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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.

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Pirates Morning Report: Over 300 Million In Disarray

Final Score: Pirates 14 Mets 7

Why The Pirates Won: The bats woke up big time, scoring 14 runs and collecting 17 hits to go along with 4 walks. Leading the way were Ke’Bryan( I’m Starting To Hit Even Though I Still Take Pitches Right In The Heart Of The Plate) Hayes with 5 hits and Jack Suwinski going 3 for 4 with a double and a home run. It was also nice to see Carlos Santana knock one over the fence. The Pirates were 7 for 11 with runners in scoring position. Rich (I’m Glad They Didn’t Make Me Throw Any More Pitches) Hill went 7 innings giving up 2 runs, 7 hits, 2 walks, while striking out 6, on a whopping 119 pitches. He only walked 2 but most of the night he was working from behind in the count. The Mets made it a little interesting at the end by scoring 5 runs in the top of the 9th but the Pirates put them away to send the Mets to their 7th straight defeat.

Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the bottom of the 3rd the score was tied 2-2 and Rich Hill was again running through the raindrops. After one out Andrew McCutchen got an infield single deep in the hole at short. Carlos Santana hit a weak ground ball right up the middle just to the left of the 2nd base bag. Francisco Lindor tried to scoop the ball, start his throwing motion, while trying to step on 2nd base to start what would have been an easy double play. He dropped the ball. This essentially opened the gates for the Pirates to score 5 runs to take a commanding 7-2 lead. The inning was highlighted by the Ke’Bryan Hayes philosophy of hitting. He took 2 strikes basically down the middle and then laced a single to left center on a ball that was about 6 inches above his ankles to drive in 2 runs. Ji Hwan Bae’s bunt was thrown all over the field to allow the Pirates to score 2 more runs and the rout was on.

Next Game: This afternoon, Mets in Pittsburgh. This year Major League Baseball started the balanced schedule, where every team plays the same schedule. There was much analysis of this on what divisions would benefit from this the most. Luck was not taken into consideration. The luck of when you catch some of these teams. Right now, the Mets are in total disarray and hopefully they will stay that way for 2 more games. Eventually they will turn this around and be one of the hottest teams in the league. Last night’s win assured the Pirates of a winning home stand. Let’s hope they can make it into a great homestand.

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Pirates Morning Report: 61 Games In

When I last looked at the Pirates, they were 20-9 and had one of the best records in baseball. Since then, they’ve gone 12-20 to stand at 32-29 and are in 2nd place, one game behind the Milwaukee Brewers, but tied in the loss column. Most of the Pirate woes have been blamed on the offense, but as you will see their entire game as gone in decline. In the categories OBP, Runs per Game, and OPS+ the Pirates went from 3rd, 5th, and 4th, respectively, to 12th, 16th and 14th. On the pitching side of the ledger, Runs per Game Against, ERA+, and FIP the Pirates fell from 4th, 4th, and 6th, to 12th, 12th, and 14th. Even their Defense Efficiency Rating, which was not that great to begin with, fell from 17th to 23rd. This has been a team effort to say the least. However, there have been some individuals that have contributed to the Pirates’ decline more than others.

Ji Hwan Bae despite all the hype in the broadcast booth is a below average hitter and a negative fielder, especially on the infield. Defensively his best position is centerfield. He is only 23 and I think he needs to stay on the Major League club, but he will need to improve his game. Ke’Bryan Hayes, even though he improved somewhat over this 32 game stretch, continues to be a well below average hitter. Granted he is sensational in the field, but he is playing a hitting position. He takes pitches that are right down the middle of the plate. If he could correct that problem, there may be some hope. Carlos Santana has done a solid job at first base, but he has hit only 3 home runs and has an OPS+ of only 85. Last year he hit 19 home runs, but it does not seem like he will come close to that number this year. Austin Hedges is slugging .216, has an OPS+ of 28, and quite frankly has not been that great behind the plate, with several catcher interference calls that always seems to lead to runs.

On the pitching side of the ball, all the starters are around average or above average at run prevention except for Roansy Contreras. Last year he looked so good, with an ERA of 3.79 and an ERA+ of 107. This year he seems to be getting more and more lost with every start. Add to that, Mitch Keller’s last 3 starts have been getting worse and worse. Someway, somehow these two have to turn it around or this is going to be one long summer. The bullpen is by far the strongest part of this team but even they have had some disastrous performances. In my view, this will be the biggest challenge for the Pirate management team, to get this staff back on track, particularly the starters.

What will the next 30 games bring for the Pirates? That is just one of many questions that will get answered over the next 30 to 35 days. Will management bring up some of the young players once that magical date in June passes? I admit, I don’t know what that date is and don’t want to know, it disgusts me so much. Will management make any trades to gives some immediate help to this team? Their needs are obvious. They need a hitter in the outfield. They need to find some offense at 3rd and catcher. If they are going to make it to game 90 and still be in contention for the division title, the three young pitchers, Keller, Contreras, and Ortiz all need to find themselves and start pitching the way they were before. The injuries to Cruz and Choi have hurt the Pirates, especially the one to Cruz. In fact, I wrote if Cruz gets hurt all bets are off for this team trying to contend. They have proved me wrong so far. However, if this team does not get some help pretty soon from down on the farm or via trade, then these next 30 games will be worse than just what has passed.

