Tag: pittsburgh pirates

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Pirates Morning Report: Bullpen Shakily Prevents Three Peat

Final Score: Pirates 9 Rockies 5

Why The Pirates Won: Spencer Horwitz had a huge game enabling the Pirates to pull out the 3rd game. He hit 2 home runs and drove in 6 runs. The game had the eerie feeling of game 2. Mitch Keller had pitched a solid 5 innings. He had given up 1 run on 4 hits. He struck out 4 and had not walked anyone. The Pirates had taken an 8-1 lead on Horwitz’s 2nd homer. In the bottom of the 6th Keller walked his first batter of the game. Then BAM, Keller gave up 3 straight home runs to make it 8-5, and you thought here we go again. Carmen Mlodzinski got out of the inning giving up a two out double. The Pirates held on for the 9-5 win to salvage the final game of the series, but it wasn’t pretty.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates were able to score one run in the top of the eighth without getting a hit. Two hit by pitches and a bonehead play by their first basemen netted a run. The last three innings the the Pirates made it interesting. Mlodzinski gave up a single and a walk to start the 7th. He quickly got 2 outs on a fly out and ground out. He got a generous 3rd strike call to end the inning. Isaac Mattson struck out the first batter on a timeout violation. He proceeded to boot a ground ball and then walk a batter. He went 3-1 on the next batter but got him to fly out. He got the third out on an easy pop out. Dennis Santana came in the bottom of the 9th to protect a 4 run lead again. He did it this time but not without the help of some great defense by the Pirates. He hit the first batter. The next batter lined it to right. Jack AAA Swuwinski made a nice leaping catch. Jared AAA Triolo made a nice play on a slow chopper to 3rd. The last batter hit a liner but right at Tommy Pham to end the game. It was not a three peat.

Next Game: Tonight, Giants in Pittsburgh. Johan Oviedo is going to make his 2025 debut tonight. Yesterday the AAA boys went 1 for 7 with 3 walks and 2 hit by pitches. They scored 2 runs. Why on earth anyone would walk them I have no idea. Their highest batting average in the group is now .168. I am sure they are going to get plenty of playing time while better players continue to stay in AAA. We will continue to keep everyone posted.

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Pirates Morning Report: Can’t Beat The Bad Teams

Final Score: Pirates 5 Rockies 8

Why The Pirates Lost: For the 2nd game in a row the Pirates blew a lead. It was 4 runs this time not 9. Paul Skenes was breezing along the first 5 innings giving up 2 hits and a walk. He had struck out 8. He had thrown 73 pitches. In the bottom of the 6th all hell broke loose. He threw 21 pitches. He did not get anyone out. The next to last batter he faced he threw a fastball right down the middle. It was hit out for a 3 run homer. Braxton Ashcraft didn’t fair much better and the Rockies had a 6 run inning. They added on in the 7th and 8th to win. All of this wasted a great day at the plate for Liover Peguero. He had a 3 home run day and drove in all 5 runs. Reynolds and IKF each got 2 hits. The rest of the lineup went 0 for 21 with 4 walks. At one point in the game the Pirates had 3 players in the lineup with batting averages under .175. They were led by Jack Suwinskl’s splendid .104. Will it ever end?

Key Moment Of The Game: The Rockies had tied the game 4-4 in the bottom of the 6th. The was nothing cheap about any of the hits. They had runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Ashcraft struck out the next batter. Austin Nola then hit this little 62 MPH blooper right down the right field line into no man’s land. It wasn’t even close to being caught. This scored the go ahead run putting runners on 2nd and 3rd. A ground out scored the 6th run in the inning. The Rockies never looked back and had their 2nd win in a row.

Next Game: This afternoon, Rockies in Colorado. There are only 4 teams in baseball with worse records than the Pirates. They have lost 5 in a row to two of them. Just another sports mystery. Mitch Keller will try to break the streak today. The Pirates will throw out their finest AAA lineup to give him the best support that they can. The AAA players include Triolo, Canario, Davis, and Suwinski, We will see how many play today.

