Pirates Morning Report: What Are They Thinking?

Final Score: Pirates 1 Cubs 4

Why The Pirates Lost: In the last 26 innings, the Pirates have scored 1 run. They have 9 hits. They have struck out 27 times. They scored a run in the 1st inning. This was their worst performance overall at the plate of the 3 games. Oneil Cruz’s game sums up this team’s problems in a nutshell. In the first inning, he takes the first pitch and bangs it off the right field wall for a triple. This drove in the first and only run for the Pirates. In his next 3 at-bats, he saw 16 pitches. He took 6 for strikes. He swung at 3 outside the strike zone. He took 6 balls, bravo. He swung at one that was in the strike zone. He struck out in all 3 at-bats. His second at-bat was classic Pirates. He took the first pitch for a ball. Then he took 3 straight called strikes. None of them were borderline. He went up to the plate and stood there for 4 straight pitches. He was not the only Pirate. Nick Gonzales went the other way. He struck out in his last 2 at-bats. He saw 7 pitches. He swung at 6 of them. Only 2 were in the strike zone, and they were borderline. What kind of thought process is this? It is one where a team strikes out 12 times and walks once. They had only 3 at-bats with runners in scoring position. They were 0 for 3, stranding 4 runners. To top all of this off, Paul Skenes had one of his worst outings of the season. He went 3 and 2/3 innings, giving up 3 runs on 7 hits. He struck out 6 and walked 3. It took him 92 pitches to go less than 4 innings. The Pirates are making sure that everyone knows they stink. No strong finish for this team. The AAA boys were out in full force last night as all 4 of them played. They went 2 for 13, striking out 5 times with no walks. No comment.

Key Moments Of The Game: The score was 3-1 Cubs going into the bottom of the 3rd. Skenes had just pitched his first scoreless inning. Henry Davis opened the inning with a single. Yes, it really happened. One out later, Spencer Horwitz walked. The 3-4 hitters were coming up for the Pirates, in this case, Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz. Cruz had tripled in the 1st. They had two horrific at-bats. Reynolds, after getting ahead in the count 2-0, took a called strike. The next pitch was a ball. He took another strike and struck out on a high outside borderline pitch. Cruz took a called strike, then looked at 2 balls, and swung at a pitch way outside. He was called out on strikes on a pitch well within the strike zone. With 2 runners on base, Reynolds and Cruz each took two called strikes. What a great process these Pirates have. It must be the Vogelbach influence.

Next Game: This afternoon, the Cubs in Pittsburgh. The Cubs go for the sweep today. They will most likely get it. Lefty Matthew Boyd is going for the Cubs today. That probably means that Alexander Canario will get another start. Even though he hits 38 points worse against lefties, he always plays against left-handed pitchers. I will just write it again. What are they thinking? Looks like another loss today. Maybe the Pirates will score more than 2 runs. Probably not.