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Pirate Morning Report: Not The Way To Score One Run

Final Score: Pirates 1 Twins 5

Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirates typical formula, mediocre pitching and terrible hitting when it counted. The Pirate booth said that Andre Jackson pitched great. Here are his numbers, you decide. He gave up 2 runs on 4hits, walking 3, striking out 6 in 4 and 1/3 innings of work. Not an awful performance but great, come on. The bullpen gave up 3 runs in the other 3 and 2/3 innings. I guess compared to the lousy bullpen he was great. Not to be out done, the batters were even worse. They could only muster 1 run despite getting 9hits, 3 walks and a hit batsman. They stranded 11 runners while going 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position. Quite a performance. There is one thing I will never understand, and the Pirates are not the only ones that do this. When a batter is in a major slump, the team continues to bat him in a key position in the order. Jack Suwinski has been struggling mightily over the last 30 games hit a paltry .129 with an even more embarrassing OBP of .234. Despite this the Pirates have batted Suwinski lead off, which may have started this whole mess, and clean up. How about putting him 8th or 9th until he comes out of it. Right now, he is nothing but one big rally killer. Kyle Schwarber is going through the same thing, although not as bad as Suwinski, and the Phillies continue to put him at the top of the lineup.

The Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates were trailing 3-0 going into the top of the 7th inning. It looked like they may be getting something really going when they opened the inning with a walk, a double, and a bloop single to make the score 3-1 with first and third and nobody out. Then we had to painfully watch this. Ke’Bryan (Even Though I Have Been “Hot” My OPS+ Is Still Only 91) Hayes took a strike, fouled a strike, and fouled out on a ball 6 inches outside. Jack (My Hero Is Daniel Vogelbach) Suwinski, took a strike, took a ball, swung at a ball that was low, and took a 3rd strike that was well inside the strike zone. Last but certainly not least, Henry (The Last Time I Played Right Field I Was 10 Years Old) Davis, swung at a strike, took a ball, fouled off a pitch 6 inches inside and struck out on a pitch 6 inches outside. Inning over and so was the ballgame.

Next Game: Tonight, Twins in Minnesota. The Pirates are 1-3 on this road trip and look to be headed for 1-5. Mitch Keller starts tonight, a real starting pitcher, something the Pirates are finding hard to come by. Thank God for the DVR.

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Pirates Morning Report: 121 Games In

Since the All Star break the Pirates have gone 13-18 and all phases of their game has declined. Lately they appear to be hitting better but not enough to overcome some early hitting woes. Runs per game they were 22nd at the 90 game mark dropping to 24th now. They dropped from 21st to 22nd in OBP. The OPS+ dropped from 24th to 26th. Not big drops but drops, nonetheless. The pitching dropped even further, which is no surprise considering their recent performances. Runs against went from 21st to 25th. In Fielding Independent Pitching they fell from 20th to 22nd. The ERA+ fell from 17th to 20th. The Defensive Efficiency Rating went from 23rd to 27th. This was a total team effort to go 13-18 or lack of effort you might say. If the Pirates can win 20 or 21 of their last 41 games, which I admit is not likely, they will wind up with 74 or 75 wins, which would be a 12 to 13 game improvement from last year. Most likely they will win right around 70 games. The most disappointing aspect of this team has been the regression of the young starting pitching.

