Tag: pittsburgh pirates

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Pirates Morning Report: Making It Look Easy Despite Misplays.

Final Score: Pirates 7 Marlins 2

Why The Pirates Won: Well, the bullpen did well again. Other than that, I don’t know why the Pirates won. They made enough mistakes to lose this game, but the Marlins managed to not even make this game close. The starting pitcher for the Marlins A. J. Puke, I’m sorry, Puk pitched so bad, that he made his manager puke. In 2 plus innings he gave up 4 runs on 3 hits while walking 6 batters. The Pirates should have scored more runs, but poor base running did them in for the second game in a row. After 3 innings it was 4-0 but you thought the Pirates may have blown it by not taking advantage of all the walks. However, the Marlins perfected the technique for hitting into double plays by hitting into 4 of them. They would have hit into more, but some bad hops tried to save them. Nothing could save the Marlins in this game. The Pirates added single runs in the 6th, 7th, and 8th inning, by getting a few hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly. Ke’Bryan Hayes made 2 errors but again the Marlins could not take advantage. The Pirates got another mediocre start, this time from Martin Perez, who could only go 4 and 1/3 innings giving up 1 run, 6 hits, 3 walks, while throwing 86 pitches. Ryder Ryan went 1 and 2/3 innings giving up no runs and Josh Fleming went the final 3 giving up 1 run on 2 hits and walk. One final note and I don’t know how much this contributed to the win, but the Pirate pitchers got the low-ball strike and the Marlin pitchers do not. Maybe the home plate umpire has some relatives that work at Disney.

Key Moment Of The Game: It came in the bottom of the 5th with score 4 to 1 Pirates. The Marlins had 1st and 3rd with one out when Ryder Ryan came into the game. The Pirates had really let the Marlins off the hook in the 2nd and 3rd by scoring only 4 runs. A big hit here would have gotten the Marlins right back in the game. Ryan shut down the rally by striking out 2 batters on 14 hard fought pitches. The Pirates started adding to their lead one run at a time beginning in the 6th inning to win going away. All Pirate fans should give a big shout out to A. J. Puke, damn it I mean Puk.

Next Game: This Afternoon, the Marlins in Miami. Jared Jones makes his Pirate debut today as the Pirates try to make it 3 in a row over the Marlins. I am not sure if the Marlins really know the regular season has started yet. The Pirates are 2-0 simply because the Marlins have played worse. It had to be challenging to play worse than the Pirates did last night. But hey, we will take it. Hopefully Jones will be able to do something the first two starters could not, give us some innings.

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Pirates Morning Report: Maybe For The Marlins and The Pirates They Should Start The Runner AT Third.

Final Score: Pirates 6 Marlins 5 in 12 innings

Why The Pirates Won: A very strong performance by the bullpen triggered this win. In 6 and 1/3 innings the bullpen gave up only 1 hit, 2 walks, while striking out 4. Luis Ortiz and Jose Hernandez were particularly impressive in the extra innings holding the Marlins scoreless despite the fact they started each inning with the phantom runner on 2nd. The Pirates never even had to make a play at the plate during those 3 innings. Mitch Keller did not have his best stuff giving up all the runs in just 5 and 2/3rds innings, on 7 hits and 2 walks. The Pirate offense hit 3 home runs that accounted for 4 of the 6 runs. Oneil Cruz’s opposite field dinger in the 8th inning tied the game at 5. Jared Triolo was having a tough day at the plate until he got the game winning single in the top of the 12th. The most important thing the offense did was getting a very effective starting pitcher out of the game after 5 innings. The Marlins bullpen was not up to the task of protecting a 3-run lead. Despite the Pirates making an error that led to a run in the top of the 2nd, their defense was outstanding and helped snuff out numerous scoring opportunities the Marlin had, especially in extra innings. Some players had rough games at the plate as the Pirates struck out 17 times with McCutchen striking out 4 times and Cruz 3. All in all, it was a great opening day win for the mighty Bucco’s.

