Tag: pittsburgh pirates

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Pirate Morning Report, You Knew They Weren’t Going To Do It

Final Score: Pirates 7 Phillies 8

Why The Pirates Lost: Poor pitching was the culprit last night. Zach Thompson just had a bad start. He seemed to have righted the ship after giving up 3 runs in the 1st and then 1 in the 2nd. He got through the next 3 innings unscathed, dodging a lead off double in the 5th. Then we came to the key moment of the game. More on that later. Of course the Pirates did rally from the 8-0 deficit. Cal Mitchel hit a 2 run homer in the bottom the 7th, to cut it to 8-2. Then came the ninth inning rally. The Phillies big mistake was leaving Familia in the game after he gave up the hit to Greg Allen. If that guy gets a hit off you, you know your stuff is just not on tonight. They still left him in when he walked Van Meter, another cardinal sin, for a pitcher to make. In the end the rally fell short, and the Pirates lost a’gain.

The Key Moment of The Game: Thompson got those first two outs in the top of the 6th and it looked like this was going to come under the heading of a gritty outing, if not all that great of one. Then in a heartbeat there was a single, a single and then Kyle Schwarber hit the 3 run blast that seemed to put the game away, giving the Phillies a 7-0 lead.

Next Game: Tonight, Phillies in Pittsburgh. Even though the rally fell short the Pirates did score 7 runs. They did strike out 10 times again but maybe the bats are about to wake up. Cal Mitchel had one of his better games going 3 for 4 along with home run.

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Pirates Morning Report, Quintana Buckles Down.

Final Score: Pirates 1 Marlins 0

Why The Pirates Won: Jose Quintana pitched a very strong 7 innings allowing 4 hits no walks and striking out 4. He threw 81 pitches and I felt he should have come out for the 8th, but the Shadow wanted to give the Marlins a fighting chance and brought Will Crowe in to pitch. He tried to help the Marlins out by hitting a batter and getting behind most hitters. The Marlins did get another single with 2 outs but failed to score. The Pirates gave up on trying to lose the game and sent Bednar in to pitch the 9th. The Marlins were no match for him and went quietly in the 9th, only getting a walk. It was another ho-hum win the Pirates.

Key Play of The Game: Anytime Yoshi Tsutsugo gets a 2 out single that drives in a run, it has to be the key play of the game. You just knew it was his night. He put the ball in play every at bat and even hit the ball hard once. Unfortunately, it was right at the first baseman and resulted in a double play. It was a good thing that the run Yoshi drove in held up, because the Pirates had many opportunities to score getting 9 hits and 4 walks but could only muster one run. Incompetence won out last night.

Next Game: This afternoon Marlins in Pittsburgh. The Marlins throw out their ace, Sandy Alcantara, so expect another low scoring affair. If the Pirates are going to win it will probably be 1-0 again or 2-1. The slumber company should have no problem snoozing through this game. Let’s hope the fans at least get to hear a loud foul.

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The Pirates at The All-Star Break

Since we last analyzed the Pirates, they have gone 14-17. This is their best stretch of games barely, by a half of game. When you look at this team statistically it is really hard to believe that they had this good of a stretch. Their total record at the break is 39-54, which is still a surprise considering the fact they are in in the bottom 6 of every important statistic of hitting, pitching, and fielding. The only thing that is league average is their home run total which puts them 15th in baseball. In terms of analytics the Pirates have been just plain lucky to have such an unaspiring 15 games below .500 record. As usual, let’s take a look at each aspect that determines how a team is performing.

Hitting: The Pirates did pick up in hitting the long ball. At one time, they were as high as 12th in all of baseball, but they have cooled off some to fall back to 15th. Despite all the home runs, their offense overall has been pretty pathetic. In On Base Percentage, Runs per Game, and OPS+, they rank 28th, 28th, and 27th, respectively. As I wrote in the 62 game report, thank God for the Tigers and the A’s. The Pirates strike out a lot. In a nutshell the Pirates take a lot of strikes and swing at a lot of balls. The perfect formula for being a poor hitting team. Two players, that the Pirate press box say are hitting, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Michael Chavis are really not. Both have OPS+’s of 95 or under which means they are below average major league hitters. The loss of Bryan Reynolds is will not help the offense and there is no telling how long he will be out. You hope that Oneil Cruz will start to pick up with the bat but that is not a guarantee. There is not a reason to believe that the hitting is going to improve much, and it is cause for future concern.

