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Golf Diary

The Round: Played South Park Score 77 Greens In Reg. 8 Putts 31

The Good: This was one of those rounds where nothing was good but nothing was all that bad. Still drove the ball well and the iron game was up and down.

The Bad: The weather. It was wet and rainy with rain on about 5 of the holes. Because of the wet greens the putting was just off enough to keep me from shooting a better score. The round was dull with 13 pars and 5 bogies. This round was from the white tees and the course played longer with the wet conditions. The ten greens I missed I was able to get it up and down 5 times. This round was dictated by the conditions, and I admit I just seemed out of sync but compared to some of my rounds, this round was ok.

The Luck Of The Round: Because of the wet conditions the lies in the rough were not that good, especially when compared to the lies I had earlier this week. Other than that luck was not a big part of this round.

Next Round: Beaver Valley Golf Course.

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Pirates Morning Report: DUJ IN Mid-Season Form

Final Score: Pirates 3 Orioles 6

Why The Pirates Loss: Dwayne Underwood Junior, yes, I wrote it out in its entirety, because he deserves it, had a sterling performance last night. He came in the game with one out, a runner on second and the score tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 7th. When the 8th inning was over the score was 6-2 as he gave up the hit that took the lead and then a 3 run homer to give the Orioles their 6 runs. Dwayne now has a sparkling ERA of 5.40. For a while, I thought I was wrong about DUJ, like I am wrong, so far at least, about Velasquez, but I guess not. I wrote last year, that if DUJ was still on the team this year, the Pirates were not serious about winning. He did have some good moments, but now he is back to normal and getting whacked at will by opposing batters. DFA or IL, hopefully, not too far off in the future. The Pirate’s attack was as anemic as ever, although they did make things a little interesting in the 9th. They did score 3 runs for the second consecutive game, managing 7 hit to go along with 2 walks but struck out 12 times. Johan Oviedo pitched 5 plus innings only giving up 1 run but walked 5, giving up 4 hits. A somewhat better performance but not like he was doing early in the season. Just like the Pirates, as they now fall to 21-18.

Key Moment Of The Game: Allowing DUJ to come out for the 8th inning. Maybe the Pirates thought that he would stink and better to know in May than in August. There were certainly better pitching options in a tight game. I kind of doubt that this will be his last appearance as a Pirate, but we can only hope. Yes, he is misunderstood Underwood. What’s misunderstood is that he can pitch.

Next Game: Tonight, Orioles in Baltimore. Roansy Contreras will get the start and he has not been super sharp lately, giving up 9 runs in a little over 10 innings, with 7 walks. This was not the Contreras we saw last year. The Pirates need him to get back on track and the bats to do something for God’s sake. Will tonight be the night?

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Pirates Morning Report: Can They Come Out Of This Slump?

The Pirates start a 5 game road trip tonight in Baltimore. The Pirates have lost 9 out of 10 games and there have been various issues, but it’s the offense that has hit rock bottom. They have averaged 1.5 runs per game during this stretch. You are not going to win many games only scoring that many runs, thus the Pirates are 1 and 9. The naysayers have been out in full force with the typical, who didn’t know that, the Pirates stink again, and you knew this was too good to be true. The odds of the Pirates coming out of this in the next 4 weeks in my view is a flip of the coin. Heads the Pirates continue to collapse and around the 60 game mark will be under .500. Tails the Pirates will find a way to get back on track and start to play at least .500 ball or better and will be about 4 to 7 games above .500. One good thing is the Pirates have 4 days off from now until June 1. It will give them at various intervals to collect themselves and reset. Will see if yesterday’s off day has any positive effect. So, what could happen?

Heads: There is no question that the injuries to Oneil Cruz and Ji Man Choi have had a major impact on the Pirates offense. When the season started the 13 position players were all of major league caliber. Canaan Smith-Njigba was the only player who disappointed, and he was sent down. What has been brought up is not major league quality. Josh Palacios, Miguel Andujar, Chris Owings, Mark Mathias, and Tucupita Marcano are all nothing but AAA players. The only one that the jury is still out on is Marcano, who has yet to prove that he can hit Major League pitching. Mathias is back down in the minors but the other 4 are on the team and that is a lot of offensive weaklings to be carrying on a team that desperately needs to score runs. The Pirates are not going to bring up any top prospects until that date in June comes around when they won’t get that year’s credit of service. As ridiculous as this is, it is just part of the baseball way today. Unless one of these 4 players can get on some kind of surprising hot streak, the Pirates record at the 60 game mark will be about 28-32.

