Final Score: Pirates 1 Red 0
Why the Pirates Won: Braxton Ashcraft pitched a great 7 and 2/3 innings, giving up 0 runs on 4 hits. He struck out 6 and walked 2 while throwing only 82 pitches. The only problem was that his counterpart, Chase Burns, was just a little better. He went 7+ innings, only allowing 3 hits, walking one, and striking out 7. Through 7 innings, neither team posed much of a threat. The Pirates had 3 at-bats with runners in scoring position, and all of them were in the first inning after Oneil Cruz stole 2nd base. The Reds only had one at-bat with runners in scoring position after a 2-out double in the top of the 6th. This game eventually boiled down to the 8th inning.
Key Moments Of The Game: Spencer Steer started the top of the 8th with a sharp line drive single to left field. Ashcraft struck out Will Benson on 5 pitches. Another weak-hitting catcher, Jose Trevino, doubled down the left field line to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. I admit this is where I would have taken Ashcraft out of the game. Kelly chose to leave him in, and on a 1-2 pitch, he induced Matt McClain to hit a one-hopper to Nick Gonzales, who threw Steer out at the plate. This put runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs. With Pirate nemesis T.J. Friedl coming to bat, Kelly then went to Gregory Soto. It was the right move. Friedl battled hard and worked the count to 3-2. He could not lay off an 84 MPH sweeper that was off the plate and struck out to end the inning. The bottom of the 8th started out promising for the Pirates with a broken bat single from Marcell Ozuna. Billy Cook pinch ran for him, but the inning looked bleak when Spencer Horwitz grounded into a double play after burning the Pirates’ last challenge on an obvious strike. Konnor Griffin smashed a double off the center field wall that missed being a home run by 6 inches. Jake Mangum, pinch hitting for Joey Bart, walked. Oneil Cruz took a 1-2 four-seam 95 MPH fastball and drilled it 104 MPH to center field to drive Griffin in with the only run of the game. Two-out lightning extraordinaire. Soto stayed in the game and quickly got 2 outs. It was only fitting that the last play of the game was a deep fly ball to left by Sal Stewart that Jake Mangum was able to catch about a foot short of the fence. This was a big win for the Pirates that gave them the sweep of the series.
Next Game: Tomorrow, the Diamondbacks in Arizona at 9:40 PM. Bubba Chandler will start for the Pirates, and let’s hope he can get his act together. The Pirates will begin a 6-game road trip against the Diamondbacks and finish up with the Giants over this weekend. The Diamondbacks are a game under .500. The Giants have been struggling, winning only 13 out of 34 games, having lost their last 6 in a row. The Pirates should be able to have at least a .500 road trip. Tomorrow, I will be doing the 35-game report on the Pirates to see how they compare with the rest of the league in batting, pitching, and defense. The season is just past the 20% mark. We all know the Pirates are doing better than they did last season. We will see by just how much.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 