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Pirates Morning Report: Skenes Dominates, Pirates Sweep Rockies

Final Score: Pirates 4 Rockies 0

Why The Pirates Won: In 27 innings the Rockies scored 1 run. Yesterday it was Paul Skenes who put a hurtin on the Rockies. He went 7 innings giving up 3 hits. He struck out 7 while walking 0. The Mattson and Santana duo finished up allowing a hit and a walk. The Pirates had the one big inning and it was enough. Jarod (I Made An Adjustment That Won’t Work Next Year) Triolo had the big hit. He hit a 2 out 3 run homer in the bottom of the 4th to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead. They added another run with a Henry Davis walk. He stole 2nd. IKF then laced a double to center to score Davis. The Pirates would only get one hit the rest of the game but the damage had been done. Thanks to Triolo the AAA boys were 2 for 8 with 3 RBI’s and 2 walks. It was a nice win as the Pirates head into a tough stretch of games

Key Moment Of The Game: In the top of the 3rd two replay calls went against the Rockies. Braxton Fulford was ruled safe on a ground ball to Triolo. This was after a single by Kyle Karros. It looked like the Rockies were going to have 1st and 2nd with no outs. The Pirates challenged and the call was overturned. Then Skenes picked the runner off second. The Rockies challenged. They lost the challenge. The inning quickly went from 2 on and no outs to 2 outs and nobody on. Skenes struck out the next batter to end the inning. The Pirates had the 4 run 4th. The Rockies never threatened again getting only one other runner in scoring position.

Next Game: Tonight, Cardinals in St. Louis. In the next 13 games the Pirates play all playoff contenders with the Cardinals the only team under .500. If the Pirates win 6 or 7 games I will be surprised. They will need at least a split with the Cardinals if that has any chance of happening. They finally feasted on a bad team. Even with the sweep they ended up 4-5 against the Rockies and the White Sox. We will see what they can do against the big boys.

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Pirates Morning Report: McCutchen, Pitching Stay Hot

Final Score: Pirates 5 Rockies 1

Why The Pirates Won: The pitching staff shutout the Rockies for another 8 and 2/3 innings before surrendering a run. Mike Burrows went 4 innings giving up 2 hits and a walk. He was taken out even though he had thrown just 57 pitches. Carmen Mlodzinski, Kyle Nicolas, and even Colin Holderman did a nice job the next 4 innings. They gave up only 2 hits. Yohan Ramirez got the first two outs of the 9th. He gave up a home run and the shutout was lost. The 5 Pirate pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts. The offense was led by Andrew McCutchen and the AAA boys. McCutchen hit a 2 run homer in the 2nd. Jared Triolo did the same in the 3rd. The AAA boys went 4 for 8 for the game. Two of them are now hitting over .200. This is the 3rd straight year that Triolo has hit well in August and September. If you want a player to hit big in meaningless games, he is your guy.

Key Moments Of The Game: The top of the 2nd was Burrow’s only shaky inning. The Rockies had 1st and 3rd with 2 out. Yanquiel Fernandez hit a weak roller down the 3rd base line. IKF made a nice play and threw him out to end the inning. In the bottom of the 2nd the Pirates opened with a bang. Pham a line drive single. McCutchen line drive home run right down the left field line for a quick 2-0 lead. The bottom of the 3rd opened the same way. IKF a single, followed by a 404 foot blast by none other than Jared Triolo. The Pirates led 4-0. They were not threatened the rest of the game.

Next Game: This afternoon, Rockies in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are on Roku TV today so I don’t know how much of the game I will see today. Paul Skenes is going today as the Pirates go for the much needed sweep. The AAA boys should be out in full force today. I expect to see at least 3 play. They have been on a bit of a roll lately. It still does not change the fact that they stink. There is no chance that any of them are really going to help the Pirates make the playoffs someday.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Double Their Pleasure

Final Score: Pirates 9 Rockies 0

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates shutout the Rockies with the double pitching performance of Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler. Ashcraft went 5 innings giving up just 1 hit. He struck out 6, walked 1 while throwing only 65 pitches. Chandler went the last 4 giving up 2 hits. He struck out 3, walking no one while throwing just 40 pitches. For a change the Pirates gave offensive support to such great pitching. They had 7 doubles and 3 players doubled their doubles by hitting home runs. Spencer Horwitz, Tommy Pham and hold on to your hats, Alexander Canario all went yard. The AAA boys had quite the game. They went 5 for 12. Jared Triolo has pulled his average up to .199. The pressure will be enormous for him the next game. Overall it was nice to see them bury the Rockies.

