Pirates Morning Report: We Were Robbed

Final Score: Pirates 2 Padres 3

Why The Pirates Lost: In a game where the Pirates out hit the Padres 7 to 3, they were robbed of a run in the top of the 8th inning. The Padres made the most of those 3 hits by scoring 3 runs. In the bottom of the 4th, they took a 1-0 lead. They scored more conventionally with a double and a single. The Pirates scored 2 runs in the top of the sixth. They got 2-out hits from Bryan Reynolds and Spencer Horwitz to take the 2-1 lead. The Padres scratched out 2 runs with only one hit in the bottom of the 6th. Mitch Keller walked lead-off hitter Fernando Tatis. Tatis was running when Luis Arraez doubled down the left field line. Tatis scored easily to tie the game. Arraez took third on a rather short fly ball to right field. He scored on a ground ball that slightly handcuffed Adam Frazier. It was just enough to make the throw late, and Arraez scored the deciding run of the game. Mitch Keller is becoming the hard-luck pitcher of the year. He went 6 innings, giving up 3 runs on just 3 hits. He walked 2, but the second one really came back to haunt him. Keller’s record dropped to 1-7. His ERA+ is 115, which is one of the highest of his career. This was a real hard-luck loss for the Pirates. It did not help that they struck out 14 times, including 6 times in a row at one point. Let’s get to that fateful 8th inning.

Key Moment Of The Game: The inning started out benign enough. Isiah Kiner-Falefa struck out, and Oneil Cruz flied out to start the inning. McCutchen doubled. Bryan Reynolds and Spencer Horwitz walked to load the bases. This brought up Henry Davis, who had had a rough go of it to this point. He had struck out twice and popped out to third base. Things were about to get even worse. He fouled off two pitches. He took three pitches well out of the strike zone. This worked the count to 3-2. The sixth pitch was low by a good ball and a half. The umpire called it a strike. Instead of a walk forcing in a run and tying the game 3-3, the inning was over. It was a horrible call. This is why the electronic strike zone should be in the game. These umpires today really botch up the balls and strikes in each direction. The Pirate bats did not have a great game; there was no question about that. Nonetheless, the score should have been at least 3-3 going into the bottom of the eighth. Not a good way to lose a game.

Next Game: Tonight Padres in San Diego. The Pirates lost the opening game of the Diamondbacks series and came back to win the series. The Padres will have to face the left-handed clones Falter and Heaney in the two games. Hopefully, the Pirates can win at least one game and have a .500 road trip. The offense needs to get back on track fast. They need to score at least 5 runs tonight. That will make you feel that the previous 2 games were not just a fluke. Don Kelly got ejected for the 3rd time in his short career. It was on the Davis strike call. Maybe he will catch Bobby Cox. Just 159 to go.