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Pirates Morning Report: The Return Of The Hitless Wonders

Final Score: Pirates 0 Brewers 5

Why The Pirates Lost: If you do not score any runs you will not win, as the Pirates were shutout for the 7th time this season. They only had 4 at bats with runners in scoring position and 2 of those were in the first inning. They went 0 for 3 with a walk. Five of the 9 innings they only sent 3 men to the plate. The Pirates had 6 hits and 2 of those did not leave the infield. Mitch Keller had another mediocre performance, but he could have been Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson all rolled into one and the Pirates would not have scored, even if the game went into extra innings. The only good news was Roansy Contreras pitched a nice 2 innings, retiring all 6 batters he faced, with one strikeout. The score was 4-0 Brewers when he came in, so it’s not the same as coming into a tight game. He had to know that the Pirates were not going to score, and game was over.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the top of the 7th with the Pirates trailing 4-0 they somehow managed to load the bases with 2 out, and the Pirates allowed Austin Hedges to bat. I would have rather seen a left handed batter come to the plate, rather than Hedges batting in that situation. He had already struck out and grounded into a double play. Naturally, he popped out for the 3rd out, ending any chance the Pirates had, which I admit was slim, of making a comeback.

Next Game: This Afternoon, Brewers in Milwaukee. Luis Ortiz takes the mound today. Another young Pirate pitcher that seems to be going backwards rather than progressing. The Pirates have lost 5 in a row and have fallen one game below .500 for the second time this season. The last time this happened, they reeled off 6 wins in a row. I would not mortgage the house on that happening this time. I am not too sure that this team will come back. As I wrote before, this is not the same as the May downturn. All phases of the Pirates’ game are awful. They cannot hit, pitch, or field, with no end in sight. Management does not seem inclined to make any moves to right the ship. If they don’t, it will be a long hot depressing summer if you’re a Pirate fan.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Would Rather Give Than Receive

Final Score: Pirates 4 Brewers 5

Why The Pirates Lost: The Brewers and the Pirates may have not set baseball back a hundred years, but they played a very strange game. Both teams had the same amount of hits and runs. At one point in the game both teams had more runs than hits. The Pirates lost because they gave away more than they received, and they received a lot of gifts from the Brewers. It is easy to see why the Brewers had lost 6 in a row and the Pirates have currently lost 4 in a row. Rich Hill muddled through 5 innings giving up 6 walks, 3 hits and 4 runs. He contributed mightily to the Brewers victory. After 6 innings the Pirates had 2 runs on 1 hit and then the fun began.

Key Moments Of The Game: This game came down to two half innings. The bottom of the 1st, Hill walked the first batter. The next batter grounded into a double play, and you thanked the Brewers. The Pirates said, no, no, please take this. Walk, walk, catcher’s interference, Walk, A hit( What The Hell Is That), making the score 3-0 Brewers. It took until the top of the 7th for the Brewers to bring out the gifts. The inning started with a walk, a single, a hit batsmen, why waste all those pitches, to load the bases. Josh Palacios decided he had seen enough and took the game over. He grounded out to third for the force out at home. Ke’Bryan Hays hit a weak ground ball but placed it perfectly past the 2nd baseball to score 2 runs. Palacious hesitated at 2nd base, before deciding to go to third. Baserunning 101, if you are going to third you do not slow down at 2nd base. He was easily thrown out. Instead of having 1st and 3rd with one out, the Pirates had a man on second with 2 outs. A lot of the Brewers’ players in the dugout wanted Palacious to come over to high five him, and the fans wanted him to come out for a curtain call. I don’t know why he didn’t. In the top of 9th Palacious did get a double to set up 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Ke’Bryan Hayes struck out and after a walk, Jason Delay pinch hit for Hedges. Why they did not use Castro I have no idea and Delay looked pathetic striking out to end the game.

Next Game: Late afternoon, Brewers in Milwaukee. Mitch Keller takes the mound and maybe he can pull out a win today for the Pirates. Last night’s game was one that they should have won. This team continues to struggle to play good solid baseball. Early in the season they were able to overcome their mistakes. Now they cannot. What surprises will they have in store for today?

