Final Score: Pirates 4 White Sox 2
Why The Pirates Won: On a night where both offenses had some bad luck at times the Pirates were able to prevail and come away with a 4-2 victory. Another bullpen game for the Pirates was a big success. Eight Pirate pitchers held the White Sox to 2 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks while striking out 14 batters. I must say I was very critical of the Pirates when they brought up Brandon Eisert on September 1. However, he must have found something down in AAA. In his 3 appearances he has gone 4 innings giving up only one hit, striking out 6 with no walks. Last night he went 2 and 1/3 innings retiring all 7 batters he faced striking out 5 of them. The bullpen this year has had their bad moments, but they sure have made me eat a lot of crow. Unfortunately, the Pirates picked up no ground in the wild card race. They are still 5 games behind the Padres. The Padres leap frogged the Diamondbacks who lost last night. There are no teams between the Pirates and the two teams fighting for the final wild card spot. The Marlins and Cardinals have folded up their tent and are almost eliminated. There are only 16 games left. The Pirates must win tonight.
Key Moments In The Game: The Pirate offense had some bad luck early in the game. In the first inning they opened with 2 walks. Reynolds hit a line drive out and Nick Gonzales ground into a quick 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. Oneil Cruz opened the second inning with a single. On a 3-2 pitch to Esmerlyn Valdez, Cruz ran on the pitch. Valdez hit a 103 line drive that the White Sox 2nd basemen made a spectacular catch on and easily doubled up Cruz. Valdez hit a homer in the 5th to for the first Pirate run. Konnor Griffin got a big one out single to drive in runs 3 and 4 giving the Pirates a 4-0 lead in the top of the 7th. The Pirates almost paid the price for pinch running for Valdez in the 7th inning with Billy Cook, when the White Sox made a late inning rally. Camilio Doval came in to pitch the 7th. He loaded the bases with one out on a walk, a single, and a walk. Then he committed the cardinal sin of not even thinking about covering first base on a ball that Spencer Horwitz made a great play on. Who knows what he was thinking but the score was now 4-1 with the bases still loaded. This brought in Yohan (My Other Crow Eating Nemesis) into the game. On the 4th pitch he got a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. In the bottom of the 8th Luke (Poison Ivy) Weaver came into the game and got lit up. The inning opened with a towering home run by true outcome king Munetaka Murakami to make the score 4-2. Weaver loaded the bases on a single, a strikeout, a double and hit a batter. Chase Meidroth took a thigh high middle in change up and lined it 100 MPH down the 3rd base line. Jared Triolo leaped and stretch that 6’3″ frame as far as it would go and made a spectacular grab, stepped on third to end the inning. On a night full of bad breaks for the offenses the Pirates benefitted the most in the 8th inning. Mason Montgomery shut the door again and Pirates came away with a hard earned 4-2 win.
Next Game: Tonight. White Sox in Chicago. Both the Diamondbacks and Padres are idle tonight. If the Pirates lose tonight, they will fall 6 games back in the lost column with just 15 games to go. The 1964 Cardinals came back from a 6 game deficit with 12 games to go when the Phillies collapsed down the stretch. If the Pirates lose, they will need for 2 teams to that. Not that good of odds. There is no margin for error. Stay tuned.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 