Final Score: Pirates 7 Padres 1
Why The Pirates Won: Essentially, the Pirates offense ground-balled them to death. It did not hurt that Paul Skenes threw 5 and 1/3 innings of no-hit ball. For 6 and 1/3 innings, he gave up a home run, one other hit, walked 2, and hit a batter. He struck out 6 while throwing a fairly efficient 87 pitches. The bullpen pitched the last 2 and 2/3 innings, giving up 1 hit, 0 walks, and striking out 3. The Pirate pitching was so dominant that the Padres had only one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. In the bottom of the fifth, the Pirates had 3 ground ball hits, the last one by Oneil Cruz that went right down the 3rd base line just out of the reach of Manny Machado for a 2-out double that put the Pirates ahead 2-0. This all started in the bottom of the fifth, as the Pirates did not get a hit through the first 4 innings. They ended up getting 12 hits for the game, and 9 of them were ground balls that went through the infield. The Padres made a critical error in the bottom of the 8th on a ground ball.
Key Moments Of The Game: This was a tense, tight, tough game through the first 7 and 1/2 innings. Going into the bottom of the 8th, the Pirates were clinging to a 2-1 lead. With one out, Bryan Reynolds hit a ground ball down the first base line. Somehow the Padres’ first baseman could not make the play, and the ball went down the line for a gift single. Ryan O’Hearn hit a line drive that made it into left field for a legitimate single. Nick Yorke hit a slow ground ball to short that Xander Bogaerts could not handle, and the bases were loaded with one out. Nick Gonzales, Jake Mangum, and Konner Griffin each got base hits, and before you could say “sit down, Dennis Santana,” the Pirates had a 7-1 lead. The bottom of the ninth was a piece of cake for my nemesis, Yohan Ramirez, retiring the side in order with 2 strikeouts. He has pitched 7 and 2/3 innings and has given up just 2 runs, and one of those was from bad luck. I hope he proves me wrong all year.
Next Game: Today the Padres in Pittsburgh, 12:35 PM. Mitch Keller goes for the Pirates as they will try to win their third consecutive series. Michael King will start for the Padres. The Pirates must read my blog. They did get York and Gonzales in the lineup together. It will be interesting to see how long the Pirates will sit Ozuna. I feel he should not start until they go to Chicago. It looked like the Pirate bats were going to be silent again until the 8th-inning explosion. This was a nice bounce-back win for the Pirates. They played a solid ball game. A win tomorrow will put a lot less pressure on the brief road trip to Chicago. Hopefully, the daytime lineup will not be too weird.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 