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Pirates Morning Report: Sixteen Runs Not Enough In Colorado

Final Score: Pirates 16 Rockies 17

Why The Pirates Lost: They lost because they are the Pirates. Why Tom Harrington was brought up God only knows. He has a AAA ERA of 5.48 in 90 innings. Why would you bring up Jared Triolo? Nick Yorke needs a shot. Even Ji Hwan Bae is hitting close to .300 with an on base of .393. What about Cam Devanny? You remember him right? The guy you got for Frazier. The stats are mind blowing for this game. The Pirates had 16 runs on 18 hits. They received 9 walks and a hit by pitch. It was not good enough. The Rockies had 17 runs on 22 hits. They received 5 walks. Harrington’s pitching line was one for the ages. He got 2 batters out. He gave up 6 runs on 7 hits. Four of the hits were doubles. He gave a new meaning to double machine. I do not blame him. Any one in their right mind would know that he is not ready to pitch at the Major League level. The Rockies were down by 9 runs twice in this game. Dennis Santana got blasted in the bottom of the ninth and the Rockies had one of the greatest walk off wins of 2025.

Key Moments Of The Game: After 5 innings the score was 15-10. Kyle Nicolas had settled things down by getting 3 outs in a row with a runner on 2nd. In the top of the 6th the Pirates loaded the bases with no outs. Cruz struck out. Pham popped out. Joey Bart got hit by a pitch to force in a run. Jared AAA Triolo flied out to right field to end the inning. The Pirates came away with only one run. They never threatened the rest of the game. Yohan AAA Ramirez gave up a 2 run homer in the 8th to make it 16-12. The Rockies had the miracle walk off 9th for their 29th win of the season.

Next game: This afternoon, Rockies in Colorado. Paul Skenes goes for the Pirates today. Hopefully he can get them back on track. Yesterday was a big time momentum killer. Four of their last five losses have been against the worse 2 teams in baseball. Their other loss they shut the team out for 9 innings. This is what happens to you when you have 4 players on the team that should be in AAA. It’s what happens when you have Pham and IKF blocking young players from being on your team gaining valuable MLB experience. This franchise needs to be investigated.

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Pirates Morning Report: Basically Uneventful Trade Deadline For Pirates

Here we are the day after the trade deadline. The Pirates are essentially the same team as they were before. They dumped Bednar and Hayes. No surprise there. They traded Ferguson and Falter. They traded Taylor Rogers who they just acquired. All for prospects that are not Major League ready. The closest is Rafael Flores who is a catcher with some 1st base experience. He just got promoted to AAA playing just 10 games. It was very surprising to me that they did not trade IKF or Pham. It is really hard to say what all of this means. It just continues the process of wondering what the Pirates are thinking? Rather than write about what the Pirates should be doing, I will take a crack at their thought process.

Since they did not trade them, they might be thinking of signing Pham and IKF. This team is 35-36 under Don Kelly. Dare we dream after the Rockies series that they will be over .500. If they could have played the season like this they would be 54-55, 6 games out of the last wild card spot. They may be thinking of making a bigger splash in the off season. This Pirates team despite all of its problems has played close to .500 ball for almost half a season. This will keep you at least in playoff contention. They have to be thinking this team just needs tweaked not over hauled.

If the Pirates continue to play or God forbid even better than .500 ball the rest of the season, then I think the management team will stay the same. Ben Cherington will be back. Don Kelly will be the manager. Cherington staying on will drive the fan base crazy. This was a man that did not approach the trade deadline like his job depended on it. As a last place team in the division the Pirates did not do that much selling. They did more dumping with not much concern what the return would be. The Pirates do not have to bring up any new position players from July 30th. I sure as hell would have lost that bet. They will have to bring up 2 or 3 new pitchers. I am not even going to begin to speculate who that might be. I will just wait till game time and shake my head.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pirates Sweep Giants Despite Themselves

