Category: sports

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Pirates Morning Report: 9 Game Summary.

The Record: 4 Wins Losses 5

Why They Won 4 Games: After getting off to a miserable start, losing to the Detroit Tigers and getting blown out by the Brewers 14-1, the Pirates went on to win the next 4 out of 7 games against some pretty stiff competition. They took the next 2 out of 3 from the division leading Brewers, before returning home, to split a four game series with the Atlanta Braves. It was surprisingly, the offense that carried the team to victory. During the last 7 games they averaged 5.5 runs per game. Many players got some hot bats. Bryan Reynolds slugged .731 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI’s. Ke’Bryan Hayes slugged .607 with 2 home runs and a whopping 10 RBI’s. Despite the hot streak Hayes is still a bit of an enigma. For a guy that takes as many strikes as he does, he does not walk much and his on base percentage is way less than league average, which leads to an OPS+ of 88, 12% worse than a league average hitter. Most of that is due to the fact for the entire season he has walked only 17 times. With 37 to 55 more plate appearances Jack Suwinski, Andrew McCutchen and Carlos Santana, each walked 53, 63 and 45 times respectively. Despite these numbers the Pirates continue to try a get him to lead off. His current OBP of .291 stinks. Alfonso Rivas has had a nice start for the Pirates slugging .762 and hitting 2 home runs with 5 RBI’s. Overall, the offense has been looking up.

Why They Lost 5 Games: The pitching staff has had its issues. Oviedo pitched an excellent game, and the staff pitched another good game giving up only 2 runs in 9 innings but the Pirates could only produce 2 runs, losing in 10 inning 3-2. They had the blowout loss 14-1 that was a pitching disaster. In the other 6 games they gave up at least 4 to 8 runs per game and were able to win a game where they gave up 6 runs. Almost every pitcher seemed to get touched up. The only exception was new acquisition Andre Jackson. It seems like he is one of those guys making the transition from starter to reliever, with improved results. Mitch (Who Is Jeff Locke?) Keller continues to struggle post All Star game. He pitches this Sunday against the Reds. Wouldn’t It Be Nice to see him turn it around.

Next Game: Tonight, Reds in Pittsburgh. The blog is back from a trip to London and Paris. Had a great time but it is good to be back and watching the Buccos. They did better than I expected them to do, while I was away, even before the first two bad games. I thought they would be about 2-7 or 3-6 at the best, especially with all the troubles they usually have in Milwaukee. A sweep of the Reds would go a long way to perking up this team and making this a .500 season.

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Pirates Morning Report: Just A Solid Win

Final Score: Pirates 4 Tigers 1

Why The Pirates Won: Johan Oviedo had his 2nd solid start in a row. This time he went 7 innings allowing only 1 run on 6 hits, walking 2 and striking out 5. He became very efficient after the 1st inning. He only threw 74 pitches over the last 6 innings. The Pirate offense was not overwhelming but effective enough to put 4 runs on the board. The big blows were an RBI triple by Endy Rodriguez followed by a home run by Liover Peguero to make the score 3-0 after 2 innings. The Pirates added another run in the 4th and with the way that Oviedo and the bullpen were pitching they were never really threatened in this game. It was a very nice 3rd win in a row.

The Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the 7th the Pirates were leading 4-0 when the Tigers did mount a bit of a rally. On the first pitch of the inning Javier Baez singled to center field. A swinging bunt out moved him to second base. Then Akil Baddoo reached out his bat a placed a ball out to left field to score Baez to make the score 4-1. Things were getting a little tense at this point. Two pitches later Jake Rodgers grounded into a slick double play, Williams to Peguero to Joe to end the inning. After that, the Tigers never got another man on base in the last two innings.

The Trade Deadline: There were two big ticket items traded, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. Other than that, as far as I am concerned this trading season was garbage for garbage, including what the Pirates did. They did get some prospects that might pan out but it will be surprising if we see any big contributors in the near future. The whole process seemed to indicate that teams were hoping, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that a change in scenery would improve their acquisitions performance. I thought it showed how bad things were when a headline read Brewers acquire Met’s star outfielder. They were referring to Mark Canha whose slash line is currently 245/343/381. His defensive metrics are not that great, but you could say he was one of the better players that were moved. It will be interesting to see if any of these trades really work out on the short term. There sure does not seem to be any Fred McGriffs in this traded group.

