Final Score: Pirates 3 Reds 2
Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates only managed 5 hits. Three of them were for extra-base hits. Bryan Reynolds came up with a big 2-out triple in the bottom of the 8th. It drove in the tying and go-ahead runs. The Pirates flashed some nice leather throughout the game. Mitch Keller and the bullpen limited the Reds to 2 runs. They gave up 8 hits and walked 3. The Reds, for the second straight night, did not take advantage of opportunities to score. Dennis Santana got back on track, pitching a clean 9th to get a good save. The game ended, fittingly enough, with Ke’Bryan Hayes striking out. The AAA boys got back to normal for the Pirates. They went 0 for 9, striking out 3 times. They got 2 balls out of the infield. It is good to see all is right with the world again. One final note on the game: it was on Apple TV. It was such a pleasure listening to their announcers. I did not use fast forward hardly at all.
Key Moments Of The Game: The Reds loaded the bases in the 2nd inning with no outs. Keller induced Jake Fraley to hit into a double play, scoring the run. Hayes hit a sinking line drive to center field. Oneil Cruz got a good jump and made a nice play to end the inning. In the top of the 4th, Keller walked Miguel Andujar with one out. Tyler Stephenson doubled to right center field. The Pirates made a great relay, Suwinski to Peguero to Davis. They nailed Andujar at the plate. The momentum continued for the Pirates in the bottom of the 4th. Reynolds and Cruz opened the inning with back-to-back doubles. This tied the game at 1-1. The Reds took the lead in the 6th. They got 2-out lightning, getting a double, walk, and another double, to make the score 2-1. Going into the bottom of the 8th, the Pirates had gone 12 up and 12 down since scoring their lone run. Henry Davis extended it to 13 by weakly grounding out to short. IKF walked. Horwitz struck out, making it 12 for the game for the Pirates. On an 0-2 pitch, Tommy Pham hit a ground ball. It just got past the shortstop, putting runners on 1st and 3rd. Reynolds, wasting no time, took the first pitch, driving it just inside the bag at first. The ball hit the short wall in foul territory. Noelvi Marte hesitated going for the ball. It was like he thought the first baseman was going out to get it. He then hustled to get the ball but could not pick it up twice. Pham scored easily from 1st, and the Pirates had the lead 3-2. The Reds did nothing in the 9th. The Pirates won the second game of the series.
Next Game: Tonight, Reds in Pittsburgh. Braxton Ashcraft will go for the Pirates tonight. It looks like this will be a bullpen game. Maybe they will let Ashcraft go 4 or 5 innings. Who knows? We will see how many AAA boys get to play tonight. The Pirates survived their usual performance last night. Their OPS stands at .472, .535, .542, and .581. The league average is .719. Can this go on much longer? It probably will.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 