Key Moments Of The Game: There were many key moments in this game, not the least of which was the jam that Mitch Keller got out of in the bottom of the 2nd. The Marlins had posted 2 runs and had 2nd and 3rd with no one out. Keller bore down and got 2 weak pop outs and a fly ball to end the inning, keeping the score 2-0. The Pirates returned the favor in the top of the 6th by loading the bases with one out but failed to produce one run. At that point in the game, they were trailing 5-2, looking like they were headed for an opening day loss. In the top of the 7th the Pirates made things interesting by getting 2 runs on an Edward Olivares pinch hit home run and a McCutchen ground out which scored Michael Taylor from 3rd base. Then Oneil Cruz went deep in the top of 8th, and we were tied 5-5. The biggest play of the game came in the bottom of the 10th. The Marlins were able to move the runner over to third with one out. The Pirates intentionally walked the next batter. Jake Burger grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, only made possible by the great play by Conner (I know I didn’t like it when they signed him) Joe, when Oneil Cruz threw a low hard one way left of the bag. Joe dove to his right, caught the ball, and managed to stay on the bag. The inning was over, and Joe had saved the game. In the top of the 12th the Pirates finally scratched out a run to win the opening game of the season.

Next Game: Tonight, the Marlins in Miami. Martin Perez will start for the Pirates to see if he can keep the momentum going. This was a real nice gritty win for the Bucs. They made some first game mistakes but were able to overcome them, and pull out the victory in extra innings, thanks to a great performance by the bullpen. They are going to open the season oddly enough by facing 4 straight left-handed pitchers. The Pirates left-handed batters are going to get plenty of practice hitting left-handed pitching. One final off the field question. Are the Pirate announcers really into hair gel or did they just get out of the shower before they went on the air? Enquiring minds want to know. I can wait to see Bob Walk.

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Pirates Morning Report: Opening Day, Optimism Rampant

The Pirates open the 2024 baseball season tomorrow, visiting the Miami Marlins. There is much optimism for the coming season. This time last year it seemed like I was the only one that felt the Pirates might contend for a playoff spot. They got off to a hot start, but in the middle of that hot start Oneil Cruz suffered a season ending broken ankle. That essentially ended any hope that they would be a contender. This year many are writing that the Pirates will contend for a wild card and might even win the division. Certainly, the Pirates seem stronger this year in every phase of the game. What will determine how the 2024 season unfolds and how successful will the Pirates be? It goes without saying that the Pirates will need to avoid the devasting injury that befell Oneil Cruz last season. Assuming that the Pirates will remain relatively healthy, this is what must happen for the Pirates to make the playoffs or win the division.

I previously wrote that Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jared Triolo must come close to producing the offensive production that they showed the last 2 months of the 2023 season, and nothing has changed my mind. The Pirate management team showed they have a lot of faith in Triolo by making him the starting 2nd baseman. Last fall I thought Triolo would be on the team, but in the role of the super utility man playing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and possibly shortstop. I also thought that the Pirates would keep both Nick Gonzales and Liover Peguero. Instead, they will both open the season in AAA. They did not show enough in spring training to warrant being kept on the team, once it was decided that Triolo would be the full-time 2nd baseman. Keeping Alika Williams was a surprise, but I imagine that that he will be sent down once Ji Hwan Bae is healthy. That says something about the Pirate offense, where management is comfortable playing a no-hit glove man once in a while. Speaking of Bae, in 16 plate appearances in spring training, he did walk 4 times, so there may be hope for him yet.

Bryan Reynolds must get closer to being the player he was in 2021. He has been in a steady decline since then. Looking at two areas, WAR and OPS+, beginning in 2021 his WAR has gone from 5.9 to 3.0 to 2.4 and his OPS+ has gone from 145 to 127 to 113. In order for this team to win the division Reynold must at least play between his 2021 and 2022 levels. In an earlier blog I mentioned that the Pirates would be fine if Reynolds even played at his 2023 level. Since that time, I have changed my mind especially if they want to win the division. Reynolds has not had a particularly great spring, slashing .196/261/476. I never put a lot of weight on springtime performance. He could be experimenting around a little with his approach and swing. I feel that Reynolds will bounce back because he just seems to be a solid skilled player. How much he bounces back will go a long way to determining how this Pirate season turns out. If he would continue his decline, then this may be the first Pirate problem of 2024. On the other hand, Jack Suwinski is headed in the right direction. Using the same formula, Suwinski has seen his WAR go from 1.2 in 2022 to 2.2 in 2023. His OPS+ went from 99 in 2022 to 115 in 2023. If he can continue this upward trend the Pirates will be able to take another step closer to the division title.

