Final Score: Pirates 4 Cardinals 3
Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates were able to survive an impromptu bullpen game, where everyone did not perform all that well. Overall, the bullpen was solid with the two newest members, Angel Perdomo and Yerry De Los Santos performing very well. I will have to come up with an abbreviation for Santos. His name is longer than the dearly departed DUJ. On the offense side of the ball, they were able to produce some 2 out lightening, scoring all 4 runs after 2 were out. Ke’Bryan Hayes hit another home run. Not a misprint. Colin Holderman who has been solid but always seems to keep it interesting, did a little more than that in the bottom of the 8th. He could only get through 4 batters getting one out, then giving up a single, home run and a walk. Shelton made the move and Yohan Ramirez made him look good, by getting 2 outs on only 8 pitches. Bednar gave up one hit in the 9th, but nothing else, and the Pirates had the 4-3 win to move to 30-27
Key Moments Of The Game: Another frustrating day for the Cardinals as they could not do much with 6 hits and 4 walks. They were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and left 7 men on base for the game. On the other hand, the Pirates had the big 2 out run scoring 6th inning. It opened with a rare Nolan Arenado error. After two were out, pinch runner Ji Hwan Bae was at 2nd base. Bryan Reynolds walked. On a 3-2 pitch, Connor Joe ripped a double off the base of the left field fence to score the 2 runs. Carlos Santana followed with a pop up down the left field line that fell in for a hit and the Pirates had 3 unearned runs. That fluky little 4th run proved to be the difference in the ball game.
Next Game: This afternoon, Cardinals in Pittsburgh. Miles Mikolas goes for the Cardinals today and he has not given up a run in 15 innings. Rich Hill goes for the Pirates and the last time he hadn’t given up a run in 15 innings was when he was in high school. Just kidding! The last time Hill faced a similar situation the Pirates rocked the starting pitcher and Hill threw 6 shutout innings. If that happens again the Pirates will get the sweep. Finally, the pattern of the team that won the first game of the series lost the series ended yesterday. That has happened in the last 4 series that the Pirates have played, and it only went their way once. Ok boys let’s sweep those damn Cardinals.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 