Mitch Keller last year had an ERA+ of 106. This year he is at 105 after a solid start his last time out. Whose idea was it to not allow him to pitch but 1 inning over an 11 day period? He should have started the 2nd or 3rd game after the break. That last good start he had, may have been the result of finally getting back to a normal routine. Johan Oviedo may be the most inconsistent pitcher in the history of baseball. Last year in 7 starts, which is not a lot, he had an ERA+ of 130. This year he is checking in with 99. He has had 25 starts for the Pirates this year. He has only given up 2-4 runs 6 times. In 11 starts he has been brilliant giving up no or just 1 run. In the other 8 starts he has been awful giving up 5 or more runs. Until this last start, his fast ball was consistently reaching 97 MPH. For some reason he was reluctant to throw it. He became another Pirate pitcher who has lost velocity with his fast ball rarely hitting 95. He got blasted for 4 runs in just 4 innings. Luis Ortiz last year came up and had 3 solid starts in a row. Pitching 15 innings with an ERA of 1.15. He had a fast ball that was at 99- 100 MPH the majority of the time. His last start of 22 was a disaster where he gave up 6 runs in just 2/3 innings. This can happen to anyone. This year his fast ball never hit 100 MPH and most games topped out at 97. No explanation from the Pirates. Other than a great 8 inning performance he has gotten knocked around pretty good, got sent down to AAA in July and is not really do all that great down there. Roansy Contreras has fallen the furthest and the hardest. In 2022 Contreras pitched in 21 games and made 18 starts. He had 2 bad starts giving up 6 and 7 runs respectively. Despite that he had an overall ERA of 3.79 and an ERA+ of 110. His fast ball was clocked at 96 to 97 MPH. This year he lost 2-3 MPH on his fastball and his ERA+ fell to 68 before he was sent down. He is pitching a little better at the moment in AAA. Whatever the Pirate pitching philosophy is, it ain’t working brother, and it needs to be changed. The regression of this young staff with no apparent injuries is alarming. Top that off with the recent Quinn Priester disastrous Major League debut stint, and things could not get much worse for this young staff. Talk about negative player development, the Pirates are showing how to do it.

I wrote at the All Star break that the Pirate pitching is in disarray and nothing that has happened is changing my mind. The Pirate schedule over these last 41 games is fair. They have 20 home games and 21 on the road. They play only one powerhouse team the Braves in Atlanta. They will be playing a lot of teams in the wild card hunt, and this may be to their advantage. These teams will be playing under pressure and the Pirates will not. The Pirates will finish up with the Phillies and Marlins so they will help decide the wild card race. The final games should be interesting. Let’s hope the Pirates can be competitive.

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Pirates Morning Report: Where Has All The Pitching Gone

Final Score: Pirates 3 Mets 8

Why The Pirates Lost: Another poor performance by a starting pitcher, this time Johan Oviedo, who looked like he wanted to anywhere but on the mound. He looked sluggish, his fast ball velocity was down (another one), and he had no command. Other than that, he pitched a good game. He gave up 4 runs in 4 innings and not to be out done the bullpen gave up 4 runs in 4 innings, good job. I will have more on the pitching when I do the 121-game report, tomorrow. This series featured two teams with about the same record even though they have vastly different payrolls. All three games had similar underlying themes. They were looooooooooooooong. Yesterday’s game was the shortest at 2 hours and 54 minutes. The other two were a little short and a little beyond 3hours. There were a lot of walks. Game 1 had 11 walks, while games 2 and 3 had 13 walks. What made this worse that most of the time teams did not take much advantage of the walks, especially the Pirates. Most of the runs scored on home runs. The Mets hit 8 home runs during the series and the Pirates 2. Other than blow out wins or losses, these were the most boring games the Pirates played all year. The incompetence of both teams was damn scary at this level.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates were trailing 4-2 going into the top of the 5th. Other than the Bryan Reynolds’ 2 run home run, the offense had not really done much, and looked like they were going down quietly in the 5th when two quick outs were made. Andrew McCutchen walked, and Jack Suwinski lined a ball down into the right field corner. McCutchen was waved home and was thrown out on a close play. The Mets’ relay was perfect, one of the few really good plays in the entire series. How would the Pirates know that the Mets would finally execute a routine baseball play? Oviedo opened the bottom of the 5th by walking the first batter on 6 pitches, the last 3 not being anywhere near the plate, after being ahead in the count 1-2. Shelton had seen enough and brought in Ryan Borucki the left hander. Things looked good when Pete Alonso was caught stealing and Jeff McNeil flew out to center. But then Borucki walked (what else) The Turtle (who else) and DJ Stewart hit his 2nd home run of the game to put the Mets ahead 6-2 and the game was over.

Next Game: Tomorrow, Twins in Minnesota. Tomorrow will be the final in season report on these Pirates. I am going to concentrate on management tomorrow, so it will not be pretty.