There is no question that once the Pirates acquired Michael Taylor and decided to play Triolo at 2nd base they were going to put their best defensive team on the field in this century. If Carlos Santana was going to be at first base, they might be putting the best defensive team in the league on the field in 2024. Even without Santana this will be a very strong defensive team at least on paper. Will they play to that potential in 2024? In my view it is a very likely occurrence. I have always gone with Baseball’s Reference’s Defensive Efficiency Rating as my main comparison stat when it comes to fielding. Last year the Pirates finished 18th in DER. I expect them to crack the top 5 this year if they are going to win the division.

Then there is the Pirate pitching staff. The Pirates are going to prove or disprove the theory that you cannot have enough pitching. They have 24 pitchers on the 40 man Roster and only 4 are 30 years old or older. The Pirates have 9 pitchers that could easily go into the starting rotation and by mid-season that number should grow to 11. Two mainstays of last year’s bullpen are going to start the season on the IL, Colin Holderman and Carmen Mlodzinski, and it looks like the bullpen will not miss a beat. Dauri Moreta is going to miss the entire season due to elbow surgery, but there is no talk of getting bullpen help. With the high number of arms that is on this squad, hopefully, they will find 13 that will be very good to excellent in run prevention. The Pirates should be better in every phase of the game, hitting, fielding, base running, and pitching. The question will be, will this be good enough and will the players perform to their expected levels.

Can this team win the division? As long as they can avoid the injury bug, I would say they have at least a 50-50 chance. Could the Pirates win the American League East or the National League West, not a chance in hell. Thankfully the Pirates are in the National League Central, where all the teams are in a state of transition. I think it will boil down to how does the core of the Pirates perform, Jack Suwinski, Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Jared Triolo, Henry Davis, and the starting pitcher that day. They will either be the Magnificent 7 or the 7 Little Foys. It should be one of the most interesting and exciting seasons that Pittsburgh has seen in about 10 years, starting tomorrow. The Pirates Morning Report will start on the following day with a concise, no nonsense look, (well maybe a little nonsense, I just can’t help myself) at why the Pirates won or lost each game. I can hardly wait, but I must.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Boredom Goes On.

We are getting closer to opening day and Pirates are basically standing pat with this team. I am not that upset with the lack of real moves, but it would have been nice to see them make a real upgrade somewhere. I have an idea when it comes to writing about the Pirates. Instead of writing about trade rumors, title the articles wishful thinking trades. There is plenty of time for a trade and a good number of free agents are still available. For now, we must assume that the current roster is what the Pirates are going to put on the field. There are some interesting facts about the position players on this team and I will write about what this team must do to make the playoffs. The pitching is deep but already David Bednar is dealing with an injury that is probably going to jeopardize him being on the opening day roster. Everything discussed today will be mostly about position players.

Here is an interesting fact about this team. During the last 3 seasons, there are very few players on this team that have played more than 130 games in a season or catchers that have played 120 games. This has been due to injuries or being sent down to the minors. There are some surprising names on the list. Ke’Bryan Hayes has done it just once. Grandel has not done it since 2019, although he came close last year at 118. Rowdy Tellez has done it once. Olivares has never done it. Henry Davis has not done it at either the minor or major league level. McCutchen has been durable over his career but last year was the fewest games he has played since 2019. You have to wonder how many of these players are going to continue to be fragile. Right now, the Pirates have 17 players that they acquired by free agency or played a significant role on last year’s team. There are only 13 spots on the roster for position players. The Pirates will have some tough choices to make or will they be saved by the mysterious injury and the 25-day rehab assignment. What has to happen for this team to make the playoffs.

