Category: sports

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Pirates Morning Report: How Many Ways Can I Beat You

Final Score: Pirates 6 Dodgers 2

Why The Pirates Won: Mitch Keller went Nolan Ryan striking out 10 batters in 6 innings. After giving up 2 runs in the 1st he settled down and shutout the Dodgers through the next 5 on only 3 hits and no walks. Then the bullpen really went to work as DUJ, Jose Hernandez, David Bednar retired all 9 batters they faced. The Pirate batters showed two different ways to score 3 runs in an inning. In the bottom of the 1st, they scored 3 runs on 4 singles, one a bunt single with 2 strikes, a sacrifice fly and had a double steal. In the bottom of the 6th, they scored 3 runs on a walk then consecutive home runs by Connor Joe and Rodolfo Castro to stretch their lead to 6-2. Small ball one inning and long ball another inning to score 6 runs. The Pirates won the series and stretched their record to 18-8.

Key Moment Of The Game: The immediate break back in the 1st inning after the Dodgers had taken the lead 2-0 in the top of the 1st. The Pirates tied the score on 3 singles and a sacrifice fly and Andrew McCutchen had move all the way to third with 2 out. Then Jack Suwinski got a little check swing bloop single to score McCutchen to take the lead 3-2. That’s all the Pirate pitchers would need as they really shut down the Dodgers. It was nice to add on in the 6th inning with the long ball.

Next Game: Tonight, The Nationals, in Washington D. C. Rich Hill will be pitching for the Pirates when they start a 6 game road trip against the Nationals and then the Rays. Being on the road, a 3-3 record will be satisfactory. The Pirates are looking better that I even expected them to be thus far. The Oneil Cruz injury I thought would be a crushing loss but this team seems to have great depth. Just enjoy this while it lasts because there will be some ups and downs. I will be sad to see April end on Sunday. Go Bucs!

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Pirates Morning Report: Take That Dodger Blue

Final Score: Pirates 8 Dodgers 1

Why The Pirates Won: Roansy Contreras really shut the Dodgers down over the first 5 innings not allowing a hit. He skirted some trouble in the 6th to pitch a solid game, giving up no runs on just 2 hits, 2 walks, while striking out 5. The Pirate bats after a slow start got hot in the 5th inning and continued to pour it on. The bottom third of the order, Castro, Bae, and Delay went 8 for 11 with 6 RBI’s. Jason Delay went 3 for 3 knocking in 3 of those runs. The Pirates made no errors and had a nice clean bounce back win over the mighty Dodgers to improve to 17-8.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates had just taken the lead 2-0 in the bottom of the 5th inning, when in the top of the 6th the Dodgers got 2 singles around one out. It looked like that Contreras may be giving the lead right back. He got Jason (I Am Batting Third In The Dodger Lineup Despite The Fact That I Can’t Hit) Heyward to hit a shallow fly ball to right for the second out. Contreras ended the threat and preserved the lead by getting James Outman to fly out to centerfield. The Pirates added a run in the 6th inning and then added a big 5 spot in the bottom of the 7th to put the game away.

Next Game: This afternoon, Dodgers in Pittsburgh. The rubber match will feature Mitch Keller squaring off against Julio Urias, who, just like the Dodgers has had his ups and downs this year. Even if the Pirates lose today the homestand will be a successful 5-2. The Pirates have blasted the Dodger pitching staff for 15 runs in 2 games. A 5-2 homestand is really nice but 6-1 would be oh so sweet.

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Pirates Morning Report: Can’t Overcome Mistakes Every Game

Final Score: Pirates 7 Dodgers 8

Why The Pirates Lost: Simply just too many mistakes. Three errors to begin with one allowing 2 runs to score in the 1st inning on a little bloop double. The Pirate pitchers walked 4 and 3 of those scored. Oviedo went 5.1 innings and seemed to rely too much on his breaking ball but even so did not have any real good luck. Three runs scored on two bloop hits. This time Colin Holderman made it too interesting giving up the big 3 run blast by the .163 hitting Chris Taylor. The Pirate hitters had a big night scoring 7 runs on 12 hits and a walk, but it was not good enough and their record fell to 16-8.

Key Moments Of The Game: In the bottom of the 1st the Pirates had scored 1 run to cut the lead in half and had runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 out. Connor Joe then hit a drive down the line in left, that David Peralta made a great diving catch, preventing the Pirates from scoring 2 more runs. The Pirates had the bases loaded with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th. They had loaded the bases on a single, walk and a hit batsman. Andrew McCutchen, who hit the big 3 run homer in bottom of the 4th to give the Pirates a 7-2 lead, worked the count out to 3-1. He swung on a high inside pitch that may or may not have been called a strike and popped out to the catcher to end the inning. All in all, it was not the Pirates night. It was one of their few pitching failure losses of the season. Hopefully, it will be a while before the next one.

