Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Pirates Morning Report: Another Great Pitching Performance

Final Score: Pirates 3 Twins 0

Why The Pirates Won: For the second time in 4 games the Pirate pitching staff threw a shutout. Mitch Keller went 6 innings not allowing a run on 7 hits, walking 2, striking out 8 while throwing 99 pitches. The last 2 innings were a bit shaky, but with some luck and a Twins base running blunder Keller survived, to maintain the shutout. The A team of the bullpen, Chapman, Holderman and Bednar finished up the game, giving up just one hit while walking no one. The offense was as anemic as ever mustering only 4 hits but all of them were extra base hits. Oneil Cruz and Connor Joe each had a home run with Bryan Reynolds getting 2 doubles. The 5 through 9 hitters did not get a hit led by DH Henry (Why Am I DHing) Davis with 3 strikeouts on 12 pitches. Pirates’ management thinking, let’s put our worse hitter on the team in the DH spot. Even Rawhide Rowdy would have been a better choice.

Key Moments Of The Game: Keller’s last two innings could have been disastrous, but things went his way. In the top of the 5th with the score 2-0, the Twins loaded the bases on a single, a walk, and another single with one out. Keller struck out both Royce Lewis and Max Kepler with Kepler swinging at a 3-2 pitch that hit him. Whew! The top of the 6th started with Bryan Reynolds making a spectacular catch of a sinking line drive in left center field. Jose Miranda singled up middle. Bryan Buxton singled to left field with Miranda streaking for third. Bryan Reynolds then totally outfaked Buxton by looking like he was going to throw to third base but suddenly threw across his body toward second. Buxton by that time had made a huge turn at first base and got caught in a rundown making the second out. No question the play of the game. Carlos Santana hit a lazy fly ball to center to end the inning. The Twins in those 2 innings had 4 hits, a walk and failed to score. Very Pirate like.

Next Game: This afternoon, the Twins in Pittsburgh. Looks like the Pirates are going with the opener, starting with Carmon Mlodzinski. Hopefully Luis Ortiz will be the bulk guy but who knows. All I know is Henry Davis was seen praying never to be asked to DH again.

Posted on

Pirates Morning Report: Bullpen Failure

Final Score: Pirates 7 Dodgers 11

Why The Pirates Lost: Another big bullpen failure by the Pirates, blew open a close game, where the Pirates had just come back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game. Baily Falter had a really bad first inning giving up all 4 runs, but had settled down, not giving up a run over the next 3 innings. He gave up a lead off home run to Teoscar Hernandez to give the Dodgers the lead again 5-4. He had only thrown 78 pitches to that point. Derek (I Am Not Too Sure Who Is On The Team) Shelton decided to make a move. In my view he had these choices to bring in the game. Ben (The Pitcher From) Heller, Kyle( Why Am I Here) Nicolas, Carmen (Try And Pronounce My Name) Mlodzinski, Luis (I Haven’t Pitched Since Sunday) Ortiz or Justin (New Guy) Bruihl. Shelton chose in a close ball game in the 5th, Heller who really wasn’t even lighting it up in AAA. Before you could say fire Shelton the score was 10-4 highlighted by a 3 run homer by Mookie Betts, that flew 410 feet, on a slider right down the middle. The Dodgers probably made the last 2 outs on purpose because they knew the game was over. All of this wasted a good offensive performance by the Pirates as they scored 7 runs on 14 hits only marred by the fact that they struck out 15 times.

Key Moments Of The Game: Shelton’s bullpen decisions contributed to breaking the game open, but it was Barry (Maybe I Should Warm Up More) Falter’s slow start that was reminiscent of his first start of the season that put the Pirates in an immediate hole. Three batters into the game and score was 3-0. Six batters into the game it was 4-0. The start gave the Dodgers a much-needed confidence boost. Even though the Pirates did manage to tie the game to give the fans some hope, Shelton dashed all of that with his stupid bullpen decisions. Who would I have put in? I would have gone with Ortiz or Mlodzinski. Certainly, they could not have done any worse. They may be thinking of starting Ortiz on Saturday, but if they are, why not announce that right away. If that is the case, then I would have chosen Bruihl. Regardless, you needed someone in that situation with some kind of experience.

Next Game: Tonight, the Twins in Pittsburgh. Tonight’s game is going to be on Apple TV. I heard when this was announced that Apple stock dropped 10%. Mitch Keller is starting tonight and is on a roll. The Twins have been one of the streakiest teams in baseball. They have had a 12 game winning streak and a 7 game losing streak with a 4 and 5 game losing streak thrown in. They are just coming off being swept by the Yankees. Let’s hope the streakiness continues.