They have to avoid the catastrophic injury. Speaking of which, Oneil Cruz will need to have the big bounce back season that everyone is hoping for. To put it in WAR terms, he needs to have a 5-6 win season. It would be nice to see Bryan Reynolds get to that 4-6 WAR season again. He has had a slight decline every year over the last 3 seasons. I do not look at this as an essential part of the picture, but it would be a nice bonus. As long as we at least get the 2023 version of Reynolds it will benefit this team. One of the biggest keys to this season will be can Hayes and Jared Triolo continue the hitting like they did after the All Star break last year. Both of these players are elite glove men. After the All Star break, they both mashed. Hayes slashed .299/335/539, and Triolo slashed .298/.394/411. If they can continue to put up those numbers during the season, then this team could be an offensive juggernaut. Triolo did this while being a super utility player, playing three infield positions and being a plus defender at all 3. If he can hit like he did after the All Star break, I would love to see him settle in at 2b. That brings us to Liover Peguero and Nick Gonzales. Both were negative WAR players last year. Granted the sample size was not the largest, especially for Gonzales, but one of these players needs to step up and show that he can hit Major League pitching. The so-called fragile players need to have a healthy season, at least 80% of them. If Rowdy Tellez can approach his 2022 season that would be a plus barely. In 6 seasons he has never had a WAR 1 or over. This has to be close to wishful thinking that he will have a career year. Pitching looks like the Pirates strength, but we all know how that can go speaking of fragile. By mid-season the Pirates will have 15 pitchers that can be put into the 5-man rotation. The Pirates should be a team that considers the 6-man rotation. The battle for a spot in the starting rotation should be one of the most interesting things of spring training. The bullpen looks really solid with really no weak links.

I was very optimistic about this team last year and thought they would contend for a playoff spot. Then Oneil Cruz broke his leg and essentially the season was over. Over this winter Endy Rodriguez went down with a season ending injury. His loss is not as big as Cruz’s was, but it is still significant. This teams pitching is so deep that you would think that they have to contend for a playoff spot this year. On the other hand, I have used the phrase wishful thinking twice in this article. One thing for sure is that April, no matter what the Pirates do, will be a bad month. If the Pirates get off to a hot start, the media will say they did that last year and look what happened. If they get off to a bad start, the consensuses will be that they should have made more moves in the offseason, and they are still the same old mediocre or worse Pirates with a tightwad owner. Probably the best thing for them to do is to tread water for those first 30 games right around .500. Last year they were 20-10 at the 30-game mark. I would not mind seeing that again and be damned what anybody thinks. Bring on opening day, I can’t wait to start following.

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Pirates Morning Report: Heading To Spring Training

The month of January did see the Pirates make one significant free agency signing. That is saying something considering how slow the free agent market is moving. We are about 7 to 10 days from the opening of spring training and there are many top and middle free agents still out there and unsigned. The Pirates can still make a big move especially in the outfield but will they? Everyone wants to talk about their starting rotation and signing one more guy, but I am comfortable with what they have. I was surprised they released Max Kranick. I thought he might be given a chance at being in the rotation after his Tommy John surgery. As thin as the Pirates appear to be in starting pitching, they obviously felt that Kranick was not the answer, releasing him to be picked up by the Mets. Nothing against Kranick but hopefully the Pirates are right.

