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Pirates Morning Report: Are You Sure That Was Vince Velasquez?

Final Score: Pirates 5 Cardinals 0

Why The Pirates Won: Vince Velasquez pitched a solid 6 innings allowing no runs, on 3 hits, walking 2 and striking out 6. He was aided by some aggressive swings by the Cardinals and some good to spectacular fielding in the outfield. It really was hard to believe that that was really Velasquez out there to tell you the truth. Apparently, he has had previous success against Arenado and Goldschmidt in the past, holding them both under .200. The bullpen pitched the last 3 innings, giving up only 3 hits and walking 1. They added 4 more strikeouts. The Pirate bats were quiet for the first 5 innings extending their no run streak to 14 innings. In the top of the 6th Carlos Santana and Andrew McCutchen put back to back doubles together and the Pirates had a 1-0 lead. They added a run in the 7th on a McCutchen sacrifice fly. In the top of the 8th the Pirates went back to back again, but this time it was home runs, by Connor Joe and Rodolfo Castro to give the Pirates a 4-0 lead. They added a run in the ninth to win easily and stretch their record to 8-5.

Key Moment Of The Game: It was still a scoreless battle in the bottom of the 4th and Velasquez got the first 2 outs quickly. But then he walked the next two batters, and when the Cardinals pulled a double steal, there were 2 runners in scoring position. Tyler O’ Neil came to bat and on a 2-2 count sent a drive deep into the left center field gap. Ji Hwan Bae made a great running catch crashing into the wall to end the inning. If he doesn’t come up with that ball the Cardinals score 2 runs, and the game could have taken a completely different turn.

Next Game: Tonight, Cardinals in St. Louis. Johan Oviedo will start tonight against his former team. Hopefully, the Cardinals will see what the Quintana rental really cost them. The Pirates have 1 win and need 2 more to make this trip a success. Don’t get me wrong if they could win all 7 road games it would be euphoric, but a 3-4 trip would be just fine. Velasquez seems to have a spell over the Cardinals. We will see what he does on his next start against a non-Cardinal team. If Velasquez has found something it would be a huge boon to this team.

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Pirates Morning Report: Back To Reality

Final Score: Pirates 0 Astros 7

Why The Pirates Loss: No runs and only 3 hits is never going to win any game. There were a lot of line drives that were caught, and no bloops found any holes yesterday. The Pirates were not destined to win this game. Rich Hill looked like the reincarnation of Cy Young, compared with his previous 2 starts. He pitched 6 innings, giving up 2 runs, on 5 hits, 2 walks, while striking out no one. Hopefully he can build on this performance. The bullpen got racked up in this game. Dauri Moreta had his first bad outing of the season giving up 3 runs, on 3 hits, including a home run, walking 2 and only getting 1 out. Chase De Jong gave up the other 2 runs but at least it took him 1 and 2/3 innings to do it. Rodolfo Castro did not play so the Pirates made no errors. A game to quickly put behind you.

Key Moment Of The Game: The bad 7th inning by Moreta, who had been so effective up to this point. When Alex Bregman hit the 3 run homer, on a pitch that was about as center cut as a pitch could be, to make the score 5-0, Astros, you knew the game was over. No miracles yesterday as the Pirates fall to 7-5

Next Game: Tonight the Cardinals, in St. Louis. Vince Velasquez starts for the Pirates. I see no hope for this guy, but I hope I am wrong. After we go to St. Louis, we are headed for Colorado which is always a tough place to play. It would be nice to see them go 3-4 on this trip which would keep them one game above .500. There is no question this is a tough stretch of games coming up. We will see if this team can keep the vibe going.

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Pirates Morning Report: WOW!!!!!!!

