Month: July 2025

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Pirates Morning Report: Fifth Loss In A Row A Heartbreaker

Final Score: Pirates 3 Royals 4

Why The Pirates Lost: Both starters pitched well. Seth Lugo went 6+ innings, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits. Oneil Cruz and Nick Gonzales each homered to account for the runs. Mitch Keller went 7 innings, giving up 2 earned runs on 4 hits. At one point in the game, he retired 16 batters in a row. For the most part, the Triple P offense lived up to its name. Jack Suwinski came up, and it was like he never left. For the game, he took 6 strikes. In one at-bat, he took all 5 pitches, and 3 were strikes, all of them right down the middle. In his next at-bat, he took a strike to make it 6 pitches in a row, with 4 being strikes. I agree with bringing him up. His AAA numbers are good; his slash line is .280/.382/.544. Despite this poor opening game for Suwinski, the Pirates should give him a good final look. Those are very impressive AAA numbers. It’s time to find out: can he finally do it in the big leagues? There is nothing to lose. It is doubtful the Pirates will do this, but they should play him a lot. The Pirates lost their 5th in a row. There were lots of key moments in this one.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates had just taken the lead. This happened on the Gonzales home run in the top of the 7th. Keller retired the first batter in the bottom of the 7th. Then Henry (Pop Up Specialist) Davis was called for catcher’s interference. Keller got the next batter to fly out to left. Nick Loftin took the very first pitch, a hanging slider right down the middle, and hit it into the seats. This was his 3rd home run of the season, but the 2nd in the last two games. In the top of the 8th, the Royals did everything they could to allow the Pirates to take the lead. The Pirates, as usual, just could not do the job. The Pirates loaded the bases with one out. There was a single and two walks. This brought up Bryan (Blocking All Trades To Contenders So I Don’t Have Any Pressure) Reynolds to the plate. On a 3-1 count, he grounded weakly to second. The Royals could not turn two, and the Pirates tied the game. Nick Gonzales grounded out to end the inning. It was a golden opportunity wasted. The Royals made them pay by getting two hits to open the bottom of the ninth. They moved a runner to third on a fly ball. Hero Nick Loftin drove a line drive to center that Cruz could not make a diving catch. The Royals had the walk-off win. What a road trip.

Next Game: Tonight, Royals in Kansas City. Barry Falter will go for the Pirates tonight. His clone, Andrew Heaney, got lit up by the Royals on Monday. The Royals are countering with left-hander Kris Bubic. We will see if Oneil Cruz will be in the lineup tonight. I do not understand not playing him against left-handers. Bat him 7th or 8th even. How is he going to learn to hit against left-handers if he does not face them? Last year, he had great success against lefties. Granted, he got off to a slow start against them this year. Nothing is going to be accomplished if he does not face them. You could say this is basically the Pirates’ philosophy. Our goal is to accomplish nothing. They have gone beyond their wildest expectations.

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Pirates Morning Report: At Least They Scored

Final Score: Pirates 3 Royals 9

Why The Pirates Lost: The pitchers finally had a bad game. They got blasted for 9 runs on 12 hits. Andrew Heaney took 76 pitches to get through 3 innings. He gave up 4 runs on 6 hits. Chase Shugart came in and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits, including 2 home runs. The Pirates gave up 4 home runs for the game. I might have to change the Pirate offense name to the Double P Offense. They were not very passive for the 2nd straight game. They took only 12 strikes. The Pirates’ offense is pathetic, but at least they are moving the game along by making their outs quickly. The Pirate scoreless streak stopped at 30 innings. Tommy Pham hit a 2-run homer in the 3rd inning. Whew! The Pirates have only two hitters who are above league average, Nick Gonzales and Andrew McCutchen. We all thought the Pirates could not hit last year. This year they are somehow worse. Their regression has been truly amazing. Another great hire by the Pirates: Matt Hague.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates took the lead for the first time on this road trip when Pham hit his home run. In the bottom of the third, Heaney got lit up as he gave up 3 runs. The inning started out with a weak liner perfectly placed by Jonathan India. After that, the Royals hit 5 balls that were 99 MPH or greater. The game was almost broken open here. Tommy Pham made a great catch to end the inning that saved 2 runs. Chase Shugart started the 4th inning and quickly gave up a double and a home run. You knew right then that the game was over. At one point in the game, the Pirates sent 20 men to the plate without getting a hit. They were putrid once again.

Next Game: Tonight, Royals in Kansas City. The Pirates have lost 4 in a row. Don Kelly’s record now is 26-28. This should be a good pitching matchup. Seth Lugo is going up against Mitch Keller. Will there be a run scored? More appropriately, will the Pirates even have a base runner? What I find amazing about all of the Pirates’ offensive woes is that nothing has been done about it. Nobody gets sent down. I just have this feeling that the Pirates are going to move a lot of dead wood at the deadline. They will have this very good August and September, but it will be too late.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Do Return The Favor

Final Score: Pirates 0 Mariners 1

Why The Pirates Lost: They got shut out for the 3rd consecutive game. They have not scored for 28 innings. The Triple P Offense did not quite live up to its name in this game. They were not all that passive. They took only 15 pitches for strikes. They made up for it by being so pathetic. They struck out 13 times. They did not walk. Why would you walk any Pirate batter? They had no extra-base hits. They did have 3 at-bats with runners in scoring position. The game before, they had none. They are pretty putrid, also. They have 4 players slugging .300 or less. They have 5 players on the team that have on-base percentages of under .300. All of this wasted another great pitching performance by Paul Skenes, Carmon Mlodzinski, and Genesis Cabrera. The Pirates head to Kansas City to play the Royals. They have more trouble scoring runs than the Pirates. They prevent runs better than the Pirates. The all-time scoreless streak of 48 innings is a real possibility.

