Category: sports

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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.

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Pirates Morning Report: Stop The Presses The Pirates Won

Final Score: Pirates 7 Guardians 5

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates finally had some breaks go their way in the pivotal 7th inning. They did hit better scoring 7 runs on 9 hits while collecting 4 walks. They were 5 for 10 with runners in scoring position. Rich Hill pitched his typical mediocre game giving up 4 runs on 8 hits, walking 1, striking out 1, in 5 and 2/3 innings. I can’t imagine any team really wanting this guy or giving up any highly rated prospects in return. Time will tell if there is some team that is really desperate. This was an afternoon game and after I got home from the golf course, I watched the game which I taped. I listened to most of the broadcast, and I am glad that I roll through a game quickly when it is at night so I can get to the blog. For some reason the producer of the game must think that it is more interesting listening to three individuals discussing hitting than the game itself. It is sooooooooooooooooooooo boring listening to those three droning on and on about how to hit. Meanwhile there is a lot going on in the game that they just ignore. Let me give you a big tip AT&T, if you want to create interest in your broadcasts take a listen to the San Diego Padre broadcast team as they go through the nuances of what is going down on the field, pitch by pitch. I get to listen to them when I am out in San Diego, and it is pure joy. No fast forwarding when that duo is on the air.

Key Moment Of The Game: The bottom of the 7th the Pirates put 5 runs on the board to go from a 4-2 deficit to a 7-4 lead. There were three huge plays in the inning. The Endy Rodriguez bloop single with one out to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Connor Joe got an infield single to load the bases. That brought up the laboring Bryan Reynolds. It looked like he grounded into an inning ending double play. The Pirates challenged both outs at 2nd and 1st and the Reynolds’s out call was overturned. It was so close that I felt they could have let the call stand. Instead of the inning being over, the Pirates had a run in, with runners on first and third with two outs. Carlos Santans drew a 6 pitch walk, after being behind in the count 1-2. For the final big play of the inning, Ji Man Choi lined a 1-1 pitch into right field to give the Pirates the lead 5-4. One walk later, Jared(I’m The Real Reason Hayes Is Unhappy In Pittsburgh) Triolo lined a single to left to score 2 more insurance runs that the Pirates would eventually need. The Pirates won 7-5 with Bednar closing out the win and the losing streak was over.

Next Game: Friday night, Angels in Anaheim. The Pirates embark on another western trip playing 3 against the Angels and 3 against the Padres. I feel they have a decent chance of playing .500 ball on this road trip. Both the Angels and Padres are in disarray for various reasons. It was a nice comeback win yesterday and there is a chance that the Pirates may feed off of it to get on a little bit of a run. Another week of late night baseball, with a couple of afternoon games thrown in. The late night games would be so much more tolerable with a few wins.

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Pirates Morning Report: This Is What Happens When You Don’t Let Your Ace Pitch For 10 Days

Final Score: Pirates 1 Guardians 10

Why The Pirates Lost: Mitch Keller got knocked around right out of the box as Guardians scored 5 runs in the first inning, with 4 of them scoring before an out was recorded. In fact, it took only 7 pitches for the Guardians to score the 4 runs. Why the Pirates did not pitch Keller sooner after the All Star break, I would have no idea. What rationale could they possibly have? He only pitched 1 inning in the All Star game, which was last Tuesday. He should have pitched either Saturday or Sunday this past weekend. In 6 innings of “work” he gave up 8 runs on 10 hits, walking 2, and only striking out 1. Do you think he was rusty? Another blowout loss for the Pirates as they did manage to score 1 run, which does avoid them from being shut out in an entire series like the Reds. They only managed 5 hits as their hitting woes continue. They have won only 2 games in July. This is one hell of a massive team slump in every phase of the game. This team is going to have to dig deep to come out of this to even look respectable the rest of the season.

Key Moment Of The Game: Another blowout loss where there was no key moment of the game. You could say the key moment of this game was Saturday or Sunday when Keller did not start either one of those games. It makes you wonder if Keller didn’t or still has some kind of hush hush injury that would make them delay him starting a game. In fact, even two days ago the starting pitcher for last night’s game was to be determined. It does make you wonder, doesn’t it?

Next Game: This afternoon, Guardians in Pittsburgh. Rich Hill goes today to see if he can stop this slide. Yes, the pitching has been horrible in this series but again the Pirates’ bats have gone completely silent. They better get those I pads cranked up because it looks pretty hopeless at this point in the season.

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Pirates Morning Report: Welcome To The Big Legues

Final Score: Pirates 0 Guardians 11

Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirates brought up 3 players yesterday, Quinn Priester, Endy Rodriguez and Liover Peguero. It was a rude reception. Priester gave up 7 runs in 5 and 1/3 innings. Both Rodriguez and Peguero were hitless, striking out 5 times between them. It was a blowout loss as the Guardians scored at least 1 run in each of the last 6 innings, while the Pirates took my challenge of getting shut out for an entire series, like the Reds, seriously, and are a third of the way home. There were things the management team did in this game, while it would not have affected the outcome, is mind boggling, nonetheless. I do not understand leading off with Suwinski. He is 0 for post All Star break and this is his MO. He goes through some long hitless streaks. This is not the man you want at the top of the order. It was hard to believe that they left Priester in as long as they did, to take the beating he took. After pitching a solid opening 3 innings where he sent 9 batters down in a row, you could see for whatever reason he was starting to lose command. In the beginning he was throwing nothing but strikes and did have this ridiculous low pitch count after 3 innings. He would up throwing 73 pitches and only 47 wound up being strikes. Granted the big hits came fast and furious but you could see it coming if you were paying any attention, which apparently the Pirate dugout was not. Of course, when you don’t score any runs, it doesn’t really matter what you do managerial wise.

