Tag: baseball

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Bounce Back For Solid Win

Final Score: Pirates 8 Blue Jays 1

Why The Pirates Won: Even though it took him 106 pitches, Mitch Keller pitched another solid 6 innings. He gave up 1 run on 5 hits, 1 walk, while striking out 8. Then Luis Ortiz piggy backed him with 3 very strong innings only allowing 1 hit, no walks, striking out 3 while throwing only 36 pitches. The bats came alive right in the 1st inning, highlighted by a Ke’Bryan Hayes 2 run homer to take a 3-0 lead right off the get go. The Pirates continued to add on, finishing strong by scoring 5 runs in the last 5 innings and collecting 11 hits for the game. It was hard to believe that this was the same team that played the night before. The Pirates will have a chance for a series win today.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the 1st with Pirates just getting that 3-0 lead, Keller gave up a one out triple to Daulton Varsho. He walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on 5 pitches and the Blue Jays had 1st and 3rd with one out. Keller struck out Bo Bichette on 3 pitches. This brought up Daniel (The Turtle) Vogelbach, the famous Pirate leadoff hitter. Can you believe that the Pirates had this guy leading off to start the 2022 season. Typical for The Turtle he did not swing at the first 5 pitches to work the count to 3-2. Unbelievably he swung at the 6th pitch which was out of the strike zone to strike out. If he had taken it in the usual Vogelbach fashion, the Blue Jays would have loaded the bases. Instead, Keller got out of the inning with no runs scoring. Keller did give up a run in the bottom of the 6th but by then the score was 6-0 Pirates.

Next Game: This afternoon, Blue Jays in Toronto. This will wrap up this brief road trip and determine if it will be a winning or losing road trip. The Pirates in their own goofy way still have not announced the starting pitcher. I almost don’t want to know. The Sunday goofy lineup may be at its peak today. Well, I just looked on the website and they say it will be Quinn Priester. Who is going down? Only the Shelton knows for sure. I wish I could just understand their thinking. Tuesday starts a homestand against the Dodgers and the Twins. They need to get their act together now.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates More Inept Than Blue Jays

Final Score: Pirates 3 Blue Jays 5 in 14 innings.

Why The Pirates Lost: From the bottom of the 9th on there were 11 times that a team had a runner on 2nd base with nobody out and they failed to score 6 times. The Pirates did not get a hit the last 8 innings of the game. The fundamental of situational hitting went out the window for both teams. Inept hitting was pretty much equal, although the Blue Jays did get a huge 2 out hit in the bottom of the 11th to tie the game 2-2. Of course, baseball fans would not have been put through such an appalling performance by both teams stretching out for 14 innings if Ji Hwan Bae had not lost a big high lazy fly ball in God knows what by none other than Daniel “The Turtle” Vogelbach, that tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the 7th. All of this wasted another solid performance by Bailey (It Was Shelton’s) Falter again. Over 6 innings he gave up 2hits and 2 walks throwing only 81 pitches. Shelton then decides to take him out for a bullpen that stinks. Sure enough, the combination of Colin Holderman and Ji Hwan (Blind As A Bat) Bae gave the Blue Jays their tying run. Five of the Pirate starters hung big O for collars led by Connor Joe going 0 for 6. Grandal and Reynolds were next going 0 for 5. Stop the presses Rawhide Rowdy did get a hit.

Key Moments Of The Game: If you count ineptness there were about 25 key moments to this game. No question the big hit by George Springer in the bottom of the 11th with 2outs to tie the game 2-2 kept the Blue Jays alive to play another mediocre 3 innings. What really hurt was it was on a 1-2 count. Hunter Strickland decided to throw a four-seam fastball right out over the plate. This was the 21st inept moment. The walk off homer to win the game again with 2 outs was huge, if for no other reason it put the fans out of their misery. The Pirates lost another game to a floundering team to put their record at a floundering 26-31

Next Game: This afternoon, Blue Jays in Toronto. Mitch Keller starts today and has looked great his last 4 outings. The interest is high for this game to see how many innings the Pirates can go without getting a hit. Right now, it stands at 8. The Blue Jays are throwing a lefty so it will be unlikely that Tellez will get 2 starts in a row, but with Shelton you never know. This guy rolls the dice like managing is gambling in Vegas, and not a thought out skill. He has the record to prove it too.