Pitching: Again, the stats are skewed a little bit because of some very bad games. In Runs Allowed per Game, Fielding Independent Pitching, and ERA+, they are 25th, 26th, and 26th, respectively. A little better than the offense but not much. The Pirates are still over .500 in one run games at 14-12. The bullpen has done well in these close games. The bullpen has protected leads for multiple innings. The Pirates have lost 16 games this year by 5 runs or more. They have had 3 games this month, where they have given up a total of 48 runs. There is no question, that when this staff goes bad, it really goes bad. The good news is that the rotation has at least 3 arms for the future. Mitch Keller, J. T. Brubaker, and Roansy Contreras have all established themselves as solid mid rotation starters. J. T. Brubaker to me, has been the biggest surprise. Last year this man gave up 28 home runs and had an ERA+ of 80. He has given up 9 home runs so far this year and his ERA+ is 105. Keller’s ERA+ is at 93 which is still below league average but is a lot better than last year’s 69. In the last 13 innings he has given up 1 earned run. There is no question that Contreras has a chance to be a no. 1 starter. Zack Thompson has shown some solid potential over this stretch of games. The bullpen has been holding its own with some new arms. I have been most impressed with Tyler Beede. In his last 20 innings he has given up 5 earned runs and struck out 22 batters. It will be interesting to see if this staff can really build some momentum down the stretch.

Fielding: With my favorite fielding stat, Defensive Efficiency, the Pirates are tied for last with the Colorado Rockies. This is really scary considering the Pirates have one of the best if not the best defensive 3rd basemen in the entire league. It just shows how bad the rest of the players are in the field. The Pirates have committed the most errors 66 in all of baseball. In Defensive Runs Saved they are 23rd in the league. The bottom line is the Pirates have trouble making the routine plays. They also insist on playing infielders in the outfield for no good reason. This part of their game, at least for the moment seems pretty much hopeless, with no improvement in sight.

Management: Well, management is pretty much management, still not trying to win games this year and trying not to make losing games on purpose, too obvious. I will say this, I named 8 players in my view that should have been DFA’d and felt that none of them would be. They did get rid of 4 of them, but there is still a lot of dead wood, that would not be in the Major Leagues, if it were not for the Pirates. Depending on how long Reynolds is out, I think this would be a great time to see if Travis Swaggerty is ready to play Major League baseball. Why not stick him out in centerfield for next 4 to 6 weeks and see what he can do. Jake Marisnick needs to get on a Greyhound Bus. Moves like that make all the sense in the world. I know this team no matter what is done, would not contend for a playoff spot this year. However, giving the right players the opportunity, this team could win around 75 to 80 games. Obviously, this would not help the draft in 2023. This is what the Pirates and other teams in baseball have come down to. It is really sad.

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Pirates Morning Report, Slumber Company Wakes Up

Final Score: Pirates 8 Rockies 3

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates scored 8 runs on 16 hits, 3 walks and 1 Rockies error. All 10 batters got at least 1 hit. The Pirates had 13 singles and 3doubles, no long ball yesterday. They scored 6 of the 8 runs after 2 were out. The Turtle hit the longest single in time, in the history of Major League Baseball. It was a nice way to go into the All Star Break.

Key Moment of The Game: Removing Bryce Wilson in 3rd inning and getting out of the inning with only 1 run scoring. That inning could have been a total disaster. The pitching staff gave up 9 hits and 3 walks, but the Rockies could only manage 3 runs.

Next Game: Friday, Marlins in Pittsburgh. A welcome break with the All Star Game. Will take a look at these 39-54 Pirates sometime this week.

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Pirates Morning Report, Thin Bats, Not Air

Final Score: Pirates 0 Rockies 2

Why The Pirates Lost: They did not leave the hotel room with the exception of Mitch Keller. Keller pitched another nice game, giving up no earn runs, but got the loss anyway. The offense got 6 hits, with only one extra base hit. This game was just painful to watch. The All Star break can’t come soon enough.