Posted on

Pirates Morning Report: Stop The Presses, The Pirate Offense Wins One

Final Score: Pirates 10 Dodgers 6

Why The Pirates Won: In the first game of the series the Pirates outpitched the Dodgers and last night they outhit them. Paul Skenes had a good outing but still gave up 3 runs on 6 hits including 2 home runs, striking out 8 walking 1, taking 93 pitches to complete just 5 innings. The Pirate bullpen shakily finished the last 4 innings but fortunately the Pirate offense kept adding on after their big 7 run second inning that chased Dodger starter James Paxton. It was the middle of the lineup that shined for the Pirates last night. Olivares, Hayes, and Gonzales went 6 for 8 with 3 walks, scoring 5 runs, while driving in 6 runs. The Pirates will be going for the sweep tonight.

The Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates ability to add on made the game a little less tense as the Dodgers tried to get back into it. The score was 7-2 in the top of the 5th when Andy Pages led off the inning with a home run. A throwing error by Nick Gonzales put a runner on first with no outs. The Pirates and Skenes caught a break when Mookie Betts was called out on strikes on a pitch that was inside. Ohtani then singled. Freddie Freeman was called out on strikes with the first pitch being outside and the 3rd strike borderline. Will Smith laced one out to right field for another hit, but Olivares played it so well that the runner could not score from second base, loading the bases. On the first pitch of the at bat Teoscar Hernandez grounded to Hayes who step on the bag and the inning was over. Skenes knew how fortunate he was as he was shaking his head coming off the mound. In the top of the 8th with score now 10-5 Shelton put in his favorite reliever Hunter (I Am Only Comfortable With A 7 Run Lead) Stratton. Sure enough, boom bam double single and it’s 10-6 before you could say DFA him please. He did get the next 2 outs on the 8-9 hitters for the Dodgers but walked Mookie Betts to face Ohtani. Smart move. Shelton had finally seen enough and put Holderman in. Just to make things more interesting Holderman threw a wild pitch to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Ohtani hit a towering drive down the right field line that Olivares caught about 3 feet short of the wall. Bednar pitched another clean 9th and the Pirates beat the Dodgers for the second time in a row.

Next Game: Tonight, Dodgers in Pittsburgh. The Pirates send Barry Falter to the mound tonight, the surprise player of the season. Don’t look now but he has the lowest ERA of any Pirate starter, except Skenes. The Pirates are going up against Walker Buehler who has not been exactly lighting it up since his return from Tommy John surgery. The only bad news here is that with Buehler pitching Rawhide Rowdy will probably get the start. It won’t be Bailey’s fault if the Pirates lose. I just can’t help myself. Go for the sweep Buccos.

Posted on

Pirates Morning Report: Bending But Not Breaking

Final Score: Pirates 1 Dodgers 0

Why The Pirates Won: Jared Jones and the Pirate bullpen combined to shut out the Dodgers despite allowing a lot of traffic on the basepaths. The Dodgers got a runner to 3rd in 5 innings and a runner on 2nd one other inning. They were a Pirate like 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 9 runners. Jared Jones pitched 6 innings giving up 3 hits, 3 walks, striking out 6. He finished strong retiring the last 6 batters he faced striking out 4 of them, throwing his last pitch of the game at 99 MPH. The bullpen had its shaky moments as we will see but came through when it mattered to preserve the shutout and the win. The anemic offense of the Pirates scored their only run on a Jack Suwinski home run in the 3rd inning. They only managed 3 other hits while striking out 13 times. Rawhide Rowdy despite his big game on Sunday was certainly hearing the boo birds last night. I guess one game does not erase a season of awfulness. At least the Pirates won’t be swept by the Dodgers.

The Key Moment Of The Game: Aroldis Chapman came in for the top of the 8th and immediately I had trouble breathing. On the 5th pitch Shohei (I Am Very Trusting) Ohtani hit a seeing eye ground ball through the infield. Miraculously Chapman got a called 3rd strike on Freddie Freeman that was low. Then he walks Will Smith on 4 pitches. Breathing very shallow at this point with my brain thinking he is going to walk the next 2 batters. On the first pitch Teoscar Hernandez hit a down the middle slider 107 MPH that Chapman thought had left the park but was caught by Jack Suwinski 380 feet from homeplate. This did move Ohtani to 3rd. Chapman struck out Andy Pages on 6 pitches and I collapsed on the floor. Sweet Jesus a miracle had happen. On the 2nd pitch of the at bat Henry Davis made a nice stop on a fastball that was way low and inside to the right-handed batter that kept the tying run from scoring. The Pirates pulled out a tight tense game. Fortunately, Shelton did not have to make many moves. He did have, of all people, Hunter (Christ I Hope I Don’t Get In) Stratton warming up in the 6th inning. Unbelievable!