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Pirates Morning Report: Thank You Mets

Final Score: Pirates 7 Mets 4

Why The Pirates Won: Simply put, the Mets made sure they did. In a 7th inning, that could only be described as comical, the Pirates scored 6 runs. The first 3 runs scored on only one hit. After Connor Joe doubled, putting him on 2nd and Andrew McCutchen, who walk, on third, Henry Davis struck out. The Mets proceeded to walk 2 batters in a row to force in one run, hit the next batter to force in another run. The third run came on a passed ball, making the score 4-1 Pirates. Jason Delay doubled home 2 runs, followed by a Bryan Reynolds triple, to make the score 7-1. Wow! Bailey Falter pitched a nice 5 and 1/3 innings giving up 1 run, 5 hits, walking 1 and striking out 5. Greg Brown said oops when Liover Pegurero hit his home run in the 2nd inning because he and Matt Capps were talking about themselves instead of reporting on what was happening on the field. The Pirate announcers think they are more interesting than the game of baseball. The Pirates will take this win and hopefully can win the series today.

The Key Moment Of The Game: It was no question the 7th inning. This game had the same feel as the previous game as the Pirates had lots of traffic on the bases and could do nothing with it. This time they left 13 runners on base. Through 6 innings they had 5 hits, 6 walks, 1 HBP, and could only muster one run, that coming on a home run. Thankfully in the 7th the Mets decided to take charge and ensure that the Pirates would win the game. It was Colin Selby who picked up the win, pitching a sterling 1 and 1/3 innings giving up 3 runs, 3 hits, including 2 home runs, while walking another 2 batters. A much deserved win for Colin. Thanks to some horrible pitching by both clubs, this game took 3 hours and 12 minutes to play. These first two games would have been 4 hours long if not for the pitch clock. Despite the huge payroll, maybe the Mets players get overtime.

Next Game: This afternoon, Mets in New York. Johan Oviedo takes the hill today and here’s hoping he can shake off that last bad start. Maybe the Mets will find it in their hearts to give away two games in a row. The Pirates need all the help they can get.

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Pirates Morning Report: At Least We Only Used Two Pitchers

Final Score: Pirates 2 Mets 7

Why The Pirates Loss: Another poor performance by Quinn Priester giving up at least one run in every inning he pitched. Osvaldo Bido came in the top of the 6th inning and gave up a home run enabling the Mets to score in each of the first 6 innings. It is not a formula for victory. The Pirate offense had a lot of traffic in the first 6 innings thanks to 6 walks, but could not get the big hit, leaving 10 men on base for the game. They only had 5 hits for the game and none after the 6th inning. They picked up their 7th walk in the 8th inning but did nothing with it. The only good news for the Pirates is that they only used 2 pitchers so the bullpen should be well rested for these final two games of the series and there is an off day on Thursday. Priester has been a slow starter at every level, but this is a little ridiculous. After 6 starts he has an ERA of over 9. WOW!!!!! Despite the pitch clock this game took almost took 3 hours to play. It is a good thing the Pirates laid down and died at the end because it may have pushed 4 hours if they had rallied.

Key Moments Of The Game: This game boiled down to the Mets getting some 2 out hits, scoring 4 of their 7 runs after two were out. The Pirates did score their first run after 2 outs but had many opportunities and failed the rest of the way. Top of the 3rd, bases loaded, 2 outs no runs. Top of the 4th, 1st and 2nd, 2 outs, no runs. Top of the 6th, 1st and 2nd nobody out, 1st and 3rd one out, no runs. After that the Pirates felt why bother and only got a walk in the 8th the rest of the way. Against mediocre pitching the Pirates struck out 11 times.

Next Game: Tonight, the Mets in New York. Bryan (And You Thought Rich Hill Was Bad) Falter makes the start tonight. Maybe he will have a good game tonight, who knows? Last night was another lack luster performance by the young Buccos, with lots of mistakes on all sides of the ball. They have bounced back from previous bad games. We will see what happens tonight.

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Pirates Morning Report: Too Bad The Whole Coaching Staff Was Not Ejected.

Final Score: Game 1 Pirates 4 Reds 2

Game 2 Pirates 5 Reds 6 10 innings

Why The Pirates Split: The 1st Game they won because of a good, not great, performance by Mitch Keller, and a clutch 3 run homer by Jared Triolo in the bottom of the 7th. They lost the 2nd game because the bullpen could not protect a two run lead, and they made one of the most horrendous coaching decisions in the bottom of the 8th, when they had a chance to win the game. If the Pirates had lost both games, it would have been easily blamed on poor defense. Every morning from 8-12 somebody should be hitting fly balls to Henry Davis in right field. He definitely needs that much work. From 1-2pm the team needs to go through pop up drills. In the first game the Pirates probably had one of the strangest winning lines of the year, 4 runs, 3 hits, and 2 errors. Even though they did not get charged with any errors in game 2, there were many balls that should have been caught but were not. When the Pirates blow a game like they did in game 2 it is explained away by youthful mistakes. This loss needs to be put right on management’s stupidity.