Key Play of The Game: The rocket throw by Oneil Cruz, which led to the only run the Rockies would need. The Pirates may have tied the game in the top of the 6th, if anybody in the world would have been on 1st base but The Turtle. Yoshi Tsutsugo is 6 for 33, with 0 home runs and 0 RBI’s, since returning from the IL. He’s doing much better, now that he is completely healthy. The Shadow said for the 28th time this year that he is seeing signs that Tsutsugo is ready to break out, and start hitting home runs. As we all know, only the Shelton knows.

Next Game: Today, Rockies, in Denver. Mercifully we all get a break after this game. The Pirates took theirs, 3 days early.

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Pirates Morning Report, Watching Batting Practce

Final Score: Pirates 2 Rockies 13

Why The Pirates Lost: The pitching got rocked. The Rockies got 9 singles, 4 doubles and 4 home runs. Ten players made plate appearances and 9 of them got at least 1 hit. Quintana, whose value is dropping faster than the Stock Market, threw 103 pitches in 5 innings, and only 63 were strikes. The Pirates threw 173 pitches for 8 innings. The Rockies had 116 pitches for 9 innings. The offense wasn’t much better, getting 2 runs on 6 hits, and looking disinterested most of time. Ben Gamel struck 3 times in a row and hardly swung at any pitches. Maybe the Pirates think the All Star break has already started and these games don’t count.

Key Moment of The Game: Brendan Rodgers’s 2 out double, on a pitch out of the strike zone, that cleared the bases and gave the Rockies a 4-1 lead, in the bottom of the 3rd. The rout was on.

Next Game: This afternoon, Rockies in Denver. Let’s hope the Pirates show up today, but even if they do, the Rockies are hot and this could get real ugly. I am sure Yu Van Meter will be playing and leading off. He’s done a great job so far.

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Pirates Morning Report, Base Running 101

Final Score: Pirates 2 Brewers 3, in 11 innings

Why The Pirates Lost: This was a complete offensive debacle. In 11 innings the Pirates scored 2 runs on 6 hits and 5 walks, striking out 16 times. Then there was the base running that just made you shake your head. Cruz caught stealing twice and of course the Jake Marisnick, I think I’ll just try to sneak home from 3rd base. You have heard of the hidden ball trick. Marisnick thought he would try the invisible runner trick. A great move by one of our accomplished Major League players recently brought up. He was just trying to make up for those 2 home runs he hit and felt he had to give one back. Another good start, this time by Zach Thompson, was wasted. Will Crowe may have set some kind of recored. Threw 5 pitches and gave up 2 hits and loss, no outs. The Pirates did not wait to get to high altitude to become light headed and dizzy.

Key Moment of The Game: Allowing Billy Hamilton to get a hit. It resulted in the run that kept the Pirates from winning 1-0. This guy is one of the worst hitters in baseball. It’s a wonder he is not on the Pirates.

Next Game: Tonight, the Rockies in Colorado. No matter who starts tonight we will see if anybody knows how to play this game. Everyone seemed out to lunch yesterday.

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Pirates Morning Report

Final Score: Pirates 1 Nationals 3

Why the Pirates Lost: Sounds like a broken record but another silent night for the Pirate bats, getting 5 singles and a home run, plus striking out 13 times. Shelton was asleep at the wheel by not bringing in a left hander in to face Yadiel Hernandez. His spits are a little better against left handers but slugs less against them 353 to 408. He wasn’t 12 for 24 against lefties like Choi of Tampa Bay when Shelton went for the lefty in that game. For the second straight time trying to get 2 innings of relief out of Will Crow proved disastrous. Five straight losses all bullpen related. Quintana seemed to get back on track with a nice 6 innings allowing only a 1st inning run on 4 hits.

The Key Moment of The Game: The winning double by Yadiel Hernandez to take the lead 3-1 in the bottom of the 8th. The Pirates are losing the close ones now, which they did not do in the early part of the season. The bullpen, which was used so unnecessarily in the first part of the season, seems to be on the verge of collapse and we are not even in July yet. Things could get a lot worse soon. Remember the Nationals stink.