Tails: So, what needs to happen if the Pirates are going to come out of this slump. Jack Suwinski needs to get back to being the Jack Suwinski he was during the first 28 games. That is something that could happen. Ke’Bryan Hayes needs to get his OPS+ up over 100. Possible but not likely. Ji Hwan Bae needs to start being more selective and get his on base percentage up to about 350 like it was in the minors. This could happen. There does not seem to be much help in AAA. What the Pirates need is a hard hitting outfielder. This is the least likely thing to happen, but they could make a trade. Who would be a good trade piece. In my view Ke’Bryan Hayes. He is a superior glove but does not look like he is ever going to be much of a hitter. A team that has plenty of hitting but needs a defensive 3rd baseman would be interested in Hayes. He has a great team friendly contract. If the bat is big enough even throw in one of our relievers. The Pirates need to run the bases better. Could Austin Hedges get some breaks at the plate. I know he is a horrible hitter, but he has hit some balls that were crushed that wound up being caught. Like a lot of things hitting can be contagious and once they start hitting it could continue until that magical June date that will allow them to bring up some more Major Leaguers. Hopefully by then, it will not be too late.

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Golf Diary:

The Round: Played South Park Score 71 Greens In Reg. 11 Putts 28

The Good: No, this is not a repeat blog. For the second round in a row from the Gold tees I shot the same score with the same GIR’s and the same putts. The nines were the same 37-34-71. I also had 4 birdies and 3 bogies to shoot the 1 under score. I did birdie some different holes. On Tuesday the birdies were on 2, 10,15, and 17. Today I birdied 1, 5, 10, and 12. The bogies on Tuesday were on 4,8 and 13. Today the bogies were on 2, 4, and 7. I had a much steadier back nine today with the 2 birdies and no bogies. My game was just like Tuesday where today, everything was clicking pretty well. I did have some yips on chips today which led to one of the bogies and I had a few more bad putts. The chips yips kept me from a good chance at a birdie on 3. I really had the speed of the greens down after the 2nd hole. It was another beautiful weather day.

The Bad: Nothing

The Luck Of The Round: There was plenty of good luck today. I skulled a wedge on the short par 3 8th hole that could have gone into the rough but somehow stayed on the fringe. It left me with a treacherous downhill putt of about 35 feet. I knocked it about 10 feet by and was fortunate that it stayed on the green. I made the comeback putt, right in the center of the hole. I always had good lies in the rough. Then on the 200 yard par 3 13th I cold top a five wood about 85 yards down the rough. I had about 115 in and hit a 51 degree wedge to about 12 feet of the hole. The putt just fell in the front edge of the hole to save that par.

Next Round: Saturday, at South Park weather permitting.

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Pirates Morning Report: Well, At Least They Scored 3 Runs

Final Score: Pirates 3 Rockies 4

Why The Pirates Loss: Even though they scored 3 runs, at least that streak is broken, the offense still really did not do much. They had 6 hits and 6 walks but could not do much with it, as they continue to run themselves into outs. They only had 4 at bats with runners in scoring position and had 1 hit. Compare that with the Rockies who had 8 hits and 4 walks but had 14 at bats with runners in scoring position. Rich Hill cruised for 3 innings then had an inning like Ortiz did where nothing went right and an error, this time by Hill, opened up the floodgates to allow 3 runs to score. The Pirates continue to slump and the record falls to 21-17

Key Moments Of The Game: This one had many including the error by Hill that allowed the Rockies to tie the game after the Pirates had taken a 3-0 lead after 3 innings. It boiled down to this. The Pirates loaded the bases in the bottom of the 6th on a walk, a single and a walk. They could not score. In the top of the 7th the Rockies loaded the bases with a walk, a single and a walk. They were able to push across one run. Not a great performance, but in this instance, it was enough to win the game. The Pirates simply do not have enough players that are capable of hitting major league pitching. They are unwilling to bring players up that are capable of hitting major league pitching because of contract control. The injuries are beginning to take it’s toll. This could be a prolonged stretch.