Key Moments Of The Day: The 1st game was Triolo’s big home run. The 2nd game boiled down to the bottom of the 8th. The Reds had just tied the game 5-5 in the top of the 8th thanks to another misjudged fly ball by Henry Davis. The bottom of the inning started off just fine for the Pirates with Henry Davis singling and Endy Rodriguez drawing a walk, to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. This brought Liover Peguero to the plate who was 2-3 with a home run, single and 2 RBI’s. The Pirates decided to have him bunt and to do so 3 times to foul bunt out. WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Endy Rodriguez was in such a state of shock that he promptly got picked off 1st base. The Reds walked Triolo, but the inning ended when Ke’Bryan Hayes, pinch hitting, grounded out to short. The Pirates lose the game in 10 innings and instead of getting a sweep, they just handed another game to a team on a silver platter.

Next Game: Tonight, the Mets, in New York. The Pirates embark on a 6 game road trip to face the Mets and the Twins with an off day on Thursday. I really do not know what to expect on this trip. The team went through a very tough schedule over these last 3 weeks and came out right around .500. They battled in every game except for 2 blow out losses to the Brewers and the Reds. I still feel this team could go on a good run yet. I thought they had an excellent chance of sweeping the Reds when this series started. Friday night’s performance and this last game were very disappointing to say the least. I am not optimistic but let’s hope this coaching staff wakes up. The most disconcerting thing to me is that this team does not seem to learn from it’s mistakes. I guess, if nothing else, it will be interesting the rest of the way.

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Pirates Morning Report: Well, At Least They Got To See A Concert.

Final Score: Pirates 2 Reds 9

Why The Pirates Lost: Simply put, the Reds came ready to play and the Pirates did not. Oviedo looked like he had not warmed up enough as his fastball was touching 95 MPH, he had no command, and looked tentative from the beginning. As a result, 4 batters into the game, the Reds had 3 runs and no outs. Contrast that with the Pirates, who went down in order through the first 3 innings, got one hit in the 4th that did not leave the infield and repeated the 3 up 3 down performance in the 5th. The first two batters were retired in the 6th, when Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a home run. Reynolds got a weird hop double followed by an RBI single by McCutchen. The Pirates got one more hit in the bottom of the 9th and were slaughtered like sheep 9-2. It was a very disappointing game considering how they had played against the Braves in the previous 4 games. They did not draw a walk the entire game. Let’s hope they are not developing the Ke’Bryan philosophy of hitting. For the fans that spent their hard-earned dollars to go to the game, let’s hope that at least they got to see a good concert, because they did not get to see a team than knew how to pitch and hit.

The Key Moment Of The Game: Oviedo seemed to be getting a little better in the 2nd and the 3rd innings. His fastball was ticking up to 97 MPH again, and did not allow a hit, only a hit batsman. In the top of the 4th, he got the first out on a nice play by Bryan Reynolds. He hit another batter and gave up a line drive single to left. Then on a 2-2 count, Oviedo grooved a slider right over the inside middle of the plate, that Luke Maile drove out of the deepest part of the stadium to give the Reds a 6-0 lead and you knew this game was over.

Next Game: Tonight, Reds in Pittsburgh. A very bad performance by the Pirates last night. Hopefully they will learn from the experience. We will see if they can rebound tonight, to at least have a chance at taking the series. It looks like a bullpen game tonight with Andre Jackson starting for the Pirates. Their bullpen games so far this year have been pretty successful. Jackson has had starting experience so maybe he will go longer than anticipated. The Pirates really need a win tonight.

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Pirates Morning Report: 9 Game Summary.