Final Score: Pirates 2 Giants 1 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Won: Obviously, it was the pitching again. I always write all is forgiven when you win. This offensive performance may be the exception. Ten of the first 12 outs of the game were strikeouts. They were 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position. They left 13 men on base. They had 7 hits plus 7 walks and could score just 1 run. They wound up striking out 14 times for the game. Even with the pitching you had to wonder how in the hell did they win. Of course the Giants did help. The pitching was brilliant. Mike Burrows looks better every time he pitches. He went 6 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits. He struck out 7 and walked 1. He threw 91 pitches. Carmen Mlodzinski pitched 2 innings giving up just a hit. Isaac Mattson pitched the last 2 innings giving up 2 hits. He had an amazing 10th inning.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Giants got a run in the bottom of the 4th. They had all 3 of their hits in the inning to score. The Pirates broke right back in the top of the 5th with an IKF single and a Spencer Horwitz double to start the inning. One out later, the Pirates had two walks to load the bases. Nick (The Supposed RBI Machine) Gonzales grounded into a double play to end the inning. The 10th inning both teams tried to give it away. The Giants refused to take it. The Pirates had 1st and 3rd with one out. Henry Davis hit it right back to the pitcher. Instead of going home he tried to get the double play by throwing to second. One problem. Suwinski broke on the pitch and beat the throw to second. Davis was still thrown out but the Pirates had a 2-1 lead. The bottom of the 10th opened with a big pop up to left field. Jack (I Think I Need Glasses) Suwinski lost the ball in the sky and it fell to earth. A sacrifice put runners on 2nd and 3rd. That’s when Mattson took over. He struck out the last two batters throwing 9 straight fastballs to end the game. Who needs pitch sequencing. The Pirates have won 8 out of 9.

Next Game: Tomorrow night, Rockies in Colorado. Hopefully the Pirates will be able to continue the momentum against the Rockies. No matter what happens they will be doing it without Ke’Bryan Hayes. One of my must trade players is gone. I will reserve comment until the trade deadline has past. If the Pirates do something really good I may be posting tonight. Most likely I will just be doing my usual Morning Report. I known, the Pirates doing something really good. Look every blog needs a little humor.

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Pirates Morning Report: Turning The Infield Hit Into An Art Form

Final Score: Pirates 3 Giants 1

Why The Pirates Won: Outstanding pitching was back. Falter went 5 innings giving up 1 run on 2 hits. He did walk 4 but managed to throw only 70 pitches. Braxton Ashcraft pitched 3 perfect innings. Dennis Santana pitched a clean 9th to get the save. Liovar Peguero hit a solo homer. The Pirates infield hit their way to 2 runs in the top of the eighth. The Pirates had 12 hits but couldn’t do much with it leaving 10 men on base. As I always say all is forgiven when you win. Not so much when you lose. The Giants looked bad last night. They were doubled off second base on an infield fly rule in the first inning. Looks like Rafael Devers did the Red Sox a big favor by refusing to play 1st base.

Key Moments Of The Game: It was a tale of two contrasting innings. In the bottom of the 4th the Giants hit 3 balls over 100 MPH and 2 over 90 MPH coming away with 1 run. That was a lead off home run by Willie Adames. Falter had the at em ball going that inning. In the top of the 8th the Pirates did not hit on ball over 100 MPH. They hit 5 consecutive ground balls. Two did not go over 70 MPH. One went 87. Two went 97. They all resulted in hits or runs. The ground ball by Ke’Bryan Hayes was misplayed thanks to Deavers not knowing what to do at first base. This loaded the bases. Joey Bart singled on a ground ball between short and 3rd to knock in the 2nd run. Peguero hit a little 69 MPH topper down third that Matt Chapman could only throw Peguero out at first bringing in the 3rd run. Three balls over 100 MPH, one run. No balls over 100 MPH 2 runs. Things are going the Pirates way as they have won 7 of 8.

Next Game: This afternoon, Giants in San Francisco. Mike Burrows goes for the Pirates today as they try and get a road sweep. Tomorrow is the infamous trade deadline. May have two blogs tomorrow if the Pirates do anything significant. That is not very likely. The bad news is, even if they trade him, this recent resurgence of Tommy Pham may have save Ben Cherington’s job. What danger lurks in the mind of Ben Cherington? Who knows? Only The Shadow Shelton knows. I couldn’t help myself. I had to get that in one last time. I also want to squelch this rumor. That was not Derek Shelton serving fries at McDonald’s. It was Burger King.