The Next Game: This afternoon, Tigers in Pittsburgh. The Morning Report will be taking a 10-day hiatus as I will literally be out of the country. I may write a couple of blogs while I am gone, commenting on how the young Bucs have done over a 4 to 5 game span. It will be interesting to see the new rotation. The Report will be back on a daily basis around August 11. It would be nice to see the Pirates win today, because after that, the competition really gets tough over the next 11 games.

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Pirates Morning Report: Great Bounce Back By The Kids.

Final Score: Pirates 7 Phillies 6

Why The Pirates Won: Much to my surprise, the young Bucs bounced back to score 7 runs on 11 hits and 3 walks. This was the definition of team offense as every one of the starting nine either got on base or scored a run. Endy Rodriguez and Liover Peguero were the main contributors, with Rodriguez going 2 for 4 driving in 4 runs and Peguero going 3 for 4 with a home run and 2 RBI’s. This overcame some of the shakiest pitching of the year. The Pirate pitchers walked 9 batters with Quinn Priester leading the way with 6 over 5+ innings of work. Priester after pitching a pretty solid first 3 innings, fell apart in the 4th. He gave up a walk, a double, another walk, book ended by strike outs of Bryce Harper and Trea Turner, no less. It looked like he might escape this shaky inning but gave up back to back doubles to Brandon Marsh and Jake Cave, to quickly turn a 1-0 lead into a 4-1 deficit. He pitched a decent 5th inning thanks to Bryce Harper trying to stretch a single into a double. He could not record an out in the 6th before loading the bases.

Key Moments Of The Game: This game revolved around two half innings the bottom of the 5th and the top of the 6th. In the bottom of the 5th the Pirates loaded the bases with one out, thanks to a single, a walk, and a Bryce Harper error. Endy Rodriguez lined a ball to center field that was played into a triple, that cleared the bases making the score 6-4 Pirates. A two out single by Alika Williams drove in the 7th run and the Pirates had a 7-4 lead. Both the hit and RBI were Williams’s first in the majors. Then in the top of the 6th Priester fell apart by loading the bases with no outs, on a single and two consecutive walks. Ryan Borucki came in got two outs but then walked in a run. Colin Holderman came in and put out the fire and the Phillies could only score 1 run with the bases loaded compared to the 4 the Pirates scored when they loaded the bases. The Phillies were able to get a run in the 8th, and David Bednar had a shaky 9th inning, but with 1st and 3rd and one out, he got J. T. Realmuto to ground into a slick 5-4-3 double play to end the game.

Next Game: This afternoon, Phillies in Pittsburgh. In the last 8 games the Pirates have won 4 games, the even number games. Hopefully, they can break that streak and win the series today. It is nice to see the enthusiasm of youth on this team. Watching the Pirates yesterday you would not have thought that this win moved them up to 12 games below .500. Rich Hill starts today, so you know the Pirates will have to score some runs, if they are going to pull out a series win.

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Pirates Morning Report: The First 3 Innings, Wow!

Final Score: Pirates 1 Phillies 2

Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirate offense was weak the whole game but those first 3 innings were pathetic. The first 9 batters that the Pirates sent to the plate made contact with ball only 8 times. Let that one sink in for a while. Three of those were put in play for outs with the highest exit velocity around 98 MPH. The other two outs were under 90 MPH. There were 5 foul balls. The other 6 batters struck out. Of those 6, three of them never touched the ball. The Pirates did manage to score in the bottom of the 4th on a single, walk, and a double. There was some question on whether the 3rd base coach should have sent McCutchen on the double, but I rarely 2nd guess 3rd base coaches unless it is really a blatant mistake. It’s not his fault that Henry Davis could only hit the ball 140 feet. Mitch Keller pitched ok going 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up a 2 run home run to Kyle Schwarber, 5 other hits, walking 3 and striking out 8 while throwing 108 pitches. It was not a great performance but a hell of a lot better than his previous two. Unfortunately, the Pirate offense fell asleep and the homestand gets started with a tough one run loss.

