Final Score: Pirates 2 Brewers 4
Why the Pirates Lost: For the second consecutive game, the Brewers shut down the Pirates’ offense. They held the Pirates to three hits and struck them out 14 times. At one point, the Pirates struck out eight times in a row. I read opinions that the league has caught up with Esmerlyn Valdez, who has only had five hits in his last 45 at-bats, striking out 22 times. Not swinging at pitches has nothing to do with that. In his last at-bat on Tuesday and his first at-bat last night, he swung at only one of seven pitches in the strike zone. In his next two at-bats, he took two out of five in the strike zone. It is pretty sad when the good news is that he swung and missed three times for his last strikeout. He was not alone, as every starter struck out at least once. Pretty bad, considering some of them only had 1 or 2 plate appearances. Paul Skenes did his best Bubba Chandler impression, going five innings, giving up three runs on only two hits. He walked four and struck out six, throwing 93 pitches to get through just five innings. His mound opponent, Kyle Harrison, threw only 69 pitches to get through five before he had to leave the game with leg cramps. In those 69 pitches, he threw only three fewer strikes, 50 to Skenes’ 53. The Pirates are 2-5 on this road trip as they continue to spiral their way out of playoff contention.
Key Moments of the Game: Not only did Paul Skenes walk 4 batters, he was constantly working from behind. In the bottom of the 4th, after striking out the first batter. Skenes walked the next two batters on 11 pitches, throwing only 2 balls in the strike zone. During the second walk, Endy Rodriguez showed that Skenes is not the only one who does not know where the ball is going. Rodriguez threw the ball into center field when the runner tried to steal 2nd. The Brewers had 1st and 3rd with one out and had not put a ball in play. Christian Yelich doubled on a 3-1 count to drive in the 1st run. Skenes got ahead of Andrew Vaughn 1-2, pitching him away and getting him to chase on a sweeper. He then went inside, and Vaughn was able to muscle it through a drawn-in infield into right field to knock in the other two runs. The Brewers added an insurance run in the 6th, which they did not need to win 4-2 for the second straight game.
Next Game: This afternoon, Brewers in Milwaukee. At least we won’t have to wait up until 10:30 PM to see the Pirates lose today. For the second consecutive Milwaukee series the Pirates will not face Jacob Misiorowski. If they had faced him today I think he might have struck out all 18 to 21 batters he would have face. Don’t look now ( at least not on a full stomach) but the Pirates are now only a half game out of last place. They are 4.5 games out of the Wild Card. Not only that but there are now 3 other teams between them and the wild card berth. I hope someone asks Brandon Lowe when the games are going to become important. In my view, the answer may be never. The Pirates finally cut ties with Marcell Ozuna. When you look back on this, his signing may have started the whole downward spiral. Maybe the Pirates will be able to see the ball better in the daylight, but I doubt it. Stay tuned.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 