Final Score: Pirates 3 Cubs 4
Why The Pirates Lost: They just do not know how to play the game. They ran the bases poorly. They walked 5 batters. They made two errors. They would have won this game if they knew what they were doing. They got 9 hits to go along with 3 walks. They could only get 3 runs. They left 10 men on base. The AAA boys went 1 for 5 with 2 strikeouts and 2 walks. They scored one run. Triolo’s average dropped to .190. It is a hard climb. Carmen Mlodzinski pitched a very good 4 innings. He gave up only 1 hit and 0 earned runs. He had thrown only 44 pitches. The Pirate’s “brain” trust would not let him go any further. This was a game that the Pirates should have won. The Cubs missed some opportunities also. The Pirates gave away too many runs. They also failed to score more because of a lack of baseball awareness. As usual, you will see there is no accountability when you play for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Key Moments Of The Game: There were two examples of two players doing something good for the Pirates. Then they would do something bad or stupid to counteract it. First, we have Spencer (How Could Greg Brown Make Any Hall Of Fame If He Can’t Even Pronounce My Name Right) Horwitz. In the top of the 3rd with two outs, he doubled home IKF to tie the game 1-1. Bryan Reynolds hit a single to center field. The ball was solid with an exit velo of 92 MPH. Horwitz could not score on the hit. The Pirate broadcast booth said the ball was hit too hard for Horwitz to score. Wrong, make any excuse for the Pirates’ breath. Horwitz had an extremely poor lead at second. He did not take the walking lead when the ball was pitched. He did not get a good jump when the ball was hit. Next, we have Joey Bart. He doubled home two runs in the top of the 6th to make the score 3-2 Pirates. IKF hit a routine ground ball to short. Bart tried to go to third base and was thrown out by 6 feet. That is where I would have benched Bart right on the spot. Ronny Simon got a single that probably would have scored Bart. If Bart had been benched, we would not have seen his pathetic at-bat in the top of the 8th. There was a runner on 3rd with one out. He took the first two pitches for strikes. He fouled off the next pitch. The next pitch was a ball. He swung at a pitch that was almost over his head to strike out. He was probably thinking about what he should do when he is on 2nd base and a ball is hit on the left side of the infield. The Pirates would have scored 3 more runs if they had any brains and performed normal baseball plays. This obviously cost them the game. There were other managerial blunders, but they would not have mattered if the Pirates had those 3 runs. They have now lost 7 of their last 8.
Next Game: Tonight, Blue Jays in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes starts for the Pirates tonight. I may never write this again the rest of the season, but this is a bounce-back start for Skenes. He will be going against one of the better teams, the Blue Jays. They are one of the best hitting teams in baseball. It will be interesting to see how Skenes responds to his first truly bad outing.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 