Final Score: Pirates 7 Cardinals 11
Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirates wanted to show everyone that their bullpen was depleted. In reality, it was not. The Pirates, however, live in the Twilight Zone. Don Kelly and his staff must believe that if the Pirates are 2-3 runs down going into the 7th inning, they are out of the game. This is the second time this year in that scenario that the Pirates went with a struggling pitcher when there were much more viable options available. The first time, the Pirates were only 2 runs down. Last night, the score was 6-3 going into the 7th. Yohan Ramirez was available; he had not pitched since Saturday. Isaac Mattson had only thrown 3 pitches the night before. Mason Montgomery had thrown 7 pitches the night before, and Justin Lawrence 9 pitches. Any one of those 4 pitchers could have come in. Instead, the Pirates decided to let Hunter Barco take a beating, to hell with his psyche. The Pirates wanted to show everyone that, see, our bullpen is totally exhausted, so there is no way we can win this one. The only good news here is the offense came alive, hitting 3 home runs and scoring 7 runs, but without a bullpen, what can you do but lose? It does appear that this team is going to be so mismanaged that there is no way they are going to contend.
Key Moment Of The Game: It had to be the pregame meeting. What were they going to do if Braxton Ashcraft had a bad night? I can hear the discussion now. If Ashcraft can’t go 6 innings or more, then we will put Hunter Barco out there until his arm falls off. What do you think, Don? Great plan, hope we score 12 runs tonight. Plus, there was real high-level strategy late in the game. With the score 11-3, Kelly pinch-hit for Brandon Lowe with Nick Yorke against a left-hander on the mound. I’m sure he wanted to show he still thought this was a good move. Yorke struck out, so at least he did not hit into a double play. Other Pirates took care of that as they hit into 4 double plays for the game. With score 11-3 don’t you think it would have been nice for Lowe to see a left hander. He also pinch-hit for the .160 batting average Henry Davis with the .161 batting average Marcell Ozuna. He struck out. I think what Kelly should have done is let Justin Lawrence bat just to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Pirates had no intention of trying to win this game.
Next game: Tonight, the Cardinals are in Pittsburgh at 6:40 PM. I knew that playing 13 games in 13 days would really mess the Pirates up. When you have a team that is this old and fragile, you cannot expect them to perform at a high level for this many days in a row. Now that they have had two days of rest, maybe they can salvage a series split. Bubba Chandler is going tonight for the Pirates. It was thought that he was going to start last night, but Ashcraft started instead. Chandler does need to have a good start for everyone concerned. The Pirates have lost three in a row and are in last place. It is where this team feels comfortable.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 