Final Score: Pirates 4 Royals 3
Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates played one of their better defensive games, making many spectacular plays in the field. The home run was their friend, with Oneil Cruz tying the game 1-1 with his 20th home run of the season. Rafael Flores Jr. put the Pirates ahead to stay with his 10th home run, a two-run shot in the bottom of the 8th. The Pirates had a bullpen game, “again”. Five pitchers combined to give up 3 runs on 9 hits, walking one while striking out 8. Carmen Mlodzinski pitched 3 innings, giving up 2 runs on a two-run homer in the 7th, surrendering a 2-1 lead. Wilbur Dotel and Yohan Ramirez pitched 2 scoreless innings each. Mason Montgomery survived a 2-out double that wound up on third when Jake Magnum had trouble picking up the ball, to record his 16th save. The Pirates move to 2 games above .500 with a record of 79-77.
Key Moments Of The Game: The game was tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the 6th. Michael Wacha had limited the Pirates to 3 hits including the Cruz homer. Cruz swung at the 1st pitch of the inning and lined out to centerfield on a ball that was hit 111 MPH. Then the Pirates went foul ball crazy. It took Nick Gonzales 10 pitches to fly out fouling off 4 pitches. Ryan O Hearn and Flores fouled off 3 pitches each in 8 and 9 pitch walks. Spencer Horwitz fouled off 2 of the first 4 pitches he faced. On the 5th pitch he lofted a 68 MPH blooper right out over 2nd base to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. It was the 33rd pitch of the inning for Wacha giving him a whopping 113 pitches for the game. He was mercifully taken out of the game after that frustrating stretch. Rafael Flores Jr was the big hero with his home run in the bottom of the 8th. It was another gritty meaningless game for win the Pirates.
Next Game: Tuesday night, the Cardinals in Pittsburgh. The Cardinals have been a bit of a thorn in the side of Pirates winning 6 of the first 10 games in the series. The Pirates are 3 games ahead of the Cardinals in the standings. There are just 6 games left in the season. Looking forward to the baseball playoffs. There is something to be said for the fact that I and the Pirates will just be watching them. They can slice this any way they want in the Pirate broadcast booth but this season was a big disappointment.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 