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Pirates Morning Report: Getting The Split

Final Scores: Game 1 Pirates 0 Tigers 8

Game 2 Pirates 10 Tigers 2

Why The Pirates Split: The Pirates could not do anything in game 1. Jared Jones looked lethargic and admitted as much post-game. By far his worst outing of the season. He did not have much help as the Pirates made two errors behind him in the first 5 innings. Both errors contributed heavily to the Tigers scoring. The Pirates bats could only manage 3 hits and a walk in the disastrous 1st game. Going into game 2 you felt the Pirates had to win this game with Paul Skenes pitching and for whatever reason the Tigers deciding to go with a AAA pitcher. The Pirates fell behind early 1-0 when the Tigers scratched out a run in the bottom of the 2nd. Even though no error was charged Oneil Cruz essentially misplayed a ball that led to the run. The Pirates looked like they weren’t going to be able to hit AAA pitching as they went 6 up and 6 down in the first two inning. Andrew McCutchen unloaded a 3 run bomb in the top of the 3rd and Pirates never looked back scoring 7 more runs over the final 6 innings. Nick Gonzales had a big game, going 3 for 5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. The Pirates avoided disaster yesterday by gaining a much needed split in Detroit.

Key Moments Of The Day: In game 1 Jared Jones after the shaky 1st inning was able to get through the next 3 inning unscathed. He got the first out in the bottom of the 5th. Then he walked a batter and then Nick Gonzales messed up a tag play on a ground ball for an error and the Tigers had 1st and 2nd with one out. Matt Vierling took a hanging slider right down the middle and put it into the left field seats to blow the game open 6-0. The game was over. In game 2 in the third inning the Pirates caught a big break when a 1-2 change up that was well inside the strike zone was called a ball with Ji Hwan Bae batting. He promptly singled on the next pitch putting runners on 1st and 2nd with no one out. Andrew McCutchen’s 3 run homer would have been a 2 run homer if the ump knew what he was doing. It was a big extra run at the time for the struggling Pirates. Skenes pitched a solid 6 innings giving up 2 runs on only 3 hits walking 1, while striking out 9. The Pirates scored 6 runs in the last 4 innings making the bullpen’s job easy to gain the split.

Next Game: Tomorrow night, Blue Jays in Toronto. The Pirates have not officially named any starting pitchers for the series. Regardless, the Blue Jays have recently played the White Sox 6 times winning 5 to pull themselves up 3 games below .500. The Pirates desperately need to take 2 out of 3.

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Pirates Morning Report: No Investigation Necessary

Final Score: Pirates 1 Braves 8

Why The Pirates Lost: This would have been a shocking win considering it was Chris Sale vs. Martin Perez. It would become even more shocking when it became Chris Sale vs. the Pirate bullpen. Perez suffered a groin injury in the 3rd inning. He was able to finish the inning but could not come out for the fourth. The Pirate bullpen of Carmen Mlodzinski, Aroldis Chapman, Kyle Nicolas distinguished themselves by giving up 7 runs, on 9 hits in 4 innings of work. Hunter Stratton did pitch 2 innings of scoreless ball, proving once again if your 3 or more runs behind he is your man to hold the other team in check. It really did not make any difference how pathetic the bullpen pitched, with Chis Sale keeping the offense in check as expected. The Pirates did manage to end his scoreless pitching streak in the second by scoring their only run. The Pirates are 25-29 as they head out for a 5 game road trip beginning in Detroit on Tuesday.

Key Moment Of The Game: In the bottom of the 6th the Braves were leading 4-1 and I guess you could say it was still a game. The Pirates had 2 singles putting runners on 1st and 2nd with one out. Nick Gonzales came to bat, who is swinging a hot bat right now and as they like to say in the Pirate broadcast booth, he is an RBI machine. He was no match for Sale on this at bat, striking out on 3 pitches that were all in the strike zone. You have to give him some credit, he swung at two of them. Edward Olivares battled for 6 pitches but popped out to the first baseman to end the inning. The Chapman-Nicolas show plated 4 more runs for the Braves and the game was a blow out. The only good news here is that Chapman did not walk or kill anybody.

Next Game: Tomorrow, the Tigers in Detroit. The Pirates play 2 games in Detroit and 3 in Toronto. Neither team is above .500. The Pirates are 7-6 over their last 13 games. Not a great record but respectable. A 3-2 road trip I feel is a must. Jared (Mr. Six Inning Three Run) Jones is starting tomorrow against the Tigers. We are heading into the dog days of summer. Can the Pirates get hot as we head into June? Only The Shelton knows.