Key Moments Of The Game: Andrew McCutchen had the big hits early that got the Pirates rolling. In the bottom of the first he had a 2 out double that made the score 2-0. In the bottom of the second, back to back doubles by IKF and Horwitz made the score 3-0. McCutchen came up with runners on 1st and 3rd and 2 outs. He delivered another double and the Pirates led 5-0. Without those 2 big 2 out hits you never know how the game might have gone. The Pirates went long ball after that to win going away 9-0.

Next Game: Tonight, Rockies in Pittsburgh. After having some shaky outings previously Mike Burrows had a nice outing against the Cubs giving up 1 run over 5 innings. Even though the bullpen is well rested it would be nice to see Burrows throw 80 to 90 pitches if he is effective. It would also be nice to see the Pirates sweep the Rockies. They have a tough stretch over the next 13 games. The Cardinals on the road who are just so so. Then the Red Sox in Boston and the Dodgers and Brewers at home. If they go 6-7 during that stretch it will be a miracle.

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Pirates Morning Report: A Positive Report

I admit, this was a tough one. Let’s start with the man that the fans and media feel the most negative about, Ben Cherington. Two years ago he picked Paul Skenes over Dylan Crews. I for one thought he should have picked Crews. Boy, was I wrong. It’s too early to put Crews in the same category as Henry Davis but he has not produced at the MLB level. He has had some injuries but his slash line in 196 plate appearances is .209/.280/.360 for an OPS+ of 81. Last year he picked Konnor Griffin in the first round. At 19 years of age he is the no.1 prospect in all of baseball. He is in AA where he seems to be making the adjustment fine, getting 3 hits last night. Tremar Johnson who just turned 21 in June is doing better lately. In AA his line is .267/.347/.393 with 9 homers and 31 RBI’s.

The Pirate’ pitching staff is above league average in every important pitching stat except strike outs. I believe the Pirates should keep the pitching staff intact. The Pirates need offensive help but not as much as you think. If the Pirates had scored 4 runs in every game their record would be 68-60 at the moment. They would be right in the wild card hunt. Their league worse average is 3.51 per game. Scoring 4 runs per game would move them to 25th. This is just a half a run a game. They could easily do this in the free agent market. I do not see the need to weaken a strength.

Finally, the Pirates have 8 players whose OPS+ is between 99 and 91. This 1 to 9% below league average. Even though they have no one above league average it is the most they have had above 90. There are 34 games to go. If some of these players get hot the offense may have a nice stretch run. Of course these 8 players have to play. This blog is supposed to be all positive so I won’t mention who could be standing in their way.

Well there it is, a positive Pirate blog. I did my best. The Pirates open a 3 game series against the Rockies tonight. I have a feeling things will be back to normal tomorrow. I could be wrong and they might sweep the Rockies. If that happens there could be more positive blogs in the future. It would be a nice change.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pitching Staff Wins Another One

Final Score: Pirates 2 Blue Jays 1

Why The Pirates Won: The pitching staff was able to shut down one of the better hitting teams in baseball. They did it in a big way. Johan Oviedo went 5 innings giving up 1 run on 2 hits. He struck out 6 walking 1. The bullpen was even better going the last 4 innings. They gave up one hit and no walks. The Pirates eked out 2 runs in the first and they held up for the rest of the game. The AAA boys contributed nothing. They went 1 for 10 with a walk. They struck out 5 times. In the last 5 innings the Blue Jays sent only 16 men to the plate thanks to a double play ball. They were only able to get 3 men in scoring position for the game. The Pirate’s pitchers won this one.