Next Game: Tonight, Dodgers in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes will start tonight, and you have to wonder how long that even he can keep the Dodgers at bay. The Dodgers are sending lefty James Paxton to the mound, so Rawhide Rowdy won’t be hearing the boos tonight.

Posted on

Favorite Books

Daily writing prompt
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
View all responses

Yesterday’s prompt was what was your favorite 3 books and what impact did they have on your life. I did not have time to answer that one, but since this prompt is about books also, I will combine the two. Pretty clever, huh. I can’t tell you what my favorite book was from childhood, but I can tell you my favorite series. It was the Hardy Boys, good old Frank and Joe Hardy. Another series I read was Bronc Burnett, about a high school football player. These books did 2 things. It got me into the habit of reading, and it got me hooked on books that had a continuing cast of characters or a main character. In my adult life I have read a lot of books. My two favorite authors are Ed McBain and Michael Connelly. I have read other books by them, but their two main series are the 87th Precinct novels by McBain and the Harry Bosch novels by Connelly. The 87th Precinct books started in 1956 and ended around 2005 when McBain died. There are about 52 books in the series and thanks to E Bay I have them all. I would say I read about 30 to 35 of them in various order by the time I acquired all of the books. Then I simply started with the first one and read them in order. Even though the books covered almost 50 years McBain only aged the detectives about 16 years. He also repeated clues from some of his early works to help solve cases. He had lots of little quirky things in these books that made them unique and fun to read. If you only read one 87th Precinct novel, read the one titled Kiss. I don’t want to say why but you will know when you finish the book. McBain was one of the most prolific writers I have every seen. He also wrote under the name of Evan Hunter. He wrote one book under both names. Connelly’s Bosch novels are pretty close to masterpieces. None of them disappoint but again if you had to read just one, I would recommend A Darkness More Than Night. One of the best books he wrote was Blood Work, a non-Bosch novel. If you have seen the movie, don’t worry it is nothing like the book. This book has the best ending of all time. They did not use it in the movie for whatever reason. I don’t know what impact all these books had on me, but I have always enjoyed reading and felt I have learned so much from all kinds of books.

Posted on

Pirates Morning Report: What Is Derek Shelton Thinking?

Final Score: Pirates 4 Blue Jays 5

Why The Pirates Lost: This loss goes right on Derek Shelton, starting with the bizarre decisions he made in the bottom of the 5th inning, and continuing the rest of the game concerning the bullpen. More on that in the key moment of the game segment. The Pirate offense collected 11 hits and walked 4 times but could only score 4 runs. They left 13 men on base and were 3 for 16 with runners in scoring position. Rowdy (Of All People) Tellez had the big game driving in all 4 runs going 3 for 4 with a walk, to raise his average to .194. Is it an omen, that despite Tellez having his game of season, that the Pirates still lost. This lost left the Pirates with a record of 27-32, 9 games out of first place. When the Pirates had a chance to win a big series on the road, their manager played it like the season was over, and the Pirates were just playing out the string. Maybe that’s the way management looks at this team now. It is the only explanation for what happened in the bottom of the 5th inning.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates had just taken the lead in the top of the 5th, 3-1 on a double by Rawhide Rowdy. In the bottom of the inning Quinn Priester gave up 2 singles to start the inning. He managed to get a pop out but gave up another single, making the score 3-2 Pirates, putting runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Priester then got a big strikeout on Bo Bichette for the 2nd out. That’s when the Pirates headed into the Shelton Zone. Even with Priester’s history of really going south quickly, you could argue that he could have been left in to see if he could get out of the jam. Let’s give that the benefit of the doubt. I really did not have a big problem with lifting him. To bring in Hunter Stratton was totally asinine. The entire bullpen except for Luis Ortiz had not pitched since Friday. David Vogelbach was the batter. He is downright horrible against left hand pitching. We had at least, to my knowledge, two left handers in the bullpen. Aroldis Chapman and unless he has some unknown injury, Jose Hernandez, who has not pitched since May 23rd. Besides the fact that Hunter Stratton has been mostly ineffective, of all the relievers that were used in the 14 inning debacle he threw the 2nd most pitches. If a lefty would have been brought in, the Blue Jays might have pinched hit for Vogelbach. Would that have been so bad considering how Vogelbach has been hitting the Pirates. Needless to say, The Turtle rips a double to center field on a 1-2 pitch that was thrown right down the middle to score the tying and go ahead runs. Despite the fact the entire bullpen was well rested, Shelton allows Stratton to come out for the next inning to ensure that the Blue Jays score an insurance run. Then he brings in Carmen Mlodzinski who threw the most pitches of any member of the bullpen on Friday. For the 8th he brings in the most ineffective member of the bullpen Kyle Nicholas just to give the Blue Jays even more of a chance. The A team of the bullpen just sat on their behinds and won’t pitch until at least Tuesday with the Pirates off today. Rod Serling must have been smiling down from above to see his television show right on the baseball field. Cue the music please.