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Pirates Morning Report: A Solid Win

Final Score: Pirates 4 Braves 1

Why The Pirates Won: It was another solid start from Mitch Keller, with the 2-man bullpen holding the Braves to just 1 run on 9 hits, without allowing a walk. Keller pitched 6 and 2/3 innings giving up the run and allowing 6 hits. Colin Holderman and David Bednar finished up the game strongly to give the Pirates their 2nd win over the Braves. The Braves did come close a few times on hitting the ball out of the park, but as we all know close is only good in horseshoes. The offense did just enough to push 4 runs across and with the strong pitching performance, it was more than enough to get the win. It was a surprise that Rawhide Rowdy did not start considering that Chis Sale is going today for the Braves who is one of the toughest left handers in baseball.

The Key Moment Of The Game: The Braves had just tied the game 1-1 in the top of the 4th getting two 2 out singles to plate the run. It could have been worse had it not been for a spectacular catch by Ji Hwan Bae of a line drive off the bat of Marcell Ozuna to start the inning. Oneil Cruz started the bottom of the 4th with a walk. Nick Gonzales hit a ball off the Clemente wall that Ronald Acuna Jr. could not handle cleanly that allowed Gonzales to go to third. This was a critical error because this allowed Gonzales to score on a line drive out to the left fielder and the Pirates had a 2-run cushion 3-1. They added a run in the 7th which made things a lot easier in the 9th when Bednar gave up a double and a single with 2 outs. He was able to get Acuna Jr. to ground out to end the game.

The Next Game: This afternoon, the Braves in Pittsburgh. The Pirates go for the series sweep today but it is going to be a tall order. As mentioned before, Chis Sale is starting for the Braves. In his last 20 innings of work, he has not allowed a run, striking out 28 with one walk. The Pirates are sending out Martin (I Will Never Pitch That Good) Perez who in his last 14 innings of work has given up 15 runs, 24 hits, walking 4, while striking out 13. Anyone seen the movie, Rocky? Maybe the Pirates will start Tellez today just to make him look really bad just so they can DFA him. This has to be one of the biggest mismatches of the season. If the Pirates win today there might be an investigation.

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Pirates Morning Report: Mind Boggling Last 6 Innings

Final Score: Pirates 5 Giants 9 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Lost: Bryan Reynolds hit a grand slam home run in the bottom of the 4th to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead. From that moment on, the Pirates got one more hit, 2 walks, struck out 10 times and made 15 consecutive outs at one point. They did not get a hit from the 5th to the end of the game. Jared Jones pitched what I consider his standard outing now, 6 innings, 3 runs, with at least one home run. A good outing but certainly not phenom like. The bullpen thought they would get into the act by giving up 6 runs, 6 hits, but “only” 5 walks in 4 innings of work. In that 6 inning span the Pirates went from a team looking like they were going to win 3 in a row to a team that looks in total disarray. I don’t know what is worse, seeing them fill the bases and never scoring, or never getting on base period for a protracted period of time.

Key Moment Of The Game: Despite the horrible batting over 4 and 2/3 innings, the Pirates were clinging to a 5-4 lead going into the top of the 9th. Colin Holderman had limited the damage in the 8th when Aroldis Chapman walked the bases loaded to start the inning. Holderman allowed only one run to score which made the score 5-4. He got the first 2 outs in the top of the 9th. The count went to 2-2 to Luis Matos. He threw two sweepers in a row and Matos hit the 2nd one to left field for a base hit. Holderman opened the at bat by throwing a 99 MPH sinker. Reynolds booted the ball and Matos was able to make it to second. Holderman threw 3 straight sweepers to LaMonte Wade Jr. He ripped the third one to right field for a base hit to tie the game. Holderman threw a lot of sweepers in the 8th too, but when you have a 98+ MPH sinker why are you throwing the sweeper that much. Regardless, once the game was tied you knew it was over. The 10th was a disaster and the Pirates fell to 23-27. What a team!

The Next Game: This afternoon, the Giants in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes goes today for the Pirates and hopefully they can secure a series win. The big bad Atlanta Brave are coming to town. They haven’t been that big or bad lately winning only 8 of their last 17 games. I don’t know if that is good or bad. Are they due to come out of this mild funk? Let’s hope not. That’s what makes last night lost sting even more.

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Pirates Morning Report: Whoa! The Pirates Won?