The Key Moment Of The Game: A thunderstorm got Zack Wheeler out of the game which gave the Pirates some hope. In the bottom of the 8th inning Josh Palacios and Connor Joe each got pinch hit singles, to put runners at 1st and 2nd with one out. Bryan Reynolds swung at strikes and took balls, which worked the count to 2-2. Unfortunately, he hit a ground ball fairly hard up the middle, 98.8 MPH, to the 2nd baseman, where he stepped on second and threw to first for an easy inning ending double play. The Pirates did get a walk with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th but could not score and the game was over.

Next game: Tonight, Phillies in Pittsburgh. Quinn Priester will make his third major league start tonight and hopefully will continue to show improvement. For whatever reason the Pirates continue to lead off with Jack Suwinski and he continues not to get on base. Of course, the way this lineup hits, it probably doesn’t make any difference what order they hit in. I don’t know if I have ever seen a beginning to a game where the batters made so little contact with the ball. Can the young guys get out of this funk? It does not look good.

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Pirates Morning Report: It’s Hard To Break The Oviedo Jinx

Final Score: Pirates 3 Padres 2

Why The Pirates Won: In a game where hits were hard to come by, 5 for the Pirates, 4 for the Padres, the Pirates hit 3 of theirs out of the park to score 3 runs. Johan Oviedo, even with shaky control, walking 3, hitting a batter, and giving up 3hits, managed to hold the Padres to 1 run over the 6 innings of work. The bullpen was flawless in the 7th and 8th innings retiring 6 in a row. The home runs were hit by Ji Man Choi, Bryan Reynolds, and Carlos Santana. The win enabled the Pirates to have a .500 road trip record of 3-3. It broke a streak of not winning a game that Oviedo started since June 5th. It was Oviedo’s first win since May 12th. It did not come easy.

The Key Moments Of The Game: Carlos Santana hit a home run in the top of the 9th inning to give the Pirates a 3-1 lead and that insurance run was the difference in the game. In the bottom of the 9th David Bednar came in for the save and struck out Manny Machado on 6 pitches with 5 of them strikes. Xander Bogaerts had what could have been considered a lethal at bat getting a 12-pitch walk. A single and a hit batsmen loaded the bases with one out. The Padres sent up Juan Soto to pinch hit. Bednar never threw him a strike and he never swung, and the score went to 3-2 with the bases still loaded. Taylor Kohlwey on the second pitch hit a weak pop up to the third baseman. That left Trent Grisham who swung, and foul tipped a third strike right into the mitt of Endy Rodriguez. With that the Pirates won the series, had a .500 road trip, and broke the Oviedo jinx.

The Next Game: Tomorrow, Phillies in Pittsburgh. The Pirates will play 12 out of the next 16 games at home but the competition is tough. They play the Phillies and Tigers at home, then go on a brief 4 game road trip against the Brewers and finish up with 4 against the Braves and 3 against the Reds at home. With the exception of the Tigers, all of these teams are at least 8 games above .500 and in playoff contention. This stretch of games will finish up on Aug. 13. If the Pirates are going to salvage anything of this season, this is the time to do it. Winning 13 out of 16 games would put them right back in the mix. Baseball can be a funny game. We will see if the Pirates can play a big joke on the rest of the league.

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Pirates Morning Report: He Was UP To No Good

Final Score: Pirates 1 Padres 5

Why The Pirates Lost: The bats went cold, and the brain went dead as far as the Pirate offense was concerned. Rich Hill only gave up 2 runs but could only go 4 and 1/3 innings. He had his at them ball going and would have had the key moment of the game, if the Pirates knew not to swing at balls. The bullpen gave up the final 3 runs on home runs to send the Pirates 13 games below .500. This game was marred by Angel Perdomo throwing deliberately at Manny Machado, after Juan Soto had just blasted a home run off of him. I guess he did not like Soto’s antics after he hit the home run, but let’s face it, that is just part of the game now, and really does no harm. I may not be a fan of it, but this is what it is today. The first pitch to Machado was a 98 MPH fastball that hit him in the upper back, way too close to the head. To the umpire’s credit, after a brief discussion, they tossed Perdomo from the game. If the Pirates management had any testicles at all, they would immediately send him down to AA. Hopefully he may get a suspension. Simply put, Perdomo is a disgrace to the game.