Next Game: Tuesday, Dodgers, in Pittsburgh. I am almost hoping for a Dodger blow out so Bednar can pitch the 9th so he won’t get rusty. Rowdy Tellez should still be DFA, over and out.

Posted on

Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Bounce Back For Solid Win

Final Score: Pirates 8 Blue Jays 1

Why The Pirates Won: Even though it took him 106 pitches, Mitch Keller pitched another solid 6 innings. He gave up 1 run on 5 hits, 1 walk, while striking out 8. Then Luis Ortiz piggy backed him with 3 very strong innings only allowing 1 hit, no walks, striking out 3 while throwing only 36 pitches. The bats came alive right in the 1st inning, highlighted by a Ke’Bryan Hayes 2 run homer to take a 3-0 lead right off the get go. The Pirates continued to add on, finishing strong by scoring 5 runs in the last 5 innings and collecting 11 hits for the game. It was hard to believe that this was the same team that played the night before. The Pirates will have a chance for a series win today.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the 1st with Pirates just getting that 3-0 lead, Keller gave up a one out triple to Daulton Varsho. He walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on 5 pitches and the Blue Jays had 1st and 3rd with one out. Keller struck out Bo Bichette on 3 pitches. This brought up Daniel (The Turtle) Vogelbach, the famous Pirate leadoff hitter. Can you believe that the Pirates had this guy leading off to start the 2022 season. Typical for The Turtle he did not swing at the first 5 pitches to work the count to 3-2. Unbelievably he swung at the 6th pitch which was out of the strike zone to strike out. If he had taken it in the usual Vogelbach fashion, the Blue Jays would have loaded the bases. Instead, Keller got out of the inning with no runs scoring. Keller did give up a run in the bottom of the 6th but by then the score was 6-0 Pirates.

Next Game: This afternoon, Blue Jays in Toronto. This will wrap up this brief road trip and determine if it will be a winning or losing road trip. The Pirates in their own goofy way still have not announced the starting pitcher. I almost don’t want to know. The Sunday goofy lineup may be at its peak today. Well, I just looked on the website and they say it will be Quinn Priester. Who is going down? Only the Shelton knows for sure. I wish I could just understand their thinking. Tuesday starts a homestand against the Dodgers and the Twins. They need to get their act together now.

Posted on

Pirates Morning Report: Pirates More Inept Than Blue Jays

Final Score: Pirates 3 Blue Jays 5 in 14 innings.

Why The Pirates Lost: From the bottom of the 9th on there were 11 times that a team had a runner on 2nd base with nobody out and they failed to score 6 times. The Pirates did not get a hit the last 8 innings of the game. The fundamental of situational hitting went out the window for both teams. Inept hitting was pretty much equal, although the Blue Jays did get a huge 2 out hit in the bottom of the 11th to tie the game 2-2. Of course, baseball fans would not have been put through such an appalling performance by both teams stretching out for 14 innings if Ji Hwan Bae had not lost a big high lazy fly ball in God knows what by none other than Daniel “The Turtle” Vogelbach, that tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the 7th. All of this wasted another solid performance by Bailey (It Was Shelton’s) Falter again. Over 6 innings he gave up 2hits and 2 walks throwing only 81 pitches. Shelton then decides to take him out for a bullpen that stinks. Sure enough, the combination of Colin Holderman and Ji Hwan (Blind As A Bat) Bae gave the Blue Jays their tying run. Five of the Pirate starters hung big O for collars led by Connor Joe going 0 for 6. Grandal and Reynolds were next going 0 for 5. Stop the presses Rawhide Rowdy did get a hit.