Next game: This afternoon, Nationals in D. C. Mitch Keller takes the hill and hopefully will continue to look like a major league pitcher. It is a day game, so could we see the dynamic duo of Van Meter and Chang. A guarantee for a 6th straight loss. The last 3 games the Pirates have scored 5 runs. They are not quite there yet but they are getting close to last place in some of the more important hitting stats. No kind of breakout seems to be in the near future. For the next 88 games, I hope you like low scoring.

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Pirates Morning Report

Final Score: Pirates 2 Rays 4

Why the Pirates Lost: Again, Roansy Contreas was not that sharp walking 5 batters in 5 innings, including 4 in one inning to score the 1st Ray run. He also benefitted from some hard-hit balls going directly to fielders. He still only gave up the one run, so he knows how to bear down when the going gets tough. You have to like the kid. Mainly, the Pirates bats were quiet, and it was another big strike out day with 12 Pirates going down on strikes. Yu Chang played, unfortunately and did get a hit. However, he made the last out of the game in typical Pirate fashion. With 2 out, Jack Suwinski walked and up strode the worthless Chang. Oneil Cruz was on deck. The first pitch was a ball which Chang took. The next pitch was even lower, and yet he swung, even though the Pirates desperately needed another runner on base. The third pitch was another ball, which should have made the count 3-0. Of course, Chang swung and hit a routine flyball to end the game. He did not have a clue on what to do or what was needed at that moment. Chang, you da man.

Key moment of the game: The missed tag by Diego Castillo in the bottom of the 7th proved to be the Pirates undoing. I guess it is ok for Castillo to learn and develop at the big-league level, but not Cruz. Before that, the Shadow wanted to make sure that the Rays had every opportunity to win the game, by bringing a left hander in to face Ji-Man Choi. Choi this year is 12 for 24 against left-handed pitching. Now he is 13 for 25, and the Rays went ahead to stay and then added on 2 more runs. They don’t call Shelton mister analytics for nothing.

Next Game: Tonight, The Nationals in D. C. The competition drops considerably with the Nationals. Shelton will have to burn the midnight oil to try to ensure that we lose to these guys. He may have to pull out all stops, by making sure that Chang plays in all the games, and Vogelbach is in the field. They haven’t announced the starting pitcher, but there is a rumor that it might be Bob Walk.

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Pirates Morning Report:

FINAL SCORE: PIRATES 2 DIAMONDBACKS 1

WHY THE PIRATES WON: FIRST GREAT PITCHING BY STARTER ROANSY CONTRERAS AND THE BULLPEN HELD THE DIAMONDBACKS TO 1 RUN. THE PIRATES WERE PRETTY INEPT IN ALL OTHER PHASES OF THE GAME. THEY HAD FIELDING ERRORS AND BASE RUNNING BLUNDERS TO MAKE SURE THEY WERE NOT GOING TO SCORE. THERE WAS ONE STRETCH OF THE GAME WHERE THEY MADE 18 STRAIGHT OUTS. THEN WITH SOME HELP FROM WALKS AND A DRIPPLER TO BEAT THE SHIFT, THE PIRATES LOADED THE BASES WITH 2 OUT IN THE BOTTOM OF THE 8TH. KE’BRYAN HAYES THEN STRUCK OUT TO END THE INNING. IT LOOKED LIKE THE PIRATES WERE GOING TO LOSE 1-0 AND CONTRERAS WAS GOING TO SUFFER A TOUGH LOSS. THEN THE BOTTOM OF THE NINTH HAPPENED.

KEY MOMENT OF THE GAME: IN THE BOTTOM OF THE 9TH BRYAN REYNOLDS WAS SOMEHOW ABLE TO GET A GROUND BALL THROUGH THE SHIFT INTO RIGHT FIELD FOR A BASE HIT. JACK SUWINSKI AND CLOSER MARK MELANCON BATTLED TO A 3-2 COUNT WITH MANY FOUL BALLS AFTER THAT. THEN ON A SINKING CURVE BALL, SUWINSKI WAS ABLE TO BARREL IT UP FOR THE WINNING HOME RUN.

NEXT GAME: THIS AFTERNOON, DIAMONDBACKS IN PITTSBURGH. ANOTHER SUNDAY AFTERNOON LINE UP WILL BE INTERESTING. WHAT CAN SHELTON CONCOCT UP, ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS FOR SURE.