Final Score: Pirates 1 Phillies 2
Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirate offense was weak the whole game but those first 3 innings were pathetic. The first 9 batters that the Pirates sent to the plate made contact with ball only 8 times. Let that one sink in for a while. Three of those were put in play for outs with the highest exit velocity around 98 MPH. The other two outs were under 90 MPH. There were 5 foul balls. The other 6 batters struck out. Of those 6, three of them never touched the ball. The Pirates did manage to score in the bottom of the 4th on a single, walk, and a double. There was some question on whether the 3rd base coach should have sent McCutchen on the double, but I rarely 2nd guess 3rd base coaches unless it is really a blatant mistake. It’s not his fault that Henry Davis could only hit the ball 140 feet. Mitch Keller pitched ok going 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up a 2 run home run to Kyle Schwarber, 5 other hits, walking 3 and striking out 8 while throwing 108 pitches. It was not a great performance but a hell of a lot better than his previous two. Unfortunately, the Pirate offense fell asleep and the homestand gets started with a tough one run loss.
The Key Moment Of The Game: A thunderstorm got Zack Wheeler out of the game which gave the Pirates some hope. In the bottom of the 8th inning Josh Palacios and Connor Joe each got pinch hit singles, to put runners at 1st and 2nd with one out. Bryan Reynolds swung at strikes and took balls, which worked the count to 2-2. Unfortunately, he hit a ground ball fairly hard up the middle, 98.8 MPH, to the 2nd baseman, where he stepped on second and threw to first for an easy inning ending double play. The Pirates did get a walk with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th but could not score and the game was over.
Next game: Tonight, Phillies in Pittsburgh. Quinn Priester will make his third major league start tonight and hopefully will continue to show improvement. For whatever reason the Pirates continue to lead off with Jack Suwinski and he continues not to get on base. Of course, the way this lineup hits, it probably doesn’t make any difference what order they hit in. I don’t know if I have ever seen a beginning to a game where the batters made so little contact with the ball. Can the young guys get out of this funk? It does not look good.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 