Key Moment Of The Game: There was none. Once the Guardians started teeing off on Priester this game was over. The Pirates did get a one out double in the bottom of the 5th inning with score 3-0 but failed to do anything. The Pirates have now lost 4 in a row.

Next Game: Tonight, Guardians in Pittsburgh. Despite the disastrous game, I like all the moves the Pirates made to bring up the young players. Mitch Keller pitches tonight and he has pitched only 1 inning since July 8th. Why, I don’t know. If he has a bad outing tonight, I am sure they will blame it on being rusty. The last time the Pirates were blown out they followed it up with a 6 game winning streak. Could it happen again. Listen, when you are a Pirate fan you grab for straws.

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Pirates Morning Report: Lost Weekend

Final Score: Pirates 4 Giants 8 10 innings

Why The Pirates Lost: Another frustrating day at the plate for the Pirates. They managed to score 4 runs, but it took 8 hits and 6 walks to do it. They left 11 runners on base and were 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position. Osvaldo Bido could only go 2.2 innings, so this turned into a bullpen game, and they did very well until the blow up in the 10th inning by Yerry De Los Santos. Where do the Pirates come up with these relief pitchers with the long names. The bullpen had pitched fantastic the previous 6.1 inning, giving up 0 runs on just 2 hits and 1 walk. There were a lot of good things that happened this weekend for the Pirates, but they could not do the things that you have to do to win ballgames, while the Giants did. The Giants had only one more hit and one less walk than the Pirates but produced 8 runs. They came up with the big hit when they needed it and swept the series.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the 8th the Pirates loaded the bases on a single and two walks with nobody out and trailing in the game 3-2. Jared Triolo hit a sacrifice fly that not only scored a run but moved the runner over to third base. Tucupita (I Think I Will Try To Bunt Even Though It Did Not Work The Last Time In The Exact Same Situation) Marcano, after getting ahead in the count 2-0 fouled off not one but two bunt attempts and then struck out on a pitch outside the zone. What made this even more frustrating is the infield was playing in and a ground ball has a good chance of getting through. Gonzales gets hit by a pitch to reload the based. Then Jason Delay puts on a little league exhibition. Takes a strike, swings at two pitches outside the strike zone, luckily fouling off one. He does take a pitch that almost hits him. Then tops off this great at bat by swinging at a pitch in the dirt to end the inning. In the last 30 games Delay has a lower batting average than Hedges. A pinch hitter may have been in order here, do you think? The Pirates should have taken the lead, and not had two of the worst at bats possible.

Next Game: Tonight, Guardians in Pittsburgh. Quinn Priester makes his major league debut, which will add some interest to the game. There are reports that other players are being brought up. It will be interesting to see who goes down. This was a tough weekend for the Pirates but hopefully one in which they learned something. I must toot my own horn a little bit as I just mentioned how offense in baseball can be a sometime thing. This weekend the potent Red’s offense got shut out 3 straight times by the Milwaukee Brewers. At least this gives the Pirates something to shoot for. I’m talking about what the Reds did.

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Pirates Morning Report: Three Hits Are Enough When You Are Playing The Pirates

Final Score: Pirates 1 Giants 3

Why The Pirates Loss: This was another game where the good team wins, and the mediocre team loses contributing to their own loss in a big way. The Pirate bats were particularly bad this game. They did get 7 hits to along with 3 walks but were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left 9 men on base. I think it is time to get Suwinski out of the leadoff spot. His last two at bats were particularly discouraging. With runners in scoring position, he took first pitch fastballs that were right in the middle of the plate both times. The first at bat the pitch might have been inner third, but it was the perfect pitch to drive. If you do not swing at it, that is not going to happen. It was a great performance by Johan Oviedo as he gave up only one hit, unfortunately it was a home run, struck out 10 and did walk 3. It was nice to see him get back on track and hopefully we will see this kind of performance the rest of the season.

The Key Moment Of The Game: In the top of the 8th the Pirates brought in Carmen Mlodzinski in to pitch. After getting one out, he walked the next batter on 4 pitches. Then on a 0-2 count he throws Joc Pederson a pitch out over the plate just above the knees and he drills it into right field for a single. Then the Pirates make the right move, and it still doesn’t pay off. They bring in David Bednar when the game is on the line. He strikes out the first batter he faces. He gets ahead of Michael Conforto 1-2. He out does Mlodzinski by throwing the next pitch out over the plate, except this time it is belt high. Here, have a hit. Conforto drives the ball into right for a single, then the Pirates throw the ball around(Do the Pirates have a catcher than can throw the ball to 2nd base) that allows the Giants to score a 3rd run, which was critical. In the bottom of the 9th the Pirates got a runner to 3rd base with one out. With a 2 run cushion the Giants did not have to play the infield up. The Pirates made 2 outs and the game was over sending the Pirates to 10 games below .500.

Next Game: Today at Noon, Giants in Pittsburgh. Friday night the Pirates were on Apple TV and today they are on Peacock in what they call the opener or something like that. All I can say is these streaming services must think that baseball fans want some comic relief or why would you keep televising the Pirates. The Pirates have been on Apple TV 3 out of the last 4 Fridays. I am not complaining. It is such a pleasant break from the Pirate announcers. These announcers on the streaming services are not that great but they talk about what’s going on during the game, rather than how a guy grips a ball or stands in the batter’s box or God knows what they talk about up in that Pirate booth. I swear, I do not think they even watch the game. By the way, the Pirates have called for a throwing practice at 9 AM.