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played South Park Score 72 Greens In Reg. 8 Putts 27

The Good: Played from the senior tees and it seems when I play from those tees my putter is on fire. I had a lot of balls on the fringe and I got it up and down 9 out of 10 times. Six of those times it was with the putter from off the fringe. I got it up and down 3 out of 4 times with chipping or pitching. Despite having such a good day with the putter, I three putted the 9th green from about 10 feet for one of my bogies. I had 2 birdies and 2 bogies and the rest pars.

The Bad: It would be too harsh to say my long game was bad but I could not put it under the good. The best way to describe my long game would be inconsistent. I hit an 8 iron on a par 3 about 50 yards. I hope I don’t have to write that the par 3 was longer than that. It led to the other bogey. I drove the ball well in the early part of the round but after the 10th hole my driver just quit functioning and I never really hit another good one the rest of the day. I was hitting this low hook but not really a bad duck hook and with the dry ground the ball would roll a long way. Then I started hitting it right on a few holes to overcompensate. I was hitting my irons out of the rough a lot, so it was hard to judge just how well I was hitting them, but I did not have any disastrous shots with the irons, other than the 8 iron.

The Luck Of The Round: I hit some shots that I thought would roll into the woods but the rough held them up just enough. My lies in the rough were always pretty decent. I had some really nice putts to save par, with many of them going in the right or left center of the hole and none lipped out. I did not get any bad breaks.

Next Round: Sunday, Lake Arthur in Butler Pa.

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Pirates Morning Report: Just Like The Steelers

Final Score: Pirates 5 A’s 9

Why The Pirates Lost: Roansy Contreras had a terrible outing only getting one out and giving up 6 hits, 2 walks, and was charged with 7 runs. Despite such a poor performance the Pirates had their chances to get back in this game. They could not do it despite getting 9 hits and 7 walks. They were able to score 5 runs but they had several opportunities to score more. They did close the lead to 7-3, but then fell behind 9-3, before closing the gap to 9-5. They never were able to put any real pressure on the A’s. The homestand is now 4-2 and looks like it could be headed for a 5-4 finish or even worse. The less said about this game, the better. The Pirate’s record has fallen to 32-29.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates had failed on previous opportunities earlier in this game, but none more than in the bottom of the 7th. The A’s had just added on to their lead and score was 9-3. With one out, the Pirates started another A’s induced rally. Delay walks, McCutchen singles, and Reynolds walks. Connor Joe walks to force in a run. The Pirates had cut the lead to 9-4 and the big hit would have gone a long way to getting them back in the game. Carlos Santana hit into a double play and the inning was over. Not all double play balls can go between the defender’s legs. In the bottom of the 9th the Pirates got something going again, by loading the bases after they scored their 5th run, with only one out. There was no key hit to be found and the Pirates went down to defeat for the second straight time to the lowly Oakland A’s

Next Game: Friday night, Mets in Pittsburgh. Maybe the Pirates were looking ahead to this series and just did not pay attention to the A’s. They certainly did not use the top half of their bullpen much. The did play down to the level of their opponent just like the big bad Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, the Steelers lost to the Raiders when they were in Oakland a couple of times in recent years when the Raiders were pretty pathetic. Tomorrow the Pirates 61 game report.

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Blow Out Loss, Will Good Things Follow.

Final Score: Pirates 2 A’s 11

Why The Pirates Loss: The offense could not get the 2 out hit. Even though the Pirates won the first game of the series, this has been the big difference. In the Cardinal series, the Pirates scored all their runs with 2 outs. In this game they were 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 9 runners on base. Mitch Keller had his 3rd mediocre performance in a row. In fact, you could call this outing just plain bad. It is concerning that Keller just seems to be getting worse not better. In just 5 and 1/3 innings he gave up 8 hits, charged with 5 runs, walked 4, while striking out only 1 batter. At least we did not have to listen to the Pirate booth talk about so many games in a row with 8 strikeouts. There was still some hope going into the 8th inning with the score 5-2 A’s, when Chase De Jong entered the game. De Jong pitched a splendid 2 innings giving up 6 runs, on 5 hits, including 3 home runs, walking 1, striking out 2, while throwing 53 pitches. However, all is not lost for De Jong. He got calls from numerous players who are considering participating in the home run derby, asking if he would be their pitcher. The loss sent the Pirates tumbling out of 1st place with a record of 32-28.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the first the Pirates are facing a pitcher that has not won a game and has an ERA of over 8. Marcano opens the game with a double and Reynolds walks. McCutchen flies out. Jack Suwinski hits a perfect double play ball that goes right between the 2nd baseman’s legs, that scores Marcano and the Pirates have 1st and 3rd with one out, instead of the inning being over. It looks like the A’s are going to give us another one. Connor Joe pops out, Josh Palacios flies out and Pirates let a golden opportunity slip through their fingers. Starting pitcher James Kaprielian goes on to pitch a nice solid 6 innings, giving up only one more run to get his 1st win of the season.

Next Game: This afternoon, the A’s in Pittsburgh. The Pirates have bookend blow out losses around their 6 game winning streak. Maybe another good streak will start after this blow out loss. The A’s have only won 2 games in a row twice this season, although they recently beat the Atlanta Braves 2 in a row in Oakland. Roansy Contreras starts today for the Pirates. The year has not been kind to Contreras so far. He has been very up and down. Maybe he will find something today. I will admit I have softened some on the importance of this series. If the Pirates lose today it won’t be the disaster that I felt it would be when the series started. I think it is more important for Contreras to throw a good solid game today than what the final result will be. On Friday will be the 61 Game Report which will take a hard look at the 2023 Pirates with close to 40% of the season played.