The Next Game: Tonight, Dodgers in Pittsburgh. It will be up to Roansy Contreras to try and get the Pirates back on track. Tony Gonsolin will be making his first start of the season for the Dodgers. Whether the Pirates win or lose tonight I do not think is critical, but they need to play a much cleaner game. The team does seem to have a certain amount of resiliency, so a bounce back is likely.

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Pirates Morning Report: Reds, May You Rest In Peace

Final Score: Pirates 2 Reds 0

Why The Pirates Won: Vince (Will I Be Able To Keep This Up) Velasquez pitched the strongest game of the year, going 7 innings, giving up no runs, just 2 hits, walking 2 in a row and striking out 10. I will gladly be wrong about Velasquez, if he can keep this up for the remainder of the season. The A team of Holderman and Bednar finished up the shutout. Holderman has been extremely effective as the set up man, but he always makes it interesting. The Pirates were only able to muster 2 runs on 6 hits, and 1 walk. Suwinski got a big 2 out double in the bottom of the 8th to drive in a nice insurance run. The bottom of the 8th also featured a stolen base by Carlos Santana that helped make scoring the 2nd run very easy. I wrote the Pirates needed to bury the Reds and they did with great pitching that literally got better as the series went on. The Reds scored 3, 2, 1, and finally 0 runs to end the series. The 4 game sweep enabled the Pirates to improve to 16-7, and don’t look now, but are in first place.

The Key Moment Of The Game: After getting the first 7 batters out, all of a sudden it seemed like Velasquez could not find the plate and he walked 2 batters in a row. There was a conference on the mound, and it seemed to get Velasquez back on track and he never looked back. This was the first time that Velasquez has had back to back quality starts since 2018. It was a beautiful thing.

Next Game: Tomorrow night, Dodgers in Pittsburgh. Johan Oviedo will open against the Dodgers going against Noah Syndergaard. With the sweep of the Reds, the Pirates need to win only 1 of the next 3 to make this a successful home stand. Of course, I will take 2 out of 3 or another Pirate sweep. This should be one great series.

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Pirates Morning Report: The B Squad Comes Through

Final Score: Pirates 2 Reds 1

Why The Pirates Won: Rich Hill pitched 5 dancing through the raindrop’s innings giving up on 1 run on 6 hits and 3 walks. The Reds had 2 runners on base in 4 of the 5 innings. The 4th inning saw only 3 batters but that was because one was picked off 1st base after getting a single. Then the B squad of the bullpen took over the game. Yohan Ramirez pitched the 6th and 7th, giving up 2 hits and a walk, but struck out 4, many of them on balls that almost hit the Red’s right handed batters. Then my old buddy DUJ came in to pitch the 8th and 9th, retiring all 6 batters he faced on just 22 pitches. This was his 10th appearance of the year, and he has had only 2 bad outings. It will be interesting to see who will go when De Jong comes back. The Pirate bats were more or less quiet but got 1 run on an opening triple by Hayes, followed by a sacrifice fly by Reynolds, who had a very nice offensive game getting 2 doubles. In the bottom of the 4th, Carlos Santana and Jack Suwinski had back to back doubles to get the game deciding run.

Key Moments Of The Game: Top of the 1st, 1st and 3rd, 2 outs, no runs scored. Top of the 2nd, 1st and 2nd, 2 outs, no runs scored. Top of the 3rd, 1st and 2nd no outs, no runs scored. Last but not least, top of the 5th, single, strikeout, single and misplayed ball by Bae to score a run and put a runner on 2nd with 1 out, no more runs scored. The Reds were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base for the game. Simply a game of lost opportunities for the Reds to allow the Pirates to move to 15-7.

Next Game: This afternoon, Reds in Pittsburgh. Another buddy of mine Vince (I Am Going To Prove You Wrong) Velasquez will start, to try and get the Pirates a sweep of the Reds. There is no question the Pirates are on a roll.

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Pirates Morning Report: How Do They Do It?

Final Score: Pirates 4 Reds 2

Why The Pirates Won: Another Pirate win when looking at the box score, you have to wonder how did they win that one? The top 4 hitters in the lineup went 1 for 14 with 2 walks. There were a lot of 0fers, as only 4 Pirates got hits. Connor Joe had 3 hits, as he continues to swing a hot bat. The Pirates made 2 throwing errors, one in the 7th and another in the 8th, but the Reds could not take advantage. Mitch Keller got off to a hot start by retiring the first 9 batters he faced. The next 3 innings he gave up 2 runs, 5 hits, walked 1 and hit a batter. The bullpen was able to survive the 2 throwing errors and Bednar pitched a clean 9th to get the save as the Pittsburgh (We Don’t Have To Play Our Best To Win) Pirates went to 14-7.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates only had 6 hits but 2 of them drove in 3 runs. Mark (Pop Gun Arm) Mathias got a big 1 out single in the second to drive in 2 runs. The Pirate base runners were able to get into scoring position thanks to a balk. The Reds really helped the Pirates get the run that took the lead 3-2. Connor Joe singled with one out in the bottom of the 6th, moved to second on a wild pitch, and went to third on a Suwinski ground out to 2nd. Joe scored when the Reds shortstop could not cleanly field a Mathias grounder. As mentioned previously the top of the order only got 1 hit, but that was a big one by Carlos Santana, a 2 out double that drove Andrew McCutchen home from 1st, after he walked.

