Final Score: Pirates 5 Brewers 8
Why The Pirates Lost: Two of the worst hitting teams in baseball produced a combined 13 runs. Unfortunately for the Pirates, they only scored 5 of those 13 runs. Mike Burrows made his first Major League start. He was done in by the long ball. The big blow was by the slumping Christian Yelich. In the top of the first, he hit a 3-run home run to the opposite field that barely got over the glove of Tommy (Maybe A Better Outfielder Would Have Made The Catch) Pham. In the top of the 2nd, Burrows gave up a solo shot by Joey Ortiz to account for the 4 runs he gave up. He pitched 5 innings, giving up 4 hits, walking 2, and striking out 3. It was not that bad of a performance. He was done in by giving up home runs to hitters batting under .200. The bullpen gave up the other 4 runs over the last 4 innings. A rare bad day for the pitching staff. The Pirates put the not scoring more than 4 runs streak to rest by scoring 5. The only problem was they should have scored 10. They had 9 hits along with 7 walks. They struck out 6 times. They were 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position. They left 10 men on base. They grounded into 2 double plays to be tied at the top spot with 49 for the season. In a game where the pitching faltered, the offense could have made this game closer but did not. The Pirates are now 2-2 on the homestand.
Key Moments Of The Game: The Brewers had the 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the 1st. The Pirates looked like they were going to get right back in the game. They loaded the bases with nobody out. Joey Bart grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to end the threat. A run scored, but Spencer Horwitz struck out to end the inning. The Brewers got the run right back with another home run in the top of the 2nd. Yelich hit another home run in the top of the 6th to make it 5-2. The Pirates had 2-out lightning in the bottom of the 6th when IKF and Cruz had back-to-back doubles. McCutchen walked, during which Cruz was wild-pitched to third. Then the rains came. Reynolds struck out when the game resumed. In the top of the 7th, the Brewers scored 3 runs. They were helped by the fact that Adam Frazier is too old to move and bend over. A ground ball that went under his glove drove in the final two runs. The Pirates were able to tack on 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th. They did not break the Major League record, just tied it. This really wasn’t a key moment, but I could not let this go unnoticed. Tommy Pham struck out in the bottom of the 2nd on 5 pitches. He did not swing at one pitch. Daniel (The Turtle) Vogelbach’s philosophy of hitting is having its impact on the Pirates’ players. Pham has a long way to go to get to Vogelbach. Once, while playing for the Pirates, he took 6 pitches to strike out. Then he took 5 more in his next at-bat to make the count 3-2. He did hit the next pitch out for a home run. He took 11 pitches in a row, with 5 being strikes. At least Pham has something to shoot for. He will probably do it now that he is getting to play more again.
Next Game: Tonight, Brewers in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes will start tonight for the Pirates. That means that his “personal” catcher Henry Davis will start also. Henry Davis played like a major leaguer in his last start. The way some fans and media acted, you would have thought that he should have gotten the Player of the Week award. In his career, he has had 425 plate appearances. His slash line is .190/.277/.262, for an OPS+ of 61. Most of that came during his rookie season when he hit 7 of his 9 home runs. His Defensive Runs Saved as a catcher is negative 4. If he has another good game tonight, I will be shocked. Even if he does, that does not make up for 114 games of awfulness. Some people seem to think so.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 