The Record: 4 Wins Losses 5

Why They Won 4 Games: After getting off to a miserable start, losing to the Detroit Tigers and getting blown out by the Brewers 14-1, the Pirates went on to win the next 4 out of 7 games against some pretty stiff competition. They took the next 2 out of 3 from the division leading Brewers, before returning home, to split a four game series with the Atlanta Braves. It was surprisingly, the offense that carried the team to victory. During the last 7 games they averaged 5.5 runs per game. Many players got some hot bats. Bryan Reynolds slugged .731 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI’s. Ke’Bryan Hayes slugged .607 with 2 home runs and a whopping 10 RBI’s. Despite the hot streak Hayes is still a bit of an enigma. For a guy that takes as many strikes as he does, he does not walk much and his on base percentage is way less than league average, which leads to an OPS+ of 88, 12% worse than a league average hitter. Most of that is due to the fact for the entire season he has walked only 17 times. With 37 to 55 more plate appearances Jack Suwinski, Andrew McCutchen and Carlos Santana, each walked 53, 63 and 45 times respectively. Despite these numbers the Pirates continue to try a get him to lead off. His current OBP of .291 stinks. Alfonso Rivas has had a nice start for the Pirates slugging .762 and hitting 2 home runs with 5 RBI’s. Overall, the offense has been looking up.

Why They Lost 5 Games: The pitching staff has had its issues. Oviedo pitched an excellent game, and the staff pitched another good game giving up only 2 runs in 9 innings but the Pirates could only produce 2 runs, losing in 10 inning 3-2. They had the blowout loss 14-1 that was a pitching disaster. In the other 6 games they gave up at least 4 to 8 runs per game and were able to win a game where they gave up 6 runs. Almost every pitcher seemed to get touched up. The only exception was new acquisition Andre Jackson. It seems like he is one of those guys making the transition from starter to reliever, with improved results. Mitch (Who Is Jeff Locke?) Keller continues to struggle post All Star game. He pitches this Sunday against the Reds. Wouldn’t It Be Nice to see him turn it around.

Next Game: Tonight, Reds in Pittsburgh. The blog is back from a trip to London and Paris. Had a great time but it is good to be back and watching the Buccos. They did better than I expected them to do, while I was away, even before the first two bad games. I thought they would be about 2-7 or 3-6 at the best, especially with all the troubles they usually have in Milwaukee. A sweep of the Reds would go a long way to perking up this team and making this a .500 season.

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Pirates Morning Report: Just A Solid Win

Final Score: Pirates 4 Tigers 1

Why The Pirates Won: Johan Oviedo had his 2nd solid start in a row. This time he went 7 innings allowing only 1 run on 6 hits, walking 2 and striking out 5. He became very efficient after the 1st inning. He only threw 74 pitches over the last 6 innings. The Pirate offense was not overwhelming but effective enough to put 4 runs on the board. The big blows were an RBI triple by Endy Rodriguez followed by a home run by Liover Peguero to make the score 3-0 after 2 innings. The Pirates added another run in the 4th and with the way that Oviedo and the bullpen were pitching they were never really threatened in this game. It was a very nice 3rd win in a row.

The Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the 7th the Pirates were leading 4-0 when the Tigers did mount a bit of a rally. On the first pitch of the inning Javier Baez singled to center field. A swinging bunt out moved him to second base. Then Akil Baddoo reached out his bat a placed a ball out to left field to score Baez to make the score 4-1. Things were getting a little tense at this point. Two pitches later Jake Rodgers grounded into a slick double play, Williams to Peguero to Joe to end the inning. After that, the Tigers never got another man on base in the last two innings.

The Trade Deadline: There were two big ticket items traded, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. Other than that, as far as I am concerned this trading season was garbage for garbage, including what the Pirates did. They did get some prospects that might pan out but it will be surprising if we see any big contributors in the near future. The whole process seemed to indicate that teams were hoping, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that a change in scenery would improve their acquisitions performance. I thought it showed how bad things were when a headline read Brewers acquire Met’s star outfielder. They were referring to Mark Canha whose slash line is currently 245/343/381. His defensive metrics are not that great, but you could say he was one of the better players that were moved. It will be interesting to see if any of these trades really work out on the short term. There sure does not seem to be any Fred McGriffs in this traded group.

The Next Game: This afternoon, Tigers in Pittsburgh. The Morning Report will be taking a 10-day hiatus as I will literally be out of the country. I may write a couple of blogs while I am gone, commenting on how the young Bucs have done over a 4 to 5 game span. It will be interesting to see the new rotation. The Report will be back on a daily basis around August 11. It would be nice to see the Pirates win today, because after that, the competition really gets tough over the next 11 games.