Key Moments Of The Game: George Springer opened the game with a home run. In the bottom of the first Ronny Simon and Nick Gonzales struck out. Bryan Reynolds doubled on a soft liner down the left field line. Spencer Horwitz drew a 5 pitch walk. Tommy Pham ripped one down the left line for a double and surprisingly Horwitz scored from first base to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. There would have been more key moments if the Pirates had lost this one. The Pirates missed scoring opportunities in the 5th, 6th, and 7th. They had 8 hits to go along with 4 walks. They could only score the 2 runs. This time it did not cost them a win.

Next Game: Tomorrow night, Rockies in Pittsburgh. I am going to do something very difficult tomorrow. I am going to try and write a positive blog about the Pirates. I can’t guarantee that I can do it but I am going to give it 100% effort. It will be quite a challenge.

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Pirates Morning Report: Mitch Keller, Consistently Inconsistent

Final Score: Pirates 3 Blue Jays 7

Why The Pirates Lost: Mitch Keller had a really bad outing. His control was lousy. He walked 3 and hit a batter. He got hit a lot. He gave up 5 runs on 7 hits including a home run. He threw 85 pitches in 3 and 1/3 innings. As usual the Pirates broadcast booth got it all wrong. They gave his overall stats for his last 6 outings, which are horrible. What they failed to mentioned is that two of those starts were pretty good. One was 5 and 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs. The other, 6 innings giving up 3 runs. Over the last 4 years his ERA+ has ranged from 106 to 98. Keller has shown over the years he can be very good or very bad. The perfect definition of consistently inconsistent. Really what difference does it make with that offense. They did manage 3 runs. WOW! They were 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position. The AAA boys were 2 for 7 with an RBI and 3 strikeouts. I will admit, the Blue Jays did flash some impressive leather especially center fielder Myles Straw. The bottom line is that the Pirate’s batters can’t control the strike zone. Therefore they stink.

Key Moment Of The Game: The score was 5-0 going into the bottom of the 2nd. Max Scherzer did not get some borderline calls and walked the first two batters of the inning. Joey Bart got an infield hit to load the bases. Up steps Jared AAA Triolo with no baseball awareness. He swings at 3 straight pitches out of the strike zone to strikeout. Great at bat Dead Tree. IKF grounds out to score a run. Ronny (Can I Please DH Since I Can’t Field) Simon popped out to end the inning. It was a golden opportunity to get back in the game. It would be their last.

Next game: In about 3 hours, Blue Jays in Pittsburgh. Johan Oviedo is going to get his 2nd start. Let’s hope he can go more than one inning. The Pirate offense continues to amaze. The offense is now 29 runs behind the 29th place Rockies. Despite some mild resurgence none of the AAA boys are hitting over .200. Will all 4 get to play today. I can hardly wait.

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Pirates Morning Report: Thank You Blue Jays Plus A Miracle

Just a note before I get into the game. The blog will be coming from San Diego. Unlike Pittsburgh a city that is lucky enough to have a Major League Baseball team. Thus the blog will be more mid morning in the eastern time zone.

Final Score: Pirates 5 Blue Jays 2

Why The Pirates Won: This game was gifted to them by the Blue Jays. They made 3 errors. They wild pitched a run in. They walked 6 Pirates. This included walking Jarod Triolo 3 times, say what? There were 2 miracles in the game. Alexander Canario got a hit AND an RBI. It was his 14th of the season. Henry Davis had an RBI to stay 2 ahead of Canario. What a tandem. Paul Skenes was not great but solid going 6 innings. He gave up 2 runs on 6 hits. More importantly he struck out 8 against a team that does not strike out much. The bullpen finished up the game nicely giving up 1 hit while adding 3 strikeouts.

Key Moments Of The Game: Despite the Blue Jays generosity the Pirates had to look like the Pirates. Twice they had a runner on third base with one out and could not bring him home. The big moment of the game came in the top of the 8th. Kyle (Hold Your Breath) Nicolas came into the game. George Springer opened with an infield single to deep short. Nicolas got ahead of the next hitter Addison Barger 0 and 2. Four pitches later it was 3 and 2. On a four seam fastball, pretty much right down the middle, he grounded into a double play. Ty France hit a 100 MPH line drive that Canario somehow caught to end the inning. In the bottom of the eighth the Blue Jays went Keystone Cops mode giving the Pirates 2 more runs. Thank you Blue Jays for taking pity on the Pirates and their fans.