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Dominate Series

The Pirates extended their win streak to 6 games by sweeping the Cardinals. The offense did ok scoring 13 runs for the series. They only scored one run in game 2 but it was enough. In a spectacular pitching performance the Pirates did not allow a run for the entire series. In the 1st game of the series Andrew Heaney was dominate taking a no hitter into the 6th inning. For the game the Cardinals had 4 hits and a walk. Games 2 and 3 were studies in frustration for the Cardinals offense. In game 2 they had 7 hits and 4 walks. They were 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. This was the 1-0 game where the Pirates only had 4 hits. Don Kelly looked brilliant when he pinch hit for the suddenly hot Tommy Pham. Pinch hitter Adam Frazier doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Henry Davis’s sacrifice fly drove in the only run of the game. The Cardinals offensive failures continued in game 3. They had 6 hits, including 3 doubles, and 3 walks. They left 10 men on base again by going 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position. This all added up to 3 straight shutouts for the Pirates and a 6 game winning streak. The Pirates head on the road to face the Mariners,Royals and Twins. These teams are decent but not power houses. If they can somehow someway do something extraordinary and continue this winning streak for a few more games they may salvage this season yet.

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Pirates Morning Report: Blowing Out The Mets Over The Weekend

Since I have been gone the Pirates are 3-2. They lost 2 to the Brewers. The last game of the series saw Paul Skenes lose to Jacob Misiorowski. Skenes had a “bad” bottom of the 2nd giving up 4 runs. Even though all the runs were earned, it was an inning where only 2 runs should have scored. It was not to be. The Pirates scored 1 in the 7th and 1 in the 8th to make it interesting. With a little luck and better defense it could have been a tie game at this point. But oh what a weekend. The Pirates destroyed the New York Mets. They out scored them 30 to 4 in the 3 games. I can’t even remember when the Pirates dominated a team like this. Holding the Mets to 4 runs over the 3 games was impressive enough. Scoring 30 runs in those game was miraculous. Cruz woke up Sunday hitting two 2 run homers. Henry Davis had a 4 hit game. Tommy Pham continued his hot bat hitting his 2nd home run of the season. Bryan Reynolds went 5 for 14 for the weekend hitting 2 home runs. Ke’Bryan Hayes went 7 for 13 for the weekend. It was a total team demolition of the New York Mets. The Cardinals come to town next. Can the Pirates keep this up? This should have given this team a confidence boost. Can they win 6 in a row.

On a sad note Dave Parker passed away on Saturday June 28th. At least he knew he was going to the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer. I believe the one thing that kept Dave Parker from getting into the Hall was his lack of the home run ball He was big and strong but hit just 339 home runs. He hit 30 or over just twice in 19 years. His 162 game average was 22. He could do it all. His extra base average was 40 per year. He had a great arm and won 3 Gold Gloves. His career WAR was 40.1. I fine that to be low. His post season hitting although not bad did not meet up to his regular standards. Maybe it was his brashness that kept him out. The newspaper writers loved him for his one liners and cockiness. But then they used that as an excuse for not voting him in. Parker would have been the greatest right fielder in Pirates history if not for the Great One Roberto Clemente. Parker was one of a kind. The Hall needed him to get in. I’m just happy that he knew he was going.

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Pirates Morning Report: Offense Still Stinks.

Final Score: Pirates 2 Cubs 1 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Won: This was the battle of the passive bats. The Pirates eked out the win. The Pirates took 25 pitches for strikes. The Cubs outdid them by taking 28 pitches for strikes. Each team only scored 1 run in the first 9 innings. The Pirates scored a run in the top of the 10th with the ghost runner on second. The Cubs could not even do that, giving the Pirates a 2-1 victory. Paul Skenes was undone by the foul balls. There were 24 foul balls. It took him 95 pitches to get through 5 innings. He gave up 4 hits and walked 2. It was far from his best stuff. It was a gritty performance in rainy conditions. The Pirate offense continues to amaze. They only had 6 hits in 10 innings. They were 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. They did walk 3 times and kept their strikeouts at 7. It was a nice and fortunate win for the Pirates. The road trip is at 1-1. Can they get at least 2 wins in the next 5 games? Will they ever start swinging the bats? I mean that literally.