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Pirates Morning Report: A Team Effort

Final Score: Pirates 2 Cubs 7

Why The Pirates Lost: It was a team effort. Let’s get Johann Oviedo over with first. I don’t care what your pitching line is, if it takes you 100 pitches to go 4 and 1/3 innings then that is a bad outing. The bullpen gave up 3 runs in 3 and 2/3 innings which is better than their recent average of 2+ runs per inning but is still awful. The defense was just flat out bad. The Pirates were charge with one error but there were many plays that could have been made that were not. The offense was its usual pathetic self. They only scored 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. What little traffic they had on the bases was wasted by not moving runners up. They struck out 10 times. This is the lowest point of the season so far even though at one point they were one game below .500. When the Pirates went through their May slump, they were playing a lot of games against the AL East the best division in baseball. You could pinpoint the losses squarely on the offense that did not score more than 2 runs per game for something like a 10-12 game period. Now the competition is not as tough and every phase of the Pirates’ game pretty much stinks. The Cubs outscored them 28 to 11 in the 3 games. I said in the beginning of season one of the X factors would be how this young club would respond to playing meaningful games in August. This is the first time many of them are playing meaningful games in June and they are crapping the bed. I only see one silver lining here and I am probably stretching things a bit. Getting used to playing such games may help them out, in those dog days of August, if they make if that far.

Key Moment Of The Game: It was the crooked number the Cubs put up in the bottom of the 5th, scoring 5 runs on 5 hits, with only one being in extra base hit, as Pirates helped things along with 2 walks and an error on one of the easiest ground balls you could catch. Merry Christmas, Chicago Cubs.

Next Game: Tonight, Brewers in Milwaukee. The Brewers are playing just as bad as the Pirates. They have lost 6 in a row. Who is going to snap out of it? The Brewers being at home, may not be an advantage if they don’t turn it around, because the boo birds will be out in full force. I have no idea what to expect. The game is going to be on Apple TV+. This could trigger a big drop in their stock. I just hope this series doesn’t set baseball back 100 years.

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Golf Diary

Round: Played Beaver Creek Meadows Score 71 Green In Reg. 11 Putts 29

The Good: The short game came alive today. I got it up and down 5 out of 7 times, including a chip in on the last hole to make birdie to shoot even par. This a short course from the white tees but the back nine has a little more teeth to it. My putting was good as I did not miss a short putt. The number 29 is a little better than I actually putted because of 0 putts on 18 with the chip in.

The Bad: My ball striking was mediocre at best. The big difference today was that my bad shots wound up ok. I always had a shot and my chipping and pitching were the best all year. Even though I hit 11 greens, my irons were bad on shots of 150 yards and over. I went through 2 different methods of ball striking in the round. Despite the good score it was a struggle.

The Luck Of The Round: I was quite fortunate today. Unlike most of my rounds, I did not have the horrible shot and my bad shots were never in serious trouble, which was very fortunate. I had pretty straight forward punch shots and I avoided the traps all day by fractions of a yard. The sand was packed fairly hard, and I had a few shots just run through the bunkers into pretty good spots. Did not have any putts lip out. It was quite a good day.

Next Round: Saturday, South Park.

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Pirates Morning Report: This Was An Explosion

Final Score: Pirates 6 Cubs 10

Why The Pirates Lost: A total and complete collapse of the bullpen. The Pirates have given up 21 runs in this series and 16 of them have been by the bullpen. Considering they pitched just 6 and 2/3 innings that’s an average of well over 2 runs per inning. You are not going to win any games at that rate. It is hard to say what has happened to the group unless they just wanted to join the rest of the team and go through a very bad stretch during the season. They have not been over worked. They are just league average when it comes to average number of pitches per game, per relief pitcher, at 19. The offense had a decent enough day, scoring 6 runs, with home runs by Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Santana and Austin Hedges. Austin Hedges hits a home run, and we still lose. Good God. I guess we would have needed some of the 1927 Yankees to come to the plate if we were going to have any chance. Roansy Contreras had another rough outing and I think it is time to send him to AAA to get his confidence back and figure things out. The Brewers are just as terrible right now and we are still 1 game up in 1st place. Go figure.

Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the bottom of the 6th things looked good. The Pirates had a 5-1 lead and Contreras had pitched a solid 5th inning. The Cubs open the inning with 2 singles but the next batter flies out to rather deep left field, but the 1st out is recorded. Contreras falls apart by walking the next 2 batters, including a pitch clock ball 4, and gives up a single to make the score 5-4. Yohan Ramirez comes in and gets the 2nd out on 2 pitches. He craps himself by throwing 4 straight balls that are not even close. He follows that up by giving up 2 more singles with a wild pitch thrown in, and the Cubs lead 7-5. The Pirates get a run in the top of the 7th to make it 7-6 but Colin Holderman seals the deal in the bottom of the 8th, for the Cubs. He gets rocked around for 3 runs, 4 hits and 1 walk in just 2/3 of an inning. That made the bullpen blow-up official.