Next Game: Tonight, Blue Jays in Pittsburgh. Max Scherzer goes for the Blue Jays tonight. The Pirates are sending out Mitch Keller. The AAA boys had a pretty good game last night. They went 2 for 8 with 2 RBI’s. They walked 3 times and scored 3 of the 5 Pirates runs. How many will play tonight. Could it be possible that we could get all 4 in one game. We could return the favor to the Blue Jays and just give game 2 away. Playing all 4 would be a good start.

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Pirates Morning Report: Just Not Fundamentally Sound

Final Score: Pirates 3 Cubs 4

Why The Pirates Lost: They just do not know how to play the game. They ran the bases poorly. They walked 5 batters. They made two errors. They would have won this game if they knew what they were doing. They got 9 hits to go along with 3 walks. They could only get 3 runs. They left 10 men on base. The AAA boys went 1 for 5 with 2 strikeouts and 2 walks. They scored one run. Triolo’s average dropped to .190. It is a hard climb. Carmen Mlodzinski pitched a very good 4 innings. He gave up only 1 hit and 0 earned runs. He had thrown only 44 pitches. The Pirate’s “brain” trust would not let him go any further. This was a game that the Pirates should have won. The Cubs missed some opportunities also. The Pirates gave away too many runs. They also failed to score more because of a lack of baseball awareness. As usual, you will see there is no accountability when you play for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Key Moments Of The Game: There were two examples of two players doing something good for the Pirates. Then they would do something bad or stupid to counteract it. First, we have Spencer (How Could Greg Brown Make Any Hall Of Fame If He Can’t Even Pronounce My Name Right) Horwitz. In the top of the 3rd with two outs, he doubled home IKF to tie the game 1-1. Bryan Reynolds hit a single to center field. The ball was solid with an exit velo of 92 MPH. Horwitz could not score on the hit. The Pirate broadcast booth said the ball was hit too hard for Horwitz to score. Wrong, make any excuse for the Pirates’ breath. Horwitz had an extremely poor lead at second. He did not take the walking lead when the ball was pitched. He did not get a good jump when the ball was hit. Next, we have Joey Bart. He doubled home two runs in the top of the 6th to make the score 3-2 Pirates. IKF hit a routine ground ball to short. Bart tried to go to third base and was thrown out by 6 feet. That is where I would have benched Bart right on the spot. Ronny Simon got a single that probably would have scored Bart. If Bart had been benched, we would not have seen his pathetic at-bat in the top of the 8th. There was a runner on 3rd with one out. He took the first two pitches for strikes. He fouled off the next pitch. The next pitch was a ball. He swung at a pitch that was almost over his head to strike out. He was probably thinking about what he should do when he is on 2nd base and a ball is hit on the left side of the infield. The Pirates would have scored 3 more runs if they had any brains and performed normal baseball plays. This obviously cost them the game. There were other managerial blunders, but they would not have mattered if the Pirates had those 3 runs. They have now lost 7 of their last 8.

Next Game: Tonight, Blue Jays in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes starts for the Pirates tonight. I may never write this again the rest of the season, but this is a bounce-back start for Skenes. He will be going against one of the better teams, the Blue Jays. They are one of the best hitting teams in baseball. It will be interesting to see how Skenes responds to his first truly bad outing.

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Pirates Morning Report: Oh, What An Offense Not Mid August Back In 1966.

