Final Score: Pirates 1 Cubs 2
Why The Pirates Lost: I am running out of words to describe this offense. The Slumber Company is too easy. I have come up with the Triple P offense. Passive, Pathetic, Putrid. Yesterday, the Pirates took 22 pitches for strikes, compared to 15 for the Cubs. It is somewhat of an improvement. Seven players took 3 strikes each. Reynolds swung at every pitch in the strike zone. Gonzales took one strike. Swinging at strikes is not a guarantee for success. Reynolds went 0 for 4. Gonzales did have a 2 for 4 day. Only 3 Pirates had hits. The other 6 Pirates went 0 for 18 with 2 walks. Why on earth would a team walk Tommy Pham twice? Andrew McCutchen hit a home run in the 1st for the Pirates’ only run of the game. After the home run, it took the Pirates 17 batters to get another hit. They had one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. The Triple P Offense was at its best yesterday. All of this wasted another excellent day for the pitching staff. Mike Burrows had his best outing, going 5 and 1/3 innings, giving up 1 run on 5 hits. He struck out 8 while walking none. Ryan Borucki did give up the home run to Dansby Swanson that was the difference in the game. Braxton Ashcraft pitched 2 hitless innings and threw just 18 pitches, with 14 being strikes. The Pirates have played 72 games. They have done nothing to improve their hitting. Not one position player has been removed from the team for poor performance. There is no end in sight.
Key Moments Of The Game: The Cubs’ offense did not exactly light it up. They did show what good clubs do to score a run. After Nico Hoerner singled to open the 3rd inning, the Cubs caught a break. Matt Shaw popped a ball up foul toward the stands behind first base. Nick Gonzales looked like he had a bead on it. Suddenly, he lost it in the sun. Jared Triolo stood there and watched the whole thing. During the at-bat, Hoerner stole second. Shaw, given the 2nd chance, grounded out to the right side, moving Hoerner to 3rd. Ian Happ followed with a sacrifice fly to tie the game 1-1. Tommy Pham opened the 6th with a walk. He was picked off during the next at-bat. The 7th inning was the Pirates’ only chance. McCutchen singled to start the inning. He was erased on a double play. This was followed by singles from Gonzales and Hayes, putting runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. Henry Davis was at the plate. He worked the count to 2-2. He was called out on strikes on a ball that was at least 2 inches outside. You have to protect, but the umpires must not like Henry Davis. The Pirates never really threatened in the last 2 innings.
Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. Mitch Keller goes for the Pirates today. It is hard to believe, but Keller gets the least run support of any of the Pirate pitchers. Maybe that will end today. On the other hand, I just can’t see the Triple P Offense coming to life. Maybe the Pirates can shut out the Cubs today. I think that has more of a chance of happening. The Pirates have a record of 7-6 this month. They have scored more than 3 runs 4 times. They lost one of those games. They have 3 wins where they scored just 2 runs. Don’t listen to that Pirate broadcast booth when they say the Pirates’ offense is improving. IT IS NOT! It is strictly Triple P
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