Key Moment Of The Game: This key moment is one of the most painful to write about in the entire season. Going into the top of the 5th with the score 2-1 Padres, Blake Snell was pitching one of his most efficient games of the season. In the 5th the normal Snell was about to appear. After one out he issues a 6 pitch walk to Nick Gonzales. He issues another 6 pitch walk to Liover Peguero. Then of all things, Austin Hedges gets an infield single on a little dribbler to the shortstop area. Now, the Pirates have the bases loaded and one out. He throws 2 balls to Connor Joe that are not close to the strike zone. On the third pitch Joe must have looking for something around the ankles because he swung at it. Instead of it being 3-0 it is now 2-1. Now he takes a pitch for a strike. Then he swings at a pitch that was thrown in the dirt. Great at bat Connor Joe. Snell threw 5 pitches to Bryan Reynolds with only one pitch even being remotely in the strike zone, but Reynolds strikes out anyway. If the Pirates had stood there with their bats on their shoulders, they would have had 2 runs. I will never make fun of Daniel Vogelbach again even though he stinks.

Next Game: This afternoon, Padres in San Diego. Well, the Pirates need a win today to have that .500 road trip. With Johan (I Find Some Way To Lose Every Time) Oviedo pitching, it will be highly unlikely that this will happen. It would be nice just to see fundamental baseball played again. I don’t think the Pirates have it in them to do it.

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Pirates Morning Report: Let’s Hear It For The Old Guy

Final Score: Pirates 8 Padres 4

Why The Pirates Won: Two words, Carlos Santana. He went 3 for 4 with 2 home runs, a double, a walk, and drove in 4 runs. Liover Peguero didn’t have a bad night either, going 2 for 4 with a home run and drove in 3 runs. Overall, the Pirates scored 8 runs on 13 hits and 6 walks. Quinn Priester pitched an ok 5 and 1/3 innings giving up 3 runs on 4 hits, giving up 3 walks while striking out 4. He got charged with a 4th run thanks to Ryan Borucki’s incompetence. Not a great outing but far better than his first one. The bullpen shut down the Padres the rest of the with Colin Holderman pitching the 9th inning and actually having a clean inning. It’s amazing what a 4 run lead can do.

The Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the top of the 3rd the Pirates were trailing 1-0 when with one out Jack Suwinski hit his 21st home run of the season to tie the game. After Bryan Reynolds struck out, Andrew McCutchen worked a 7 pitch walk. Carlos Santana took a full count slider and knocked it into the seats and the Pirates led 3-1. It was one of the biggest hits the Pirates have had in a long time. It seemed to give them momentum and they scored 2 in the 4th and another 3 in the 5th to pretty much seal the deal with an 8-1 lead. The Padres made it a little interesting but really never threatened much in the last 3 innings. They had only 2 at bats with runners in scoring position the entire game.

Next Game: Tonight, Padres in San Diego. Can the Pirates somehow eek out one more win to come away with a .500 road trip. The Pirates are going up against the hottest pitcher in baseball right now in Blake Snell. In his last 85 innings he has an ERA of 1.91 and has struck out 117. The bright spot for the Pirates is that he is not very pitch efficient so he may have 100 pitches by the 5th inning. Rich (You Mean That There’s A Team That Might Want Me) Hill goes for the Pirates. The final oddity of this game is that this could be the last game that both pitchers pitch for their respective teams.

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Pirates Morning Report: Bombs Away

Final Score: Pirates 5 Angels 7

Why The Pirates Loss: Another poor performance by Mitch Keller and the lack of the big hit, did the Pirates in, again. Keller got racked up for 3 home runs, 2 doubles, giving up 6 runs in 5 innings, throwing 101 pitches. The Angels hit 4 home runs for the second time in the series. The Pirate batters while they did score 5 runs were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position, while leaving 8 runners on base. With the exception of the leadoff spot everybody in the lineup got at least one hit. Yes, that does include Austin Hedges. You have to hope that the Jack Suwinski/ Conner Joe leading off experiment will end soon. It is not working. The Pirates had a chance to get some momentum on this road trip and failed miserably.

Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the bottom of the fifth it looked like Mitch Keller had righted the ship. Then in 7 pitches he gave up 2 home runs. Then a 4 pitch walk, followed by 2 more balls. His first pitch in the strike zone was hit up the middle into center field for a base hit. This is where he should have been taken out of the game. His next pitch in the strike zone was hit into right field for a base hit and the score was now 5 to 1. He had thrown 3 out of 10 pitches in the strike zone and they were all swung on for hits, a home run and two singles. Talk about not fooling anyone. Two fly balls later, another run had scored, and it was 6-1 Angels. The bullpen gave up another home run to make it 7-1. The Pirates made it interesting but could not get the big hit to tie the game.

