Final Score: Pirates 5 Orioles 4
Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates were able to bunch 4 of their six hits together in the bottom of the 2nd to score 4 runs. Konner Griffin, in his first major league at-bat, took an outside curveball and drilled it into left center field for a double to drive in the first run. A single by Triolo, a double by Henry (I Can’t Believe Either) Davis, and a single by Oneil Cruz put 3 more runs on the board. Mitch Keller pitched an erratic but effective six innings. He gave up 2 runs on 6 hits. He struck out 3 and walked 3. He threw 88 pitches. Yohan Ramirez came on in the 7th and really did not pitch that badly. He was the victim of some bad luck and a little wildness. He gave up a bloop single and a double that led to a run. He got a fly ball to center before walking a batter to put runners on 1st and 2nd with one out. Mason Montgomery came in and put out the fire. Griffin made a nice defensive play on a little dribbler to short that took a funny hop to get the second out. Montgomery struck out the next batter to end the inning. The Pirates scored what proved to be the deciding run without getting a hit. Two walks, a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly gave them their 5th run. They needed that run when Gunnar Henderson hit a home run in the top of the 9th to make it 5-4. It was a nice opening day win for the Buccos.
Key Moment Of The Game: It came during Konner Griffin’s first at-bat. He kept swinging at sweepers that were outside the strike zone. He had a 1-2 count when he barely foul-tipped another outside pitch with the end of the bat. The Oriole catcher could not hold it, and Griffin had life. One more curve sweeper that was a little higher and just caught the outside of the plate was ripped into left center field. The Pirates ran the bases aggressively and scored 4 runs thanks to some Orioles’ offline throws. This was a game that the Orioles could have easily won.
Next Game: Today Orioles in Pittsburgh 4:05 PM. Carmen Mlodzinski will go for the Pirates. Baltimore will counter with Shane Baz, a former Pirate prospect who was given up in the Chris Archer trade. It will be interesting to see if Nick Gonzales will start tomorrow. I know we are still in small sample size mode, but Jared Triolo, even with 2 hits yesterday, has an OPS of .569. Nick Gonzales has a .764 OPS. Gonzales has 5 RBIs and Triolo 1. This team needs bats more than it needs gloves. One final thing: GET CRUZ OUT OF THAT LEAD-OFF SPOT. The Pirates put the anal in analytics.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 