Next Game: Tomorrow night, Orioles in Baltimore. The Pirates will get a much needed day off today. They have lost 9 of their last 10 games and most of them have not been close. Yesterdays was, but the other 8 losses were by an average of 5.5 runs per game. All phases of their game has declined with the offense leading the way. Since the 29 game report the Pirates have loss 8 of 9. All their stats have tumbled but none as much as the offense. OBP fell to 10th from 3rd. OPS+ was 4th in baseball now is 14th. They are now 11th in Runs per Game down from 5th at the 29 game mark. They have a 5 game road trip coming up. Going 2-3 would be miraculous.

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Pirates Morning Report: Maybe Marcano Needs Glasses

Final Score: Pirates 1 Rockies 10

Why The Pirates Lost: There were lots of issues with this game, but the Pirates have scored 2 or less runs for 9 consecutive games. The amazing thing is they are looking worse not better. Even though they only got 4 hits they did manage to get 6 walks. Every time they got runners on base they decided to have a bad at bat. Jason Delay, Bryan Reynolds and Carlos Santana were particularly bad when runners were in scoring position. They were 1 for 8 as a team with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. Then we have the case of Tucupito Marcano. He whiffed on a throw from Carlos Santana, missed timed a jump on a line drive and then struck out on a ball that almost hit him in the head. Maybe he just can’t see. Either that, or he is the example of being a great AAA player and that’s as high as he can go. The Pirates DFA Chase De Jong so he can start his broadcast career, and this gave DUJ so much confidence that he got scorched for 4 runs on 4 hits and a walk in one inning of “work”. The winning streak stopped at one.

Key Moment Of The Game: It was the top of the 4th and I’m not even going to go through it. Only to write that this is where Marcano forgot to catch the ball and the Rockies got a bunch of bloops and soft liners and scored 4 runs, with only 1 being earned. Luis Ortiz got touched up for 7 hits but deserved a better fate. Despite all the action in the 5 innings he pitched, he only threw 77 pitches. This made the score 5 to 1 going into the bottom of the 4th, but you knew that this game was over.

Next Game: This afternoon, Rockies in Pittsburgh. When will the Pirates score 3 runs in a game? That is the burning question that is on everyone’s mind at the moment. Will it be this week? Will it be this month? Are their iPads malfunctioning? Does Apple have it in for the Pirates. Is there something wrong with their bats? Is sabotage a possibility? Could April have just been a plot by the National League to let the Pirates hit, just to fool their fans into thinking this could be a good team. If so, they did a great job because this team looks lost now. Maybe the Pirates should put all 13 pitchers on the field and see what they can do at the plate. I would love to see DUJ bat. I really have not lost faith in this team. It just seems like it.

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played South Park Score 71 Greens in Reg. 11 Putts 28

The Good: First off, I played the senior tees, but I am not going to disparage the round in any way. No matter what tees you play from you have to hit the fairway, hit the green, and make the putts and boy did I ever make the putts. Three of my four birdies were on putts between 15 feet and 25 feet. I knocked it on the front edge of the green on number 10, a par 5, in 2 and rolled up a 50 footer about 6 inches just left of the hole, for a tap in birdie. I drove the ball well and my iron game improved immensely with the 11 greens in regulation. I chipped ok to get it up and down 4 out of 7 times. I only hit one bad putt all day, a 9 foot birdie putt on number 5 that I slapped at because of indecision.

The Bad: Nothing. The weather was even good.

The Luck Of The Round: I had one big break on the 14th hole where I hit a drive to the right and was driven even further right by the wind. The ball ended up exactly between two tree stumps and I had a clear shot. I had a somewhat restricted swing but had only 112 yards to the green. I choked down on an 8 iron just about down to the steel and took a nice little swing and punch it right at the pin, ending up about 20 feet behind the pin. I made an easy par. I had a brutal lip out for a par on number 4 that I was getting ready to pick out of the hole but with all the other putts I made I cannot complain.

Next Round: Back to South Park on Thursday.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Offense Still Stinks But They Won

Final Score: Pirates 2 Rockies 0

Why The Pirates Won: A great performance by Mitch Keller enabled the Pirates to snap their 7 game losing streak. He pitched a 4 hit complete game shutout, striking out 8 and walking only 1 batter on 103 pitches. He finished strong by retiring the last 10 batters he faced. The Pirate’s defense was solid for the game, looking much better overall with Chris Ownings at shortstop and Castro back at 2nd. The Pirates offense did put some runners on base with 7 hits and 4 walks but hit or ran into 4 double plays. All in all, another weak performance by the Pirate batters but great pitching saved the day. The bottom line is the Pirates snapped that 7 game losing streak.