Key Moments Of The Game: If you count ineptness there were about 25 key moments to this game. No question the big hit by George Springer in the bottom of the 11th with 2outs to tie the game 2-2 kept the Blue Jays alive to play another mediocre 3 innings. What really hurt was it was on a 1-2 count. Hunter Strickland decided to throw a four-seam fastball right out over the plate. This was the 21st inept moment. The walk off homer to win the game again with 2 outs was huge, if for no other reason it put the fans out of their misery. The Pirates lost another game to a floundering team to put their record at a floundering 26-31

Next Game: This afternoon, Blue Jays in Toronto. Mitch Keller starts today and has looked great his last 4 outings. The interest is high for this game to see how many innings the Pirates can go without getting a hit. Right now, it stands at 8. The Blue Jays are throwing a lefty so it will be unlikely that Tellez will get 2 starts in a row, but with Shelton you never know. This guy rolls the dice like managing is gambling in Vegas, and not a thought out skill. He has the record to prove it too.

Posted on

Pirates Morning Report: Getting The Split

Final Scores: Game 1 Pirates 0 Tigers 8

Game 2 Pirates 10 Tigers 2

Why The Pirates Split: The Pirates could not do anything in game 1. Jared Jones looked lethargic and admitted as much post-game. By far his worst outing of the season. He did not have much help as the Pirates made two errors behind him in the first 5 innings. Both errors contributed heavily to the Tigers scoring. The Pirates bats could only manage 3 hits and a walk in the disastrous 1st game. Going into game 2 you felt the Pirates had to win this game with Paul Skenes pitching and for whatever reason the Tigers deciding to go with a AAA pitcher. The Pirates fell behind early 1-0 when the Tigers scratched out a run in the bottom of the 2nd. Even though no error was charged Oneil Cruz essentially misplayed a ball that led to the run. The Pirates looked like they weren’t going to be able to hit AAA pitching as they went 6 up and 6 down in the first two inning. Andrew McCutchen unloaded a 3 run bomb in the top of the 3rd and Pirates never looked back scoring 7 more runs over the final 6 innings. Nick Gonzales had a big game, going 3 for 5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. The Pirates avoided disaster yesterday by gaining a much needed split in Detroit.

Key Moments Of The Day: In game 1 Jared Jones after the shaky 1st inning was able to get through the next 3 inning unscathed. He got the first out in the bottom of the 5th. Then he walked a batter and then Nick Gonzales messed up a tag play on a ground ball for an error and the Tigers had 1st and 2nd with one out. Matt Vierling took a hanging slider right down the middle and put it into the left field seats to blow the game open 6-0. The game was over. In game 2 in the third inning the Pirates caught a big break when a 1-2 change up that was well inside the strike zone was called a ball with Ji Hwan Bae batting. He promptly singled on the next pitch putting runners on 1st and 2nd with no one out. Andrew McCutchen’s 3 run homer would have been a 2 run homer if the ump knew what he was doing. It was a big extra run at the time for the struggling Pirates. Skenes pitched a solid 6 innings giving up 2 runs on only 3 hits walking 1, while striking out 9. The Pirates scored 6 runs in the last 4 innings making the bullpen’s job easy to gain the split.

Next Game: Tomorrow night, Blue Jays in Toronto. The Pirates have not officially named any starting pitchers for the series. Regardless, the Blue Jays have recently played the White Sox 6 times winning 5 to pull themselves up 3 games below .500. The Pirates desperately need to take 2 out of 3.

Posted on

Just Depends

Daily writing prompt
Do you practice religion?
View all responses

Religion can have a lot of definitions. The dictionary simply says the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods. You could get into more depth like Wikipedia does by describing religion as a range of social–cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements. Wow! After reading that I am so happy I was never baptized. Then there is the adverb religiously, which can have nothing to do with religion. This means doing something habitually or without fail. That I can get into. I play golf religiously every day if possible. I watch the Pittsburgh Pirates religiously. I stay away from organized religion. Throughout history when organized religion has been the ruling body of a state or country the people have always lived in filth and poverty. Organized religion wants to keep their constituents ignorant and fearful. Follow our rules and you will go to heaven. Don’t follow our rules and you will go to hell. Religion uses guilt as one of their main weapons. The man at the pulpit uses guilt as a method to get more people to go to their institution when the attendance is high, like on Christmas and Easter. Obviously, this does not work as the very next week the institution is lucky to be half filled. I do not know if this would classify as religion, but I do believe in a higher power and I do meditate. I don’t know if this higher power knows what the hell he or she is doing, but there has to be something out there that is controlling or causing things to happen for whatever the reason. Maybe just before we die, we are told what the hell is really going on and then we become whatever we become after death. So yes, I practice but I practice alone.