Next Game: Tonight, Reds in Pittsburgh. Rich Hill will start for the Pirates tonight and has done well since his first 2 disastrous starts. The Pirates are now 14-7 and I feel the most impressive thing about this team has been their unimpressive wins. At least for now, they seem to be able to overcome their mistakes. The competition has not been that great but anybody can beat you, just ask the Phillies and the Rangers.

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Pirates Morning Report: Winning With 1 Hit Over The Last 8 Innings

Final Score: Pirates 4 Reds 3

Why The Pirates Won: Jet Lag did not set in until about 7:15 PM last night. The Pirates took a big first inning where Connor Jo hit a 3 run homer and Jack Suwinski hit a solo shot to take a 4-0 lead in the 1st inning, and they held on for a 4-3 victory over the Reds to go 13-7 for the season. The rest of the way they managed only 1 hit with a couple of walks, striking out 10 times. Roansy Contreras seemed back to his old form pitching 6 and 2/3rds innings, giving up 1 run, 5 hits, walking 2 and striking out 8. It was his best performance of the year. The bullpen survived the 8th inning and Bednar pitched a clean 9th to pick up the save. It is easy to be critical of this win, but it is a lot better than being shut out by the Rockies, like the Phillies, at home, were last night. Yes, that’s correct, the Rockies.

The Key Moment Of The Game: The top of the 8th the Pirates still held a nice 4-1 lead and Colin Holderman came into pitch. Things began to unravel quickly. Jose Barrero got a swinging bunt single and Holderman threw the ball away allowing him to get to 2nd base. Then a wild pitch moved him to third. Jonathan India singled to right to drive in Barrero to make it 4-2. T. J. Friedl took a 3-2 pitch into right field for another single putting runners at 1st and 2nd. The Reds did a double steal, that the runners got such a big jump, a throw could not be made. Spencer Speer hit a sacrifice fly to score the 3rd run and move the runner to 3rd with only one out. Jake Fraley hit a hard low liner, but right at Ke’Bryan Hayes, who made a nice scoop of the ball, held the runner at 3rd, and threw out Fraley for the big 2nd out. Holderman struck out Tyler Stephenson on 3 pitches to end the inning. Whew!!!

Next Game: Tonight, Red in Pittsburgh. Mitch Keller will start for the Pirates and Graham Ashcraft for the Reds. Ashcraft has gotten off to a great start this season, pitching 6 innings every start and never allowing more than 2 runs. Will the Pirates light up another hot pitcher like they did in Colorado. Let’s hope they get a good night’s sleep. It would have been a heartbreaking loss for the Pirates if the Reds would have come back and won the game. In that first inning, I thought Greg Brown may pass out, he got so excited. I would not be surprised to see him hooked up to some monitors tonight. He said how the Pirates are surprising everybody with their good start. Well, not everybody, oh thy great Pirate shill. The season has a long way to go and there is going to be ups and downs for this team. As the guy who jumped off the Empire State Building said as he went by each floor, so far so good.

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Blow Out Win

Final Score: Pirates 14 Rockies 3

Why The Pirates Won: This one is easy. Fourteen runs, 18 hits, 5 walks. All the starters got into the act with exception of Bryan Reynolds, who got tossed out of the game for arguing a called strike. Seven of the other 8 starters got at least 2 hits and Jack Suwinski walked twice and drove in a run on a sacrifice fly. It has been an amazing hitting series for the Pirates. The Pirates are 12-7 as they head home for a 7 game homestand. Johan Oviedo pitched a solid 6 innings and sometimes that is a hard thing to do when you have a big lead, but he did it with ease. He did walk 3 batters, which is a more than you would want but he gave up only 1 run and threw only 84 pitches.

Key Moment Of The Game: The fact that the Pirates scored 5 in the 1st and 4 in the 2nd and never let the Rockies even remotely get into the game says it all. They stepped on the the Rockies throat and never let up. I believe this shows a lot about this team. Now for the homestand.