Final Score: Pirates 7 Giants 6 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Won: The original opening sentence for this segment would have been the Pirates couldn’t hit, couldn’t pitch and couldn’t field. Other than that, they played a pretty good game. However, in the last two innings the Giants couldn’t do any of those things, plus went brain dead. Oniel Cruz’s night sums up this game perfectly. In the first inning he dropped a pop up that allowed 2 runs to score. He got two-line drive hits his first two times up at the plate resulting in a single and a double. His next two at bats went like this. He took a strike. He swung at a ball. He fouls a strike. He swung at a ball. He takes a strike. He swings at a ball way inside. This resulted in a strike out and a weak pop up between first and home plate. In the bottom of the ninth, he ripped a low inside pitch for a double to tie the game at 6-6 to send it into extra innings. Even though Martin Perez got a bad break when Cruz dropped that pop up in the first, he was working from behind for his entire 4 and 1/3 innings throwing 98 ineffective pitches. The bullpen gave up another 2 runs and Giants led 6-2 going into that eventful bottom of the 9th.

Key Moments Of The Game: In the bottom of the ninth, the Pirates had rallied to make the score 6-3, thanks to a walk, a double, a walk and a single, that had the bases loaded with 1 out. Andrew McCutchen hit a ground ball to short that had the potential to be a double play ball. In his urgency to turn the double play Marco Luciano did not field the ball cleanly getting nobody out and a run scored to make it 6-4. Bryan Reynolds hit a ground ball a little more toward hole at short where the force out was made but it was not hit hard enough to turn two. This enabled Cruz to get his big 2-out hit that tied the game 6-6. The Giants played like they did not realize they had a 4-run lead. In the top of the 10th the Giants moved the ghost runner over to third with one out. David Bedar went 3-0 on the next batter, LaMonte Wade Jr. Taking a page out of the Andy Haines hitting book, he takes 2 strikes essentially right down the middle. This, when all the Giants needed was a fly ball to get the run in. Wade fouled off the next pitch before striking out on a vicious splitter for the 2nd out. Bednar got the next batter to fly out to end the inning. Nick Gonzales ended the game, singling up the middle on the first pitch in the bottom of the 10th and the Pirates had an amazing come from behind win.

Next Game: Tonight, the Giants in Pittsburgh. Jared Jones goes tonight for the Pirates. He has not been quite as dominant in his more recent starts. It would be nice to see him have a great outing with 8 to 10 strike outs and no gopher balls. The Giants are going to counter with Blake Snell coming off the IL. Will he be a little rusty? The good news is we won’t be seeing Tellez. Can we make it 3 in a row?

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Pirates Morning Report: Falter Was Up To The Task, Too Bad Shelton Wasn’t

Final Score: Pirates 0 Cubs 1

Why The Pirates Lost: It was a great pitcher’s dual as Barry (Not My) Falter matched the best pitcher in baseball Shota Imanaga pitch for pitch. Imanaga gave up 4 hits but 3 of them were of the very weak variety, only walked 1 and struck out 7, while throwing 88 pitches in 7 innings. Falter gave up 3 hits but one of those was another pop up that should have been caught. He walked 2, struck out 2, throwing 83 pitches in 7 and 2/3 innings of work. Shelton pretty much slept though another game. In the top of the 8th he did not pinch hit for Alika Williams with Oniel Cruz when a right hander was brought in to start the inning. Colin Holderman got out of the bottom of the 8th jam throwing only 9 pitches. He should have come out for the bottom of the 9th. Instead, David Bednar pitched and after one out gave up a double and the game winning single. Yes, there was the close controversial call at the plate that replay upheld. It was not as obvious as Matt Capps made it out to be. Capps also described Imanaga has having a nice start to his career. That is like saying Shohei Ohtani is a pretty good player. The question to ask about that play is why did Bart take the ball out of his glove in the first place. Just make sure you hold on to it. It was a tough loss but the Pirates certainly did not do much to try and win the game.

Key Moments Of The Game: The decisions of Derek Shelton. The lack of moves and some moves that he made were all bad. You could argue that he should have left Falter in the game in the bottom of the 8th. Yon Gomes may have batted if Holderman had not been brought it. Holderman wound up walking the more dangerous hitter in Michael Busch. Without question this game was kept from going into extra innings or being a Pirate win by the manager.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. Jameson Taillon will go to mound for the Cubs, another one that the Pirates let get away. The Pirates will counter with Mitch Keller who has had one great and one good outing in his last 2 starts. No matter what happens tomorrow the road trip at least has not been a disaster. In the 6 games, the Pirates have been competitive in 5 of them. That is not bad considering you are playing the top of your division. Having said all of that it would be nice to see a winning road trip and a series win. The next 36 games, the Pirates play 18 at home and 18 on the road with lots of days off. They play some great teams and average teams during the stretch. We are heading into June. This team needs to get on a roll.