Key Moments Of The Game: After breezing through the first 2 innings, Paul Skenes had a rough 3rd inning. He did not give up a run but threw 35 pitches to get through the inning. He faced 5 batters. On the last 4 batters, he reached 3 and 2 counts. He gave up a single and a walk. In the bottom of the 4th, he gave up a 2-out double. In the 5th, it took a great relay to throw the runner out at the plate. The Cubs had a runner on 1st with 2 outs. Kyle Tucker laced a line drive into left-center field. Oneil Cruz quickly got to the ball and fired a low and fast throw to Isiah Kiner-Falefa. He made a great short hop pickup. He fired to home with a perfect one-hopper to Henry Davis. Davis applied the tag. The runner was out by 3 feet. It ended the inning. Paul Skenes was done for the day. Each team scratched out a run in the 8th inning. Both runs scored on balls that were not hit out of the infield. The Pirates had the bases loaded with nobody out in the top of the 10th. They scored only 1 run. It did not come back to haunt them. Bednar shut the Cubs down in the bottom of the 10th to get the save.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. Matthew Boyd goes for the Cubs. Another tough pitcher with an ERA of 2.89. He is a lefty. It will be interesting to see who the Pirates send out there. Mike Burrows is going for the Pirates. He has looked better in his last 2 outings. He better have his A game today. Even that may not be good enough with these batting weaklings.

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Pirates Morning Report: Skenes Close To 2024 And Some Interesting Decisions Coming Up

Paul Skenes is right back in Cy Young contention. His 2025 numbers are right around last year with the exception of strike outs per 9 innings where he is a full 2 less than last year. He seems to have his command back with walks per 9 the same as last year. In recent starts he has relied more on his fastball and has touched 100 MPH at times. In the National League he is second for qualifying pitchers with an ERA+ of 195. Only Yamamoto of the Dodgers is ahead at 198. As long as he remains healthy I think he will get even better as the year rolls on and win the Cy Young just like everyone thought he would.

Some Pirates are getting healthy and others are performing very well in AAA. The latter does not seem to make much difference to the Pirates when giving promotions. You have to wonder if the Pirates will try to keep the injured that way to avoid making some tough decisions. These decisions looked a lot easier just 10 days ago. Ten days ago it looked like a no brainer that Henry Davis should be sent down. Now, he is starting to hit and looks better behind the plate. Even before he got hurt I thought Joey Bart and Davis should at least split the time behind the plate. Bart is in the throes of a prolonged batting slump. Bart is now in concussion protocol and Endy Rodriguez is back on the team. If Davis is still hitting what will they do with Bart when he is deemed ready for play. What makes this more interesting is that Rodriguez and Nick Gonzales have not exactly been lighting it up in AAA. Gonzales is 3 for 22 and Rodriguez is 4 for 26. Matt Gorsky has a slash line of 278/.318/.519 at AAA. Malcom Nunez currently on the 7 day IL slashes at .278/.346/484. He is just 24 years old. Gonzales looks to be the next call up. Jared Triolo should be the one sent down when that happens. I have a feeling it will be the little used Nick Solak. He was red hot down in AAA but the Pirates chose to let him languish on the bench while Triolo hits .152. That was after he got 2 hits on Wednesday. Somebody explain this to me please.

The pitching situation is even more crowded. At AAA you have Bubba Chandler, Dauri Moreta, Kyle Nicolas, Carmen Mlodzinski, and Isaac Mattson. The Pirates sent down Mattson instead of Tanner Rainey with his 7.11 ERA. Another explanation is needed. With the exception of Nicolas they are all pitching well. Johan Oviedo will probably start pitching toward the end of June. I have stopped trying to speculate what the Pirates will do. Will they wait until the end of June to bring up Chandler just so they will have one more year of control. The most interesting part of all of this is how long will they put off making any decision unless their hand is forced by injury. This team is starting to show some life. Will this organization finally do something to help them win. I highly doubt it.