Next Game: Tonight, the Reds in Pittsburgh. Roansy Contreras will start for the Pirates and now that they are at home, they need to keep up the momentum. They will play 4 against the Reds and 3 against the Dodgers. They need to bury the Reds and take two from the Dodgers. They should go 5-2 over these next 7 games if they want to consider themselves a contending team. At the very least they need to go 4-3. Again, it is way too early in the season to look at any set of games as the key to the season, but they need to keep the vibe going. Speaking of vibes, I was right about the “minor” injury to Ji Man Choi when I said he wouldn’t return until July 4th. Now, that seems optimistic. Fortunately, they have plenty of talent to replace him and seem to be doing ok without Cruz. Let’s go Bucs.

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Pirates Morning Report: All Is Forgiven When You Win

Final Score: Pirates 5 Rockies 3

Why The Pirates Won: Despite some base running gaffes that cost the Pirates a couple of runs, they had a big 4th inning where they scored 4 runs, and held on to win, upping their record to 11-7. Jack Suwinski had the big night hitting 2 home runs and driving in 3 runs. A bold baserunning move by Tucupita Marcano accounted for the 5th run when he came home on a wild pitch that only got about 20 feet past the catcher. This turned out to be nice insurance in the tense late innings. Vince Velasquez, after a shaky 1st inning, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits, settled down just enough to dance through the raindrops for the next 5 innings without giving up a run. He only gave up one more hit but walked 3 to keep things interesting. He only retired the side in order once, although an error in the 6th by Ji Hwan (Boy Did I Have A Bad Game) Bae, gave the Rockies an extra out. All in all, the Rockies left 10 men on base. Grudgingly, I have to give Velasquez credit for a gritty performance over 6 innings. The bullpen kept the Rockies in check the rest of way but not without a little bit of luck. The Pirates missed many opportunities to extend their lead, but all is forgiven when you win.

The Key Moment of the Game: In the bottom of the 8th with the Pirates leading by 2 runs, the Rockies opened the inning with a double and a single to put runners on 1st and 3rd with no outs, against Robert Stephenson, who had just come into the game to start the inning. He got the next batter to strikeout. Alan Trejo hit a rocket on the 2nd pitch, but right at Ke’Bryan Hayes for the second out. Pinch hitter Mike Moustakas on a 3-2 pitch lined a deep ball to left field that Bryan Reynolds made a nice over the shoulder catch to end the inning. Bednar got the save but gave up a 2 out double before striking out C. J. Cron to end the game.

Next Game: This afternoon, Rockies in Colorado. The Pirates will be going for the sweep and a 5-2 road trip. Johan Oviedo will be starting for the Pirates, who has been pretty spectacular after giving up 5 runs in the 1st inning against the Red Sox. He has given up only 1 run in the last 17 innings. This is already a successful road trip and a sweep would just put whip cream and a cherry right on top. Go Bucs!

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Pirates Morning Report: Rocky Mountain High

Final Score: Pirates 14 Rockies 3

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirate bats exploded for 14 runs on 16 hits and 2 walks. Five players had 2 or more hits led by none other than Mark, (No I’m Not Josh Van Meter In Disguise) Mathias with 4. There were lots of singles, but Andrew McCutchen and Jack Suwinski hit homers and Rodolfo Castro added a double. It was very nice to see the Pirates on the right side of a blowout. Rich Hill pitched a solid 6 innings to bring his ERA below the inflation rate. It was a little surprising to see the Pirates bring in Will Crowe in a mop up role the day after he lost the extra inning game in St. Louis. I don’t know if this is a prelude to a demotion or they might have been trying to get his confidence back, but he did not perform that great giving up 2 runs, while walking 2 and hitting a batter. Could he be another future IL member? An unexpected easy win for the Pirates, considering the Rockies were starting their hottest pitcher, to make their record 10-7.

Key Moment Of The Game: Rich Hill getting out of a 2nd and 3rd and no one out situation in the top of the 1st. It certainly looked like the Pirates were going to give back another early lead when Hill got off to the shaky start of giving up a walk and a double to start the game. After getting an out, on a sharply hit ground ball that did not score a run, Hill walked the next batter to load the bases. The he induced Elias ( I Would Still Be The Best Catcher The Pirates Have AT The Moment), Diaz to hit a ground ball down the third base line, that Hayes made a nifty scoop on, stepped on third for one and easily doubled up Diaz to end the inning. Little did we know at the time, the Pirates would explode for 6 runs in the next inning.

Next Game: Tonight, Rockies in Colorado. Vince (Can I Just Pitch Every Game Against The Cardinals), Velasquez will start for the Buccos. It will be interesting to see if he can follow up his good start he had against the Cardinals or is this one of those things, where a pitcher has a hex over a particular team. The Rockies certainly looked in disarray last night. It was more than just the score as they just looked lackadaisical. The Pirates have accomplished my preset goal on this road trip of 3 wins, so any more would be gravy. As we all know just like bacon, everything tastes better with gravy.