Next Game: Tonight, the Cubs in Chicago. Not the start the Pirates wanted on this road trip. If the bullpen does not turn this around this will be the point of the season that the Pirates fall out of contention and just play out the season. Oviedo starts tonight to give old man Hill a little extra rest after his 119 pitch performance. Rumor has it that he had to be woke up both games to go from the locker room to the dugout. He was heard mumbling in his sleep that he really liked being a Dodger and playing for Dave Roberts. It’s hell to get old, just ask our President.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Art Of The Infield Hit

Final Score: Pirates 3 Cubs 11

Why The Pirates Lost: The bullpen pretty much lost the game, but it was not an explosion. It was more like death by slowly bleeding out. Bleeding out infield hits and bloopers followed by long 3 run homers that accounted for 6 of the Cubs 11 runs. First inning, a walk an infield hit and boom a home run. Bottom of the 8th, bloop single, that at least got out of the infield, a walk, and a 2nd boom home run. Other than the 2 blasts, the Cubs got 6 infield hits and 2 bloop singles to account for 8 of their 14 hits. Luis Ortiz had another hard luck outing, although some of it was his own doing. He pitched 5 and 1/3 innings giving up 4 runs, on 6 hits, walking 2, and striking out 4. The 2 walks really came back to haunt him as both wound up scoring. This was a brutal game to watch. The Pirates did not play all that bad, but luck was not on their side last night.

Key Moment Of The Game: Despite a disastrous bottom of the 6th, the Cubs were only able to score 1 run, thanks to a Cub runner being hit by a ground ball to end the inning. They still led only 4-3 going into the bottom of the 7th. This inning became even more painful to watch. Yohan Ramirez came on to pitch and he has been pretty good this season. The first batter hit a ground ball that barely got through for a base hit. He got the next batter to fly out. He walks the next batter. Seiya Suzuki hits a hard line drive one hopper just to the right Ji Hwan Bae. I thought the umpire may have screen him out a little on seeing the ball and he was only able to knock it down, which loaded the bases. After getting 2 strikes on Ian Happ, Ramirez threw 3 straight pitches way low and way inside, with the last pitch hitting Happ to send in a run. A ball hit to the right of Ramirez that bounced off his glove scored another run. Ramirez, left the game to be replaced by Zastryzny. After getting one out he gave up a bloop single that drove in two more runs to make it 8-3 and the game was over.

The Next Game: Tonight, Cubs in Chicago. Let’s hope the Cubs used up all their luck in game 1 of the series and the Pirates can win the next two. They are moving Roansy Contreras to the bullpen and bringing up Osvaldo Bido to start tonight. Regardless of the outcome let’s hope that Contreras finds himself in the bullpen. My final comment today is regarding the batting order. Why is it when a batter is struggling that they don’t move him to a lower position in the batting order. Tucupita Marcano in his last 15 games is hitting .229 with an OBP of .229 and they lead him off last night. Great idea. Carlos Santana is hitting .182 and slugging .309 his last 15 games, and they continue to bat him in the clean up spot. Why? All it does is kill potential rallies. I am not saying to bench these guys, but they should be batting 7th and 8th, because we all know who bats 9th, the pitcher, I mean Austin Hedges. Advocates of the DH would say, I am not paying good money to see a pitcher bat. You could say the same thing about Hedges.

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played South Park Score 83 Greens In Reg. 3 Putts 33

The Good: The weather was cool and a little windy but good. The beer and cheeseburger after the round.

The Bad: The entire game stunk. I didn’t drive the ball too bad but it still was not good. The iron play was awful with only 3 greens in regulation. The putting was bad with one 3 putt green and numerous misses from 4 to 8 feet. I was kind of trying to find some way to become more consistent, but it was to no avail. It was another day of just some horrible shots. This game will just chew you up and spit you out. I ended up the day well digested.

The Luck Of The Round: When you are going bad you are not going to get any real breaks. Lots of bad bounces and really could not get anything going all day. Glad the day is over.

Next Round: Thursday, Beaver Creek Meadow, in East Liverpool Ohio.

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Golf Diary

The Rounds: Played Lake Arthur Score 81 Greens In Reg: 8 Putts 33

Played Rolling Green Score 78 Greens In Reg: 11 Putts 34

The Good: Not much, did hit some good drives and a periodic good iron shot.

