Tag: pittsburgh pirates

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Pirates Morning Report: Skenes, Bullpen Shutout The Reds

Final Score: Pirates 2 Reds 0

Why The Pirates Won: Paul Skenes, no surprise, and the Pirate’s bullpen, big surprise, combined to throw a 3 hit shutout to salvage the final game of the series. Skenes pitched 5 innings giving up 2 hits, no walks, striking out 9 while throwing 73 pitches. The bullpen took over in the 6th and right away Colin Holderman gave up a lead off single and you thought there goes this 2 run lead. Holderman got the next two outs and and Joey Bart threw out Jonathan India trying to steal to end the inning. The Pirate’s offense was awful again, but Oneil Cruz and Nick Yorke hit solo home runs to give the Pirates all they needed this time