Final Score: Pirates 1 Cubs 3

Why The Pirates Lost: Another awful performance by the Pirate offense. They were passive, taking 19 strikes including 6 in the top of the 9th. They got 5 hits for the game, pathetic. They were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position, putrid. It was about as Triple P as you could get. It did not bring back any memories of the 1966 Pirates, who had a team batting average of .278. Remember, pitchers had to bat in those days. Nobody on the Pirates has a batting average as high as .278. Let that one sink in for a moment. The mound had not been lowered yet, either. The AAA boys went 2 for 7 with 2 strikeouts and no walks. Triolo got the 2 hits as his batting average climbed to .193. All of this wasted another good performance by the Pirate pitching staff. Starter Mike Burrows only threw 68 pitches in 5 innings. He gave up 1 run on 5 hits. He struck out 4 and walked 2. Why he did not come out for the 6th inning, I will never know. The bullpen was shaky. It caught up with them in the bottom of the 8th. They gave up the 2 runs. All in all, just another horrible offensive day for the Pirates that caused their 6th loss in 7 games.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates looked like they might get some two-out lightning in the top of the 7th. Joey Bart walked. Liover Peguero singled, moving Bart to third. This brought up Alexander Canario. He has not gotten a hit for over a month. Even though the lefty was still in there, the situation screamed for a pinch hitter. Don Kelly did not do it. Canario had his usual horrid at-bat. He struck out on 5 pitches. In the bottom of the 8th, Evan Sisk came in. In 5 pitches and a stolen base, the Cubs took the lead 2-1. Canario’s horrible throw allowed the runner to go to second. A sacrifice bunt moved the runner to third. Yohan Ramirez struck out the next batter. Don Kelly made his 2nd bad move. He intentionally walked Ian Happ to face Nico Hoerner. Happ is a switch hitter. He is hitting the same from either side of the plate, a whopping .225. Hoerner is hitting .322 in the last 30 games. He doubled to left-center field, giving the Cubs their insurance run. They really did not need it. The Pirates were pathetic in the 9th. After an opening single, the last 3 batters all struck out. Each one took 2 called strikes. Two of the three took called 3rd strikes. That is a great two-strike approach the Pirates are teaching. Take the pitch and pray.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. Back to the Carmen Mlodzinski experiment today. Why the Pirates want this guy to be a starting pitcher, God only knows. I guess the only good thing is they sent Heaney to the bullpen. Too bad they did not use him yesterday. It will be a big surprise if the Pirates win today. Can they score more than 3 runs today? Oh, to be able to see 1966 again.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pitching And AAA Boys Come Through Big.

Final Score: Pirates 3 Cubs 2.

Why The Pirates Won: The pitching returned to form. The Pirates’ staff limited the Cubs to 2 runs on 6 hits. They struck out 6 and walked 2. It was a good day’s work for Braxton Ashcraft, new call-up Evan Sisk, Isaac Mattson, and Dennis Santana. It was also a great day for the AAA boys. They went 4 for 11, including Jack Suwinski’s go-ahead home run in the top of the 9th. They also made some good defensive plays. It was a good thing because the top of the order was bad. The first 4 batters in the Pirates’ order went 0 for 14 with one walk. This all led to the Pirates snapping their 5-game losing streak. They will not lose 11 in a row.

The Key Moments Of The Game: It was a game of missed opportunities in the late innings for the Cubs. The Pirates just grabbed the lead 2-1 in the top of the 7th. Evan Sisk hit Pete Crow-Armstrong to start the inning. Isaac Mattson came in to pitch. Nico Hoerner singled to left. Dansby Swanson bunted the ball up in the air in front of the plate. The ball had backspin and sidespin on it. The ball eluded Henry Davis, and the bases were loaded. Matt Shaw hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game. No other runners could advance. Mattson got two pop-outs to end the inning. In the bottom of the 9th, the play of the game happened. The Pirates were leading 3-2. Pete Crow-Armstrong led off with a single to center. On the very first pitch to the next batter, he tried to steal 2nd. Henry Davis’s throw was short and scooped up by Triolo. Crow-Armstrong, for whatever reason, slid way past the bag. He made a half-hearted effort to get back to the bag and was tagged out. The Pirate broadcast booth tried to make it sound like Triolo had made some great play. In my view, it was a huge baserunning gaffe by Crow-Armstrong. Regardless, it was the big play and out of the inning. The Cubs went quietly after that, and the Pirates had the win. It looks to me that the Cubs are feeling the pressure. Maybe the Pirates can take advantage.

The Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. Mike Burrows goes for the Pirates today. He has had a couple of shaky outings. Maybe he can turn things around today. Yesterday was the second big game for the AAA boys out of the last 8. Jack Suwinski stood out in both games. The Pirates won both of those games. I am still not ready to give anybody a promotion. It does show how a team has to have everyone contributing to pull out a win. We will see how many of them get to play today. Will they help again against the swooning Cubs?