The Bad: Putting was not good. Made a nice birdie putt at Lake Arthur of around 20 feet but for the two days I had two 3 putt greens each day. My short game was bad as I did not seem to have much touch either day. Getting it up and down 4 out of 10 times at Lake Arthur and 2 out of 7 times at Rolling Green. I hit too many drives that got me into trouble both days. I had a lot of short iron shots that I did not get that close to the pin. The biggest problem both days was that when I hit a bad shot it was really bad that led to the higher scores.

The Luck Of The Rounds: At Lake Arthur the course was playing hard and fast and you had to bounce a lot of shots into the greens. I had some bad bounces but nothing too crazy. I got what I deserved. Luck was not a factor at Rolling Green.

Next Round: Tomorrow at South Park.

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Pirates Morning Report: Keller Is Back

Final Score: Pirates 2 Mets 1

Why The Pirates Won: Mitch Keller pitched a solid 7 innings giving up only one run on 2 hits, walking 2, and striking out 7. Dauri Moreta pitched a nice 8th inning making a comeback of his own after giving up the big hit on Saturday. Bednar got the save with a little help from the men in blue. The Mets scored in the top of the 4th to take a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the 4th Jack Suwinski led off with a home run to tie the game 1-1. Ji Hwan Bae got a hustling double, and then went to third on a wild pitch. Tucupita(I Don’t Bunt Every Time There Is A Runner On Third Base) Marcano lined a single to right field to score the deciding run. There was no scoring after that, but you had to know that the Pirates would make it interesting before claiming victory.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates had the 2-1 lead going into the top of the 9th with David Bednar coming in to get the save. Francisco Lindor led off the 9th and fell behind in the count 1 and 2. He was able to work the count to 3 and 2, by fouling off 2 more pitches. On the 8th pitch of the at bat Bednar threw him a curveball that hung a little outside, but he got the called strike for the 1st out. If he had not gotten the call, Tommy Pham’s double would have tied the game. The next 2 batters flew out to medium left and center field to end the game. The Pirates had the 6-3 homestand and improved to 34-30 to move into 1st place by a full game on June 12th. How about that sport fans!

Next Game: Tomorrow, the Cubs in Chicago. The Pirates are going to play 10 of their next 13 games on the road, with a brief 3 game homestand against these same Cubs. Nine of the next 13 games will be with division rivals, including 6 with the Cubs and 3 with the Brewers. The Pirates have had a good road record so far this year and will need to continue to do so. Here is hoping that they can at least tread a little water, going 6-7 or 7-6. I guess you can’t feel too bad about losing 2 to the A’s. They just went into Milwaukee and swept the Brewers. Thank you, Oakland A’s. Do you think the sabermetric boys had that one figured out when they were analyzing the balanced schedule at the start of the season?

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Pirates Morning Report: Just Loud Fouls

Final Score: Pirates 1 Mets 5

Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirate bats went dead as they really did not score any runs. The one run they did score was a gift that the Mets gave them on errors. They did hit some loud foul balls but that was about it. Ke’Bryan(I’m Back To Normal) Hayes struck out 3 times. Keep a toe tapping buddy. Johan Oviedo pitched a good game going 6 and 1/3 innings giving up 4hits, was charged with 2 runs, walked 2, while striking out 5. He left with the score tied at 1-1. This was a bullpen failure yesterday, but the way the Pirates were hitting, or should I say not hitting, they would have eventually lost in extra innings. I chalk this one up to just one of those games. The Mets cannot keep losing forever and yesterday they put it together for a nice win.

Key Moments Of The Game: With 2 out in the bottom of the 3rd, Met pitcher Kodai Senga who has had control issues, walked the bases loaded. Conner Joe got hold of a fastball and sent it 406 feet to dead center field. He needed to hit it about 410 feet as Brandon Nimmo caught it right at the base of the wall for the final out. In the bottom of the 4th the Mets had a comedy of errors that gave the Pirates runners on 1st and 3rd with one out, and already a run in. It eerily looked like Friday night was happening all over again. But Tucupita (I May Go On An 0 for 40 Run Like I Usually Do) Marcano tried to bunt and popped out to the 3rd baseman. Jason Delay grounded out and instead of the flood gates opening, the Pirates had only 1 run. They really never threatened again.

Next Game: This afternoon, the Mets in Pittsburgh. Mitch Keller will try to get back on track and send the Pirates on the road with a final home game win to make the home stand 6-3. Other than the Connor Joe long fly out and a Jack Suwinski barely foul non home run, the Pirates made weak contact all game yesterday. I mean extreme weak contact. If you didn’t know any better, you may have thought you were losing your hearing. They are going against a lefty today, so let’s hope they can mash him.