates Won: It sure as hell was not the offense. The Pirates have won 2 of their last 8 games. In both wins, the Pirates have shut out their opponent. This time it was Bailey Falter, Dennis Santana, and David Bednar who combined for the shutout. Falter pitched a strong 7 innings. He gave up 4 hits, walked none, and struck out 5. He threw only 79 pitches. I thought he would come out for the 8th inning. He did not. Dennis Santana pitched a clean 8th inning. I thought he was going to get a 2-inning save. He did not. David (Smiling) Bednar came in to get the save. He started out by giving up a leadoff single. I thought here comes another blown save. He got Santiago Espinal to ground into a 4-6-3 double play. This brought Elly De La Cruz to the plate. I thought he might hit a home run. He did not. He hit a big high fly ball down the left field line. Alexander Canario managed to turn this into a slipping, sliding acrobatic catch to end the game. The four-game losing streak was somehow over. The offense was its normal embarrassing self, but there were a few positives. They only struck out 4 times. They had 6 hits and 4 walks. They could only produce 1 run with all of that base traffic. Part of the problem: the Pirates grounded into 3 double plays to lead the league at 47. I wonder what that record is.
Key Moment Of The Game: In the first inning, Falter gave up a leadoff triple to T.J. Friedl. He was able to get out of the inning with the Reds not scoring. The second out was the big out, striking out De La Cruz. He retired the next six batters in a row over the next two innings. In the top of the fourth, Espinal led off with a double. He retired the 3, 4, and 5 hitters easily. There was not a ball hit over 80 MPH, and he struck out the last batter to end the inning. He only gave up two more hits. He faced one batter over the minimum thanks to a double play ball. Bryan Reynolds got the big hit in the bottom of the sixth to drive in the only run of the game.
Next Game: This afternoon, Reds in Pittsburgh. Last night, the starting lineup brought back memories of Derek Shelton. No IKF and no Nick Solak. Not playing Solak is the Pirates developmental departments policy of learning by observation. How has that been working out? Instead, we had Jared (The Dead Tree) Triolo and Adam (Playing For The Pirates Makes Me Look Good) Frazier. David Bednar closed the game rather than Santana, who has not blown a save yet. We can only hope that there may be some showcasing involved. The Phillies need a bullpen guy with closing experience. At one point this year, the Pirates had 6 players that had OPS+ over 100, which is above league average. Now, they have only 2. Joey Bart is right at 100. Oneil Cruz, who was once at 154, is now down to 116. Even though it is obvious this team needs help, there looks like there is none on the way. In a way, it is too bad they won last night. This offense is so awful. The Pirates have players in AAA that are better. One thing is for sure; they could not do any worse. Let’s give Gorski a chance. For the sake of humanity, trade him.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 