The Key Play Of The Game: Simple the 2 run home run by Rodolfo Castro with no outs in the bottom of the 7th. Castro, who has been shaky defensively playing shortstop, hit an 0-1 fastball straight away over the centerfield wall for a home run and the Pirates finally took the lead 2-0. Keller was not about give up the lead and the Pirates were never threatened, winning 2-0.

Next Game: Tonight, Rockies in Pittsburgh. Luis Ortiz takes the mound for the Pirates, a 24 year old raw talent with a fastball that can reach 100 MPH. He made a few starts last year and looked pretty good except for 1 start. Exchanging Ownings for Mark ( You Mean I Have To Take The Field) Mathias may be a bigger move than it would first appear. I would assume they may platoon him with Marcano at shortstop and Castro’s days there are over. He may get even more playing time if Marcano gets into his usual hitting funk. Whatever the Pirates do, Ownings is certainly a defensive upgrade from Mathias. I wrote yesterday that scoring 3 runs was more important than winning. If the Pirates had lost yesterday, 6-5 I might have felt better than I do now, but getting past the losing streak was huge. It gives the offense one more day to come out of their slump. Let’s start a winning streak.

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played South Hill Country Club Score 85 Greens in Reg. 3 Putts 34

The Good: The middle 6 holes believe it or not. I played even par by parring 6 holes in row with 2 good looks at birdie. All phases of the game were clicking even though I did not make putts of any length, I made a couple of 6 footers to save par. It took me awhile to start playing well and then it disappeared just as quickly on the last 6 holes.

The Bad: Obviously the other 12 holes. I started out like I had never played the game before. Then I lost 2 balls in the rough on the back nine, and that seemed to destroy any idea of shooting any more good golf. My putting was not very good all day, but just a poor attitude after some of the lost balls, 3 in all that were right on the course did not help the cause. It is one thing to lose balls in the woods or a hazard but when you are maybe 15 yards off the fairway and you cannot find your ball because the rough is so deep, that you almost have to step on the ball to find it, in my view is not golf. At least not for old guys. It really is just an excuse for a game that is in disarray.

The Luck Of The Round: None. Losing the balls and again not finding the hole on some very good putts just added to the frustration of a very nice weather day, at least.

Next Round: Tomorrow at South Park. Hopefully more familiar ground will help me get back on track.

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Pirates Morning Report: Where Have All The Hitters Gone

Final Score: Pirates 1 Blue Jays 10

Why The Pirates Lost: Just a continuation of a slump that just keeps on ticking. The Pirates for the 7th consecutive game failed to get more than 2 runs. They did leave 10 men on base as they got 8 hits with 3 walks. As bad as the hitting is, the pitching is worse. Chase De Jong was in the broadcast booth during a spring training game saying he would like to do this for a living. His broadcast career should start tomorrow, because he sure can’t pitch. He has a nice ERA of 10.61. The top of the 9th looked like batting practice for the Blue Jays. Contreras had a bad outing giving up 5 runs in 5 innings on 9 hits and 3 walks. This will end sometime. Let’s hope it is before June 1.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the top of third with one out Matt Chapman singled to left field. Brandon(I Have Been Reincarnated As Lou Gehrig For The Weekend) Belt took an 0-2 fastball and laced into centerfield for a hit. Whit Merrifield then took a 1-2 curveball, that was grooved right in the middle of the plate, into the leftfield seats to make the score 4-0, and you knew that the 7th straight loss was a lead pipe cinch, even without Chase De Jong coming into the game.

Next Game: Tonight, Rockies in Pittsburgh. Will the Pirates score at least 3 runs tonight. I think that is more important than winning the game. In the 7 losses the Pirates have score 9 runs. They have score 2 runs in 3 games, 1 run in 3 games and have been shutout once. When the Pirates were going good in one of the pre-game openings, John Wehner said the Pirates have no weaknesses. I think we found one John old buddy. You hope the Rockies will be just what the doctor ordered. The Pirates are 20-15. They got there a little differently than I thought they would, but this is just about how good I thought this team would be. Let’s hope they show it before it is too late.