Final Score: Pirates 0 Red Sox 4
Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirates had a lousy game plan against one of the best pitchers in baseball, Sonny Gray. Gray is known for throwing the first pitch over for a strike. The Pirates stood there and looked at it for most of the game. During Gray’s 7-inning stint, the Pirates took 12 called strikes on the first or second pitch of the at-bat. Great scouting report and execution, Buccos. Four of the Pirates’ 6 hits came on the 1st or 2nd pitch. Even that did not seem to sink in as the way to attack Sonny Gray. The result was no runs on 6 hits and a walk. The Red Sox’s A team out of the bullpen did not allow a hit in the last two innings. Jared Jones pitched a good 5 innings. He gave up one run on what else, a home run. He wiggled off the hook twice, having runners on 2nd and 3rd, once with one out and once with nobody out. He did not allow a run either time. Luke Weaver gave up 3 runs in the top of the 9th. The Pirates had a chance to make a statement and essentially stood there with their bats on their shoulders. They remain firmly entrenched in last place in the Central Division and 6.5 games out of the wild card.
Key Moments Of The Game: If the Pirates had won the game, it would have been those two big jams that Jared Jones worked out of in the 3rd and 4th innings. He gave up a one-out walk and double in the 3rd. He struck out the next two batters. In the top of the 4th, things looked even worse. The inning opened with a walk and double, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Jones bore down and got a ground out, strike out, and fly out to end the inning. The Pirates’ big chance came in the bottom of the 5th. After one out, the Pirates strung two singles together, putting runners on 1st and 2nd. Jared Triolo came up to “bat”. He stood there and looked at 5 straight pitches to strike out. In his next at-bat, he took the first 4 pitches, with 2 being strikes. He flied out on a pitch out of the strike zone. He swung at one pitch out of 10, and it was not in the strike zone. Spencer Horwitz followed Triolo’s horrible at-bat with a walk to load the bases. Brandon Lowe came up. He took a strike, did not swing at a ball in the dirt, and swung at a pitch about chin high. He took a ball low and inside. He swung at the next pitch that was exactly in the same place, low and inside, to strike out. I guess you could say he at least tried to get a hit. The Pirates got 1 hit in the last 4 innings.
Next Game: This afternoon, the Red Sox in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are going to open with Lake Bachar today and after that who knows what they are going to do. Yesterday was disappointing not so much that they lost but the fact that it looked like they had never heard of or seen Sonny Gray before. This season has shown that the Pirates do not continue to do something even when it is successful. We are getting close to the point where the Pirates will start to play meaningless games. They are in danger of losing their 8th series in a row. They will play the injury card. In reality it has been poor management and bad decisions that put the Pirates where they are today. They would have to win at least 10 in a row or 13 out of 15 just to get back in the hunt. Stay tuned.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 