Key Moments Of The Game. Oneil Cruz’s spectacular throw to nail the Mariners runner at the plate was impressive. It could have been a key moment if the Pirates had scored any runs. The Pirates’ offense really never threatened to score. In the top of the 5th, the Pirates were able to put together two hits in an inning. Jared (Why Am I In The Big Leagues) Triolo was on first base with one out. He had just blasted an 87 MPH ground ball into a force out. Henry Davis hit a 77 MPH ground ball perfectly between 1st and 2nd. Why Triolo did not make it to 3rd base on the play, I don’t know. IKF’s fly ball would have scored him. Randy Arozarena hit the home run that decided the game. It was on a pitch right down the middle, slightly above the knees. The road trip is becoming a disaster.

Next Game: Tonight, Royals in Kansas City. As mentioned before, the Pirates head for Kansas City to chase history. In the last 2 games, the Pirates have not had an extra-base hit. They are truly the punchless wonders. They are last in home runs, having hit 61. The White Sox are next with 70. What the Pirates do at the trade deadline does not really interest me anymore. You know that BC will just screw it up. At least we know what the glitch was: the six-game winning streak. Buckle up. It is going to be a long ride to October.

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Pirates Morning Report: Will Pirates Return The Favor

Final Score: Pirates 0 Mariners 1

Why The Pirates Lost: For the second straight game, the Pirates were shut out. This time they were more inept than the game before. They never got a runner to 2nd base. They had 2 hits, both by Spencer Horwitz. Tommy Pham walked for their only other base runner. They struck out 11 times. This series has that same eerie feeling as the Cardinal series, but with the Pirates in the Cardinals role. The Pirates won the first game of the Cardinals series 7-0. They lost to the Mariners 6-0. They beat the Cardinals 1-0 in game 2. The Mariners beat the Pirates by the same score in game 2. Mike Burrows had a nice outing. In 5 innings, he gave up 3 hits and 4 walks. I guess the law of averages caught up with Caleb Ferguson. He gave up the only run of the game. He had only given up 1 run since May 17th over his last 19 appearances. The Pirates start this road trip 0-2 as they head for the All-Star break. Is the glitch the 43 runs they scored on the 6-game win streak? Or is the glitch being shut out for 2 games in a row? We should find out today.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates had no key offensive moments. They reverted back to the Triple P offense. Passive. Putrid. Pathetic. The ninth was a synopsis of the game. They took 3 strikes, Passive. They swung at 5 strikes, missing 4, Putrid. They swung and missed at one ball, Pathetic. Caleb Ferguson came on in the bottom of the 6th inning. He gave up a leadoff double. The runner advanced to 3rd on a ground out. Ferguson got the next batter to ground out to Hayes, holding the runner on 3rd for the 2nd out. There was optimism that he would get out of the inning. Ben Williamson took a 3-1 pitch that wasn’t bad and drilled it into right field. It fell for a base hit and the Mariners had the deciding run. Ferguson then loaded the bases with a hit batsman and a walk. Isaac Mattson came on and struck out Julio Rodriguez on a tough six-pitch at bat. This ended the threat. At the time, you hoped that this might be a key moment for the Pirates. Alas, it was not. Let’s hope the offense perks back up today.

Next Game: This afternoon, Mariners in Seattle. Paul Skenes goes for the Pirates today. He may be more jinxed than Keller. This would be a great day for the Pirate offense to bounce back. It would also be great for Skenes to throw a nice 7 to 8-inning shutout. We shall simply call this glitch day. Will the real Pirate offense please stand up? It is a little scary if you ask me. The suspense is killing me. It’s just like waiting to see if Greg Brown will ever pronounce Horwitz’s name correctly. I guess the difference is we all know that is not happening. With the Pirate offense there is at least a chance.

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Dominate Series

The Pirates extended their win streak to 6 games by sweeping the Cardinals. The offense did ok scoring 13 runs for the series. They only scored one run in game 2 but it was enough. In a spectacular pitching performance the Pirates did not allow a run for the entire series. In the 1st game of the series Andrew Heaney was dominate taking a no hitter into the 6th inning. For the game the Cardinals had 4 hits and a walk. Games 2 and 3 were studies in frustration for the Cardinals offense. In game 2 they had 7 hits and 4 walks. They were 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. This was the 1-0 game where the Pirates only had 4 hits. Don Kelly looked brilliant when he pinch hit for the suddenly hot Tommy Pham. Pinch hitter Adam Frazier doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Henry Davis’s sacrifice fly drove in the only run of the game. The Cardinals offensive failures continued in game 3. They had 6 hits, including 3 doubles, and 3 walks. They left 10 men on base again by going 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position. This all added up to 3 straight shutouts for the Pirates and a 6 game winning streak. The Pirates head on the road to face the Mariners,Royals and Twins. These teams are decent but not power houses. If they can somehow someway do something extraordinary and continue this winning streak for a few more games they may salvage this season yet.