Right now, the Pirates have 9 starting pitchers on the 40 man roster. From most likely to least likely to make the rotation they are, Mitch Keller, Martin Perez, Marco Gonzalas, Quinn Priester, Luis Ortiz, Bailey Falter, Roansy Contreras, Jackson Wolf, and Braxton Ashcroft. The top 4 non roster pitchers are Paul Skenes, Anthony Solometo Jarred Jones and Bubba Chandler. It would be shocking if the last 3 made the rotation this year but Skenes is expected to make his debut this year but unlikely at the start of the season. This count does not include J T Brubaker and Mike Burrows both expected to return from what else, Tommy John surgery, during 2024 but who knows? The Pirates do have 15 bodies for the 5 spots. I am not too sure a free agent starter is necessary. The two most interesting pitchers in this group are Roansy Contreras and Jackson Wolf. There has not been much of a word about Contreras, so you have to wonder if his career is shot. Jackson Wolf was acquired from San Diego when the Pirates sent Rich Hill and Ji Man Choi to the Padres. If nothing else this competition will make for some good discussion. You cannot really say that about the outfield. Suwinski and Reynolds are solid but that is about it. I have discussed the pathetic options in right field before and am not going to waste any more time on this. If the Pirates go into the season with this group, you can kiss this season goodbye. There are many competent outfielders on the market right now that are very reasonable. The only other move I would like to see the Pirates make would be to bring back Carlos Santana. I do not think it is critical, but it would be nice to see that glove back at first base especially in the late innings.

The Pirates did sign Aroldis Chapman to a 1 year deal. This signing does give me some optimism for the season. Hopefully he has one more year in the tank and can stay healthy. It gives great depth to a bullpen that looked pretty solid before they signed him. He has great experience in meaningful games down the stretch. The one knock on him is he has lost some of his command. That can work to his advantage with batters being antsy in the box with him still wielding that 100 MPH fastball. He was one of the premier closers but seems to have settle in well as a setup man. Again, if everybody can stay healthy this bullpen looks scary good. This may be an oversimplification but just get a goddamn outfielder please to make this team complete. I do not care if it is a centerfielder, moving Suwinski to right, or a solid fielding right fielder with a good bat. There should be some great infield competition and will there be a big-time bat immerge from that battle. The Pirates are getting ready to head to spring training.

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Pirates Morning Report: 2023 Season Wrap Up

The Pirates won 76 games in 2023, a 14-game improvement over 2022. They wound up being tied for 21st place in a 30-team league. What is rather remarkable, is that they are about in the same place, in what I believe are the most important categories. In other words, all phases of their game need to improve equally. Looking on the offensive side, they are 22nd in runs per game with 4.27, 21st in On Base Percentage with .315, and 23rd in the comparison stat OPS+ with 92, where 100 is league average. Pitching, the Pirates are 22nd in preventing runs, giving up 4.88 per game, Fielding Independent Pitching 21st, with 4.40, and 22nd in the comparison stat, ERA+ at 97, with 100 league average. Nothing surprising here, with the both the batting and pitching being below league average. The Pirates did improve their fielding, finishing 18th in the Baseball Reference stat, Defensive Efficiency, compared to 27th last year. According to Wins Above Replacement (WAR) the Pirates worst 2 positions were catching and right field both ranking 29th. It is obvious that catching should improve overall next year. Coming in at 28th were 2nd and shortstop, somewhat surprising in my mind but those positions have a lot of elite players. Coming in at 24th were the starting pitchers and centerfield. Jack Suwinski and Ji Hwan Bae were the 2 who played that position the most. The Pirates were the 23rd best pinch-hitting club in baseball. The bullpen came in 18th in WAR. The first position to be in the upper half of the league Bryan Reynolds in left field at 14th. DH was next at 13th, where Andrew McCutchen had the most plate appearances by a wide margin over Bryan Reynolds. Thanks to Carlos Santana, who is no longer a Pirate, 1st base came in 12th. According to WAR Ke’Bryan Hayes was the big factor in putting 3rd base in the number 2 position. It certainly looks like Hayes will pick up his first Gold Glove. It is obvious where the Pirates need help, and I will get into that when we look at what the Pirates may or may not do going forward to the 2024 season.