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Pirates Morning Report: Send Down Suwinski, DFA Tellez PLEASE

Final Score: Pirates 5 Cubs 4

Why The Pirates Won: A battling start by Jared Jones as he struggled through 6 innings giving up 3 runs, 7 hits, walking 0, striking out 7 while throwing 91 pitches. There were only two 3 up 3 down innings, but when he needed an out Jones was able to persevere. The Cubs were only 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position. The bullpen did the job, with very encouraging performances by Aroldis Chapman and David Bednar. Chapman threw 17 pitches, with 12 being strikes in a clean 7th inning. Bednar had a 3 up 3 down 9th with not even a loud foul being hit off of him. The Pirates offense thanks to a misplay in right field had just enough to pull out this tight win. What was not encouraging was the performances of Rowdy (They Are Putting Me In For Defensive Purposes?) Tellez and Jack (6 Swings And Misses, 3 Called Strikes, 3 Foul Balls) Suwinski. By the way that adds up to 4 strike outs in 4 at bats. Neither one should be playing in the majors at the moment. It is hard to win games with only 11 position players. Somehow the Pirates managed to pull out this game to improve their record to 20-25.

Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the bottom of the 8th the Pirates were leading 5-3 when Colin Holderman took the mound. The first pitch he hit the batter. Cody Bellinger on an 0-2 pitch hit a little dribbler in front of the plate. Yasmani Grandal’s throw was not good, but our defensive specialist Mr. Tellez made a half ass effort on trying to catch the ball. It got past him allowing the Cubs to have runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Holderman got the next batter to hit a sacrifice fly and the score was 5-4. From the Pirates point of view, Holderman miraculously struck out Ian Happ who crushes Pirate pitching. Just to make things interesting he walked the next batter and fell behind 2-0 on Nick Madrigal. He got 2 strikes and then Madrigal hit a weak ground ball up the middle that Alika Williams made a nice play on to end the inning. The Cubs scored a run without getting a hit, but it could have been much worse. Bednar pitched the magnificent 8 pitch 9th and the Pirates escaped with the win.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. Paul Skenes makes his 2nd start and hopefully will be able to lead the Pirates to the 2nd win of the series. Last night was a huge win for the Pirates but can they keep the momentum going in of all places Chicago. It will be hard, especially when you have only 11 major league players to choose from to start the game.

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Pirates Morning Report: Giving Up The Gopher Ball

Final Score: Pirates 2 Brewers 10

Why The Pirates Lost: About 2-3 starts ago Martin Perez was described as a pitcher who knows how to keep the ball in the ballpark on the opening of a Pirates broadcast. I guess they will have to come up with a new description of Perez. He gave up 5 home runs yesterday and the stats were amazing. Home Run No. 1 350 feet at 103 MPH. Home Run No. 2 370 feet at 104 MPH. Home Run No. 3 380 feet at 100 MPH. Home Run No. 4 425 feet at 106 MPH. Home No. 5 the grand finale, 441 feet at 108 MPH. Each one was hit longer was hit 100 MPH or harder. The last one, the crack of the bat was heard in Chicago. Nine runs on five home runs making the game a blast for the Brewers. Compare that with the last out of the game. Rowdy Tellez, 227 feet at 86 MPH. Statcast said that there was one little league park in Guam where that would have been a home run. The Pirates were not up to the task yesterday and fell to 19-25.

The Key Moment Of The Game: Any time Perez threw a pitch. In fact, things got so bad that the umpires were thinking of allowing Perez to use some kind of foreign substance to help him out. The Pirate broadcast booth was saying what a big game this was even though it was only May. Certainly, the Pirates didn’t feel that way, the way they played. The booth couldn’t get over the fact that Conner Jo leads the team in RBI’s despite playing so little. They must not realize how much the rest of the team stinks. Jo’s RBI total puts him around 60th in the league. After a promising start the road trip is now 1-2.

Next Game: Tonight, the Cubs in Chicago. For the next 2 nights, the big guns are going for the Pirates, Jones and Skenes. Could this start the turn around? Will Rowdy Tellez start all 4 games and extend his hitless streak to 0 for 35. I know he can do it if given the opportunity. He still has a long way to go to get to the 0 for 54 streak of Chris Davis. There is not much left to play for, so let Tellez go at.