Next Game: Tonight, Padres in San Diego. Quinn Priester makes his 2nd big league start tonight and while I am hoping he does well, if he doesn’t, I will not be too concerned. For whatever reason he always seems to get off to a slow start when he goes up a level. The Pirates will need to take 2 out of 3 from the underachieving Padres if they want to have a .500 road trip. When is the next bullpen game? With the way the starting pitching is going, maybe they should all be bullpen games.

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Pirates Morning Report: Bullpenning To Victory Again

Final Score: Pirates 3 Angels 0

Why The Pirates Won: It was a bullpen game, and the bullpen held the Angels to 5 hits, while walking 3 and hitting 2 batters. The Angels loaded the bases twice, once with nobody out, but failed to score. The Pirate bats weren’t great, but when you shutout the other team, they don’t have to be. Endy Rodriguez hit his first career home run to give the Pirates their final score to win 3-0. It was nice to see Bryan Reynolds get a couple of hits and one of those brought in the first Pirate run. Bednar came in the 9th to get the save, but had a rare bout of control issues, walking 2 and hitting a batter to load the bases with one out. The next batter hit into a very nice 1-2-3 double play and the Pirates are 1-1 on this road trip.

The Key Moment Of The Game: It was still scoreless going into the bottom of the 4th inning with Osvaldo Bido pitching for the Pirates. The Angels loaded the bases on a single, a walk, and another single with nobody out. This took only 10 pitches. This brought up left hand hitting catcher Matt Thais to the plate. He worked the count out to 3-2 on 7 pitches. The 8th pitch he rocketed out at 106 MPH but right at Nick Gonzales. He quickly flipped the ball to shortstop Liover Peguero, and the Pirates had a very fortunate double play. Bido struck out Hunter Renfro on 3 pitches, getting the Pirates out of the inning. The Pirates scored their first two runs in the top of the 5th for a 2-0 lead that they protected the rest of the game. Rodriguez’s home run added the third run giving the Pirates a 3-0 victory.

Next Game: This Afternoon, Angels in Anaheim. Let’s hope the Mitch Keller can bounce back from his last awful performance. I think the odds are good since the Pirates did not decide to give him another 10 day rest between starts. I did not think the odds were good that we would see the so called rubber match in the series. A win today and the .500 road trip will be suddenly looking good.

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Pirates Morning Report: I Thought The Home Run Derby Was Over

Final Score: Pirates 5 Angels 8

Why The Pirates Lost: Each team hit 4 home runs, but thanks to walks and a strikeout on a wild pitch, the Angels’ home runs drove in 7 runs, compared to 5 for the Pirates. The Pirates did not get a hit with runners in scoring position. Oviedo pitched well for 3 innings but then his old nemesis, the walk and home run ball contributed to his undoing. Out of 75 pitches he only threw 23 fastballs. One of them did get hit out of the park for the 5th run, but other than that they did not get a hit off his fastball. I really do not know why he does not throw it more. He did seem to lack some velocity last night with only one pitch topping 96 MPH. The bullpen gave up the other 3 runs, all on home runs. Henry Davis hit a couple of home runs and raised his average to .295. Another bad pitching day for the Pirates as two big innings were enough to give the Angels the win while only getting 6 hits. Pirate staff did issue 6 walks which really came back to haunt them.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates had hit 2 home runs in the top of the 4th inning to take a 2-0 lead. Oviedo had not given up a hit in the first 3 innings with one walk. Then boom, walk, double, walk and 3 run home run, and before you knew it the Angels were ahead 4-2. Two outs later, another home run and it was 5-2. In the bottom of the 5th, Jose Hernandez just coming off the IL, got lit up for 2 more home runs making the score 8-4 and the game was over.

Next Game: Tonight, Angels in Anaheim. The Pirate offense showed some pop last night hitting those 4 home runs, but it was to no avail. The pitching was bad last night, which it has been for about a month now. The Angels seem to be getting hot right now which does not bode well for the Pirates. Maybe .500 road trip was too much to expect. Time will tell.