I wrote about a week ago, that despite the Pirates winning 14 more games, the season was a disappointment. Losing Oneil Cruz for the season in mid April was a huge loss. The other injury, that was more or less swept under the rug, was the strange nerve problem of left hand reliever Jarlin Garcia, who the Pirates signed as a free agent over the previous winter. He had pitched in 285 games over the past 6 seasons with an ERA+ of 112. He would have helped the bullpen immensely, but instead never threw one pitch. I thought the Pirates would win around 80 to 85 games with the pitching being the main strength of the team. That’s where I was wrong. The pitching took a major step backward in 2023 and none more so than Roansy Contreras and Luis Ortiz. Let’s just look at the run prevention stat of ERA+, from one year to the next. Contreras’s ERA+ in 2022, 107 and in 2023, 67. He goes from being solidly above league average to way below league average with no physical problems. Luis Ortiz had an ERA+ essentially the same for both years at 92 and 93 respectively but he had one horrendous start at the end of 2022 that brought this number down. Both he and Contreras had huge drops in velocity at around 3 MPH less than they were throwing in 2023. Mitch Keller even though he did not regress never really made any big improvement. In 2022, he had an ERA+ of 104, 2023 ERA+ 105. Johan Oviedo in 2022 with both the Cardinals and the Pirates had an ERA+ of 126 in 21 games. This year, in 32 games his ERA+ was 103. Colin Holderman has digressed since coming from the Mets. They had better find a new coaching philosophy if this type of regression is going to stop. Then there is Robert Stephenson who the Pirates traded to Tampa Bay. With the Pirates, 111 batters faced, ERA+ 102. With the Rays, 140 batters faced, ERA+ 179. Are the Pirates really looking at these guys? The pitching which looked so good going into 2023 now looks like it could be a major concern.

With the stats, it is obvious where the Pirates need help. They need a right fielder. They need some stability at short and 2nd base. They now need some starting pitching because of injury and poor performances. What will the Pirates do in the coming off season? Who knows? What should they do in the coming off season? The subject of the next blog.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Final Game

Final Score: Pirates 3. Marlins 0

Why The Pirates Won: A dominant performance by the Pirates bullpen led the Pirates to victory in the final game of the season. They gave up only 3 hits and walked 1. The Marlins had one at bat with runners in scoring position. Jackson, Bido, Nicolas, Moreta, and Bednar, all pitched well striking out 11 Marlins. For the 4th consecutive game the Pirates scored 3 runs and this time waited until the bottom of the 8th to do it. They only had 6 hits but walked 5 times. Lots of traffic but few runs for the 4th time. Yesterday it was more than enough with such a great pitching performance. When you hold the opponent scoreless you usually win.

The Key Moment Of The Game: The breakthrough inning for the Pirates that produced the 3 runs in the bottom of the eighth. After one out, Conner Joe doubled down the left field line. Jared Triola walked. Miguel Andujar doubled to left to drive in Joe and send Triola to third. What is ironic, that may have been the last at bats for Joe and Andujar in a Pirates uniform. Jack Suwinski doubled, again down the left field line and the Pirates had a 3-0 lead, that they protected easily in the top of the 9th inning.

Next Game: March 28, Marlins in Miami. Yes the Pirates open against the team they finished with, the Marlins. I will be doing an in depth look at this season and looking into the future to see what the Pirates might do in the 2024 season. They wound up improving 14 games from last year with a final record of 76-86. When the season started the Pirates had only two position players from their 2022 opening day team, Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes. Next season you can add the name Jack Suwinski and that may be it. More on that later in the week.

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Pirates Morning Report: Same Pattern, Another Loss

Final Score: Pirates 3. Marlins 7

Why The Pirates Lost: For the third consecutive game, the Pirates had lots of hits and base runners, but few runs to show for it. In this game they were even worse than the previous two. They had 12 hits and a walk but could only score 3 runs. They were 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base. Quinn Priester pitched ok, going 5 and 1/3 innings, being charged with 4 runs on 10 hits, walking 1, striking out 3, while throwing 98 pitches. He had a particularly hard luck 6th inning. The bullpen pretty much stunk giving up 3 runs over the last 3 innings so the Marlins could clinch the playoffs rather easily.

