Final Score: Pirates 10 Twins 9
Why The Pirates Won: Twins starter Bailey Ober continued to have problems giving up the long ball. He gave up 3 long balls accounting for 5 of the 8 runs that he allowed. When Oneil Cruz hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 2nd to make the score 7-1, Joe Block declared, “This game is over.” Wrong, boring breath. What he did not realize was that Mitch Keller and Ober are the Bobbsey twins. Their pitching numbers were very similar going into the game and continued that way after the dust settled. Ober went 4 and 1/3 innings, giving up 7 earned runs on 12 hits, striking out 3, and walking 1. Keller went 4 innings, giving up 7 earned runs on 10 hits, striking out 5, and walking 1. Giving up homers is their only major difference, as Ober now has given up 12 for the season to Keller’s 4. After 4 innings, the game was tied 7-7. The Pirates took back the lead 8-7 in the bottom of the 5th and added 2 more in the 7th. The Twins cut it to 10-9 in the top of the 8th. Gregory Soto came in with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th with runners on 2nd and 3rd and the score 10-9. Kody Clemens hit a sharp 100 MPH ground ball that Tyler Callahan made a nice play on to end the inning. In the top of the 9th, Soto was hit hard, with every contact being 95 MPH or harder. Fortunately for the Pirates, the balls were always at someone to walk away with a wild 10-9 victory.
Key Moment Of The Game: Spencer Horwitz set the tone by opening the bottom of the 1st with a home run. With one out in the bottom of the 2nd, Jake Mangum hit his first home run of the season. After another ground out, Spencer Horwitz hit a high, lazy fly ball out to medium left field. Trevor Larnach lost the ball in the sun, and it dropped in front of him for a single. Did the Pirates ever make them pay! A single, walk, single, and three-run home run later, it was 7-1 before you could say the sun does shine in Pittsburgh once in a while. The Pirates were able to take the lead in the bottom of the 5th, thanks to catcher’s interference between two singles. For the second straight game, the Pirates had pulled out a one-run victory over the Twins.
Next Game: This afternoon, the Twins, in Pittsburgh. Braxton Ashcraft will be going for the Pirates today as they seek the sweep. The Twins will send out someone called Zebby Matthews, who has not pitched badly this season. In his previous two years, he has been knocked around quite a bit. I am sure we will see the usual weird Sunday lineup. Hopefully, Ozuna won’t be in the lineup, at least. The Pirates have been able to take advantage of the Twins’ mistakes during the first two games of the series. Maybe they can be generous for one more game.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 