Final Score: Pirates 7 Astros 4

Why The Pirates Won: I really don’t know. This will be looked upon as one of the great wins of this season, but the Pirates really did not play that well. In fact, Ji Hwan Bae epitomized the entire game. In the 4 previous appearances, he had lousy at bats swinging at more balls than strikes, striking out twice, flying out once to short left field, and grounding out. He didn’t look that great in the final at bat until he got a low inside the plate change up and bombed it into the right center field stands to win the game in the bottom of the 9th. All this drama would not have been necessary if it were not for an error by Rodolfo Castro that later, allowed the Astros to tie the game on a double by Chas McCormick in the top of the 9th. The Pirates took the lead in the bottom of the 6th when Ji Man Choi hit his 2nd home run in as many nights. Later in the inning, Pirates manufactured another run when Ke’Bryan Hayes doubled and stole third. Then Canann Smith-Njigba who also did not have a good night at the plate, came through when it mattered and hit a fly ball to left, deep enough to score Hayes easily. Keller, not quite as sharp as his last outing, still pitched a solid 6 innings giving up 2 runs on 2 solo homers. He had few other balls that were scary deep, but the outfield corralled them to turn them into nothing but long outs. It was a great win over the defending champs and the Pirates are now 7-4.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates were down 2-0 going into the bottom of the 2nd, and other than the Ji Man Choi’s 2 out double, had not done much in the 1st. The 2nd started out quietly with a ground out by Hayes and a strikeout by Smith-Njigba. Then Rodolfo (Don’t Worry I Am Not Going To Make An Error Every Game) Castro got hit on the foot by the pitch. While the Pirate announcers were discussing how long it takes for the pain to go away, Jack Suwinski took a 1-0 fastball and crushed it over the right field stands to tie the game 2-2. This homer put the fire back into this team and was just what the doctor had ordered. Despite making numerous mistakes and bad at bats, the Pirates went on to win, and the season is back on again.

Next Game: This afternoon Astros, in Pittsburgh. Rich ( I Can’t Be This Bad) Hill will take the mound for the Pirates in another rubber match. Hill may have some success tomorrow, because the Astros could be overconfident and laughing too hard in the batter’s box to be able to make decent contact. This was a huge win last night and it insured that this was not going to be an Astro sweep. After this, it does not get easier as we go to St. Louis for a 4 game series. Every win is important, but this one may have saved the season.

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Pirates Morning Report: No More Cruz Control

Final Score: Pirates 2 Astros 8

Why The Pirates Lost: Another poor performance by a Pirate starter, this time Roansy Contreras. It was by far the worst start of his young career. From the outset you could tell he just did not have it. In 3.1 innings he gave up 7 runs, 9 hits, and walked 4. I am surprised that they even let him come out for the 4th inning. The bats weren’t much better getting only 3 hits, but the hitters did manage to get 5 walks. It was a lackluster performance, probably triggered by the Oneil Cruz injury. They will need to move on, because things are not going to get any easier.

Key Moment Of The Game: As bad as Contreras was, if he could have just gotten the 3rd out in the first three innings, the score would have been tied 1-1, instead of 5-1 Astros. The Astros got 4 out of the 5 runs after 2 were out. In fact, in the top of the 3rd inning, there was 2 out nobody on, when they added another run, getting 3 straight singles. Then the top of the 4th was a total melt down for Contreras. Some pitchers get off to a slow start, then all of a sudden something clicks, and they pitch a very good game. This was not the case for Contreras last night. Nobody on the Pirates bench seemed to notice this. It was just one of those nights for the young right hander. Hopefully he will be able to shake it off and come back strong his next outing.

Next Game: Tonight, Astros in Pittsburgh. The Astros are throwing another strong starter, Cristian Javier at the Pirates tonight. The Pirates will counter with Mitch Keller who had a great start the last time out. It is way too early in the season to look at any game as being critical, but the Pirates need to have a good game as a Cruzless team. It does not have to be a win, but they need to get back to being competitive. The Pirates brought up Mark Mathias to replace Cruz, who made an uneventful debut last night. Pretty much, a safe move by management, saying this season is over already. Maybe the players will prove them wrong.

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Pirates Morning Report: Devastating Win

Final Score: Pirates 1 White Sox 0

Why The Pirates Won: It was a surprising game in that both teams scored a combined 38 runs in the first two games of the series. Then boom, the pitchers took over the game yesterday and the Pirate pitchers were just a little bit better. Johan Oviedo pitched a strong 6 and 2/3rds innings giving up 0 runs, 5 hits, and did not walk a batter. The bullpen came on strong again to complete the shutout and the Pirates had another series win and improved to 6-3.

