Final Score: Pirates 3 Giants 1
Why The Pirates Won: Outstanding pitching was back. Falter went 5 innings giving up 1 run on 2 hits. He did walk 4 but managed to throw only 70 pitches. Braxton Ashcraft pitched 3 perfect innings. Dennis Santana pitched a clean 9th to get the save. Liovar Peguero hit a solo homer. The Pirates infield hit their way to 2 runs in the top of the eighth. The Pirates had 12 hits but couldn’t do much with it leaving 10 men on base. As I always say all is forgiven when you win. Not so much when you lose. The Giants looked bad last night. They were doubled off second base on an infield fly rule in the first inning. Looks like Rafael Devers did the Red Sox a big favor by refusing to play 1st base.
Key Moments Of The Game: It was a tale of two contrasting innings. In the bottom of the 4th the Giants hit 3 balls over 100 MPH and 2 over 90 MPH coming away with 1 run. That was a lead off home run by Willie Adames. Falter had the at em ball going that inning. In the top of the 8th the Pirates did not hit on ball over 100 MPH. They hit 5 consecutive ground balls. Two did not go over 70 MPH. One went 87. Two went 97. They all resulted in hits or runs. The ground ball by Ke’Bryan Hayes was misplayed thanks to Deavers not knowing what to do at first base. This loaded the bases. Joey Bart singled on a ground ball between short and 3rd to knock in the 2nd run. Peguero hit a little 69 MPH topper down third that Matt Chapman could only throw Peguero out at first bringing in the 3rd run. Three balls over 100 MPH, one run. No balls over 100 MPH 2 runs. Things are going the Pirates way as they have won 7 of 8.
Next Game: This afternoon, Giants in San Francisco. Mike Burrows goes for the Pirates today as they try and get a road sweep. Tomorrow is the infamous trade deadline. May have two blogs tomorrow if the Pirates do anything significant. That is not very likely. The bad news is, even if they trade him, this recent resurgence of Tommy Pham may have save Ben Cherington’s job. What danger lurks in the mind of Ben Cherington? Who knows? Only The Shadow Shelton knows. I couldn’t help myself. I had to get that in one last time. I also want to squelch this rumor. That was not Derek Shelton serving fries at McDonald’s. It was Burger King.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 