Key Moment Of The Game: The score was tied 2-2 going into the top of the 6th inning. This was the inning that showed how a playoff bound team takes advantage of breaks and manufactures runs. They opened the inning with a walk on a 3-2 pitch that should have been called a strike. A bunt base hit put runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. A sacrificed bunt moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd. From there the Marlins pushed 2 runs across on a ground ball that beat the throw home, and a sacrifice fly to take a 4-2 lead. From there, thanks to the Pirate bullpen they coasted to a 7-3 win.

Final Game: This afternoon, Marlins in Pittsburgh. The Pirates will put a cap on the 2023 season today. They will have improved their record by either 13 or 14 games depending on the outcome of todays game. In my view despite the improvement and more than their share of injuries, this season has been a bit of a disappointment. I will be coming home from San Diego on Tuesday and delve into the 2023 season then.

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Pirates Morning Report: This Time It Cost Them

Final Score: Pirates 3. Marlins 4

Why The Pirates Lost: For the 2nd game in a row the Pirates had a similar offensive performance, but this time it cost them. The Pirates could only score 3 runs, even though they had 9 hits and 4 walks. They were only 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 9 men on base again. The bullpen game was going along quite nicely until Colin Shelby came into the game with one out and nobody on in the top of the 8th, with the Pirates leading 3-0. Nineteen pitches and five batters later the score was tied 3-3 with runners on 1st and 3rd and still only one out. Shelby had not retired a batter. A sacrifice fly and the Marlins had a 4-3 lead that they protected over the last 2 innings. The Pirates did not put up much of a fight getting only one man on base.

The Key Moment Of The Game: When Colin Shelby came into the came and was allowed to pitch to 5 batters without gettin an out. Oscar Marin made his usual worthless trip out to the mound but the Pirates did not get the bullpen up until it was too late and Shelby left the game with a nice fat round ERA of 9. The Marlins apparently voted him a share if they make the playoffs, so all was not lost for Shelby.

Next Game: Tonight, Marlins in Pittsburgh. So much for the Pirates being spoilers as their ineptitude allowed the Marlins to come within one game of clinching the last playoff birth. Quinn Priester is going for the Pirates. Can he have two good starts in a row? He better because Shelton won’t be taking him out until he gives up 8 runs, minimum.

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Pirates Morning Report: Winning A Nail Biter For No. 75

Final Score: Pirates 3. Phillies 2

Why The Pirates Won: Some two out hitting and an overall solid pitching performance allowed the Pirates to salvage the 3rd game of the series, picking up their 75th win of the season and finishing the road trip 5-4. After getting off to a slow start,allowing the the first 3 batters to get on base, Luis Ortiz gave up only 2 hits and a walk over the next 15 outs. The bullpen gave up only 1 run on 1 hit over the last 4 innings. On the other side of the coin the Pirate offensive stats looked like this should have been a blowout. Despite getting some big 2 out hits, the Pirates could only muster 3 runs on 11 hits and 2 walks. They were 3 for 8 with runners in scoring position but still managed to leave 9 men on base for the game. If they would have lost this game it would have really been a hard one to swallow. When you win, everything is fine.

Key Moments Of The Game: In the first inning Luis Ortiz started the game by giving up a home run, double, and a walk to make the score 1-0 with runners on first and second nobody out. The next batter for the Phillies hit a sinking line drive to center field that Jack Suwinski made a “routine” grab right off his shoe tops. Even the umpires weren’t sure he caught it but he did. From that point on Ortiz was in control. The score was tied 1-1 in the top of the 5th with 2 outs and nobody on. Bryan Reynolds hit a ground ball that just got by the shortstop for a single to left. Jared Triola hit a shot into the right center field gap to bring Reynolds home. Suwinski followed up with a sinking line drive to center, similar to the one he caught, but this one fell in for him, giving the Pirates a 3-1 lead they never relinquished.

Next Game: Tonight, Marlins in Pittsburgh. The Marlins at the moment have the inside track for the final wild card spot over the oil spilling mismanaged Cubs. After last nights suspended game the Marlins have a half game lead and the tie breaker over the Cubs. That’s not too say that the young Bucs can’t make life pretty miserable for the Fish. It should be a fun weekend to close out the season.