Key Moment Of The Game: You could say this may be the key moment of the season, the Oneil Cruz injury in the bottom of the 6th. It was the perfect example of indecision causing the most severe outcome. I don’t think he knew whether to come in head first or make a hard slide, resulting in him making an awkward move, with a broken ankle as the result. All fractured ankles are not created equal, so until more is known he could be back at the All Star break(no pun intended) or miss the entire season. It will be interesting to see who the Pirates bring up and how they will do. As the title says this was a devastating win.

Next Game: Who cares the season is over. Just kidding, we play the Astros in Pittsburgh tonight. This team’s resiliency is going to be tested early. The blog feels gloomy this morning. Roansy Contreras will get the start tonight and I do feel he will be up to the task of facing the mighty Astros.

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played at South Park. Score: 81 Greens in Reg: 8 Putts: 34

The Good: Putting on the back nine (14) Iron play improved somewhat. Drove the ball at times really well but that was off some today as well.

The Bad: Putting on the front nine (20). The short game was mediocre all day as I could not get the ball close on chips and pitches. The difference between the nines was I had 4 one putt greens. A 2 footer on 10 for a birdie, a 10 footer on 11 to save bogey, 4 footer on 12 to save par and a 10 footer on 15 to save another par. I finished with 4 straight pars as my iron game improved as I hit the last 3 greens in regulation.

Luck Of The Round: Coming off a 3 putt double bogey on 9, I hit a duck hook on the easy par 5 10th hole. I had an opening through the trees to get back in play and I hit driver off the deck to keep it low. I missed it right and the ball just missed two trees and rolled out to the fairway 105 yards from the pin. I hit the gap wedge in about 2 feet and made birdie. The biggest problem was that my bad shots were really bad.

Next Round: Tomorrow Rolling Green Golf Course. Some improvement but will see if can continue on a fairly easy course.

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Pirates Morning Report: 19 Hits Will Do It Every Time

Final Score: Pirates 13 White Sox 9

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirate bats really came alive to easily overcome a very poor performance by Rich Hill. The Pirates had 3 doubles, a triple, and 2 home runs to put 13 runs on the board. Bryan Reynolds had a huge game going 3 for 5, with a double, triple, and a home run, driving in 6 runs. Six Pirates had 2 or more hits. It was simply a hitters and bullpen win. I am sure you would have to go back a long way to find the last team that scored 9 runs against the Pirates but lost the game.

Key Moment Of The Game: After 4 and a half innings the score was tied 7-7 in a back and forth slugfest. Then after one out in the bottom of the 5th the Pirates started. Double by Conner Joe, Ji Hwan Bae singles, Jason( I’m pounding the ball), Delay singles, Joe scores, Oneil Cruz walks, and then Bryan Reynolds laces a ball down in the right field corner for a triple, driving in 3 runs and then scoring himself on a throwing error. This made the score 12-7 and you really felt the Pirates had finally taken over the game. The bullpen came through with Will Crowe pitching the last 3 innings, having a shaky ninth but sealed the deal and the Pirates are now 5-2.

Next Game: Tonight, White Sox, in Pittsburgh. The other free agent pitcher Vince( I hope they score 13 runs for me because I am going to need them) Velaquez will make his second start of the year. Hopefully he will fair a little better than Hill did yesterday. Not much negative you can say about this team right now. There are some individuals who are struggling right now but it makes all that struggling a lot easier to take when you are winning. 5 and 2 feels real good.

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Pirates Morning Report: DUJ Gets The Save

Final Score: Pirates 4 Red Sox 1

Why The Pirates Won: Another great starting pitching performance, this time by Mitch Keller. He pitched 7 innings giving up only 1 run on 2 hits, striking out 7 and walking 2. The foul ball home run made things tense for a moment. I always like the fact that the home crowd boos a call that goes against them, even though it is obviously correct. The Pirates offense put up 4 runs again, with Carlos Santana providing a home run and an RBI double. Bryan Reynolds got a double and an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Ke’Bryan Hayes drove in the other run on a beautiful push bunt up the first base line. The bullpen was strong again and Pirates swept the Boston Red Sox right in Fenway Park.

Key Moment Of The Game: It was the bottom of the 9th when DUJ took the mound. I could feel the dread going through my body. The first batter got a base hit and now you knew that this was going to be a disastrous inning. Then two pitches later DUJ induced a double play ball, that Castro and Bae executed nicely and quickly 2 were down. One pitch later a big lazy pop up ended the game and the Pirates are 4-2. DUJ did the job for the 2nd consecutive time, on only 5 pitches. If this guy is getting outs, then maybe this really is going to be our year. It makes you wonder when Robert Stephenson is ready to come back who will be sent down. I always figured it would be good old DUJ. Now I wonder if it could be Crowe or De Jong. They have been conspicuous by their absence. Their next outing could be critical if they are going to stay in Pittsburgh. Like in a lot of cases the mysterious injury could crop up too.

Next Game: Tomorrow afternoon, White Sox, Opening Day in Pittsburgh. Rich Hill will take the hill (can’t help myself), for the Pirates home opener. Let’s hope that he makes a comeback start much like Keller did last night. The Pirates now sit at 4-2 and you would have to call this a very successful road trip. I know it is early, but this team seems to have a different vibe to it already. To paraphrase Muhammad Ali, this team may SHOCK THE WORLD!

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Pirates Morning Report: Contreras Gets First Starter Win

Final Score: Pirates 4 Red Sox 1

Why The Pirates Won: Roansy Contreras pitched a solid 5 and 2/3 innings giving up 1 run on just 3 hits, one walk, while striking out 2. The best performance of the year so far. Of course, he didn’t have much competition. The Pirate bats had just enough firepower to push across 4 runs with Ji Hwan Bae hitting a 2-run homer and Bryan Reynolds hitting a solo shot. He drove in a nice insurance run in the 7th with a single after Tyler (That May Be More Surprising Than Delay’s Home Run), Heineman stole 2nd. Again, the bullpen was solid giving up 0 runs on 1 hit. Last night’s win insured the Pirates of a .500 road trip.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirate bats were quiet over the first 1 and 2/3 innings with Cruz getting a walk and then 5 straight outs. Canaan Smith-Njigba struck out but the pitch went right off the catcher’s shin guard to the backstop. Smith-Njigba made it to first on the passed ball. Ji Hwan Bae followed with an opposite field home run right over the Green Monster to give the Pirates a 2-1. Later in the bottom of the 8th inning Bae made a great leaping catch in left centerfield to record the second out of the inning. Another great 9th by Bednar and the Pirates are 3-2.

Next Game: Today, Red Sox in Boston. Mitch Keller goes on the mound today and hopefully will give a better performance than he did on opening day. A sweep in Boston would be nice but the Pirates will have a least a .500 road trip and that is exactly what was needed. A win today will be a really nice bonus to take to Opening Day on Friday. Go Bucs!

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Nail Biting Win

Final Score: Pirates 7 Red Sox 6

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirate offense woke up much faster than Rip Van Winkle did as they blasted 3 home runs, one by Jason ( I Can’t Believe I Did It), Delay, and 2 by Bryan ( You Better Get Your Shit Together And Sign Me To A Long Term Deal) Reynolds. Canaan Smith-Njigba had 2 RBI’s and Jack Suwinski and Ke’Bryan Hayes knocked in the other runs with some clutch hits. Hayes’s batting average is soaring over .100 now. Johan Oviedo gave up 5 runs in the first but was not helped by some shoddy defense. He battled until the 5th inning and then was removed with 2 men on base. Dauri Moreta wiggled out of that jam. Then in the 6th you thought all was lost when DUJ was brought in with runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 out.

Key Moment Of The Game: I will admit DUJ did alright. He gave up a cheap broken bat bloop which made the score 7-6 and struck out the next batter. He pitched a clean 7th inning and so far, a good start for DUJ. Colin Holderman survived a scratch hit and a walk to pitch a tense scoreless 8th. Another swinging bunt hit in the 9th made it interesting for David Bednar, but Bullet Bednar struck out the final two batters to preserve another one run hard fought win for the young Bucco’s.

Next Game: Tonight, Red Sox in Boston. Tonight, Roansy Contreras makes his 2023 debut finally. It will be a challenge, just ask Oviedo. It was nice to see the Bucco’s bounce back from the two losses in Cincinnati. The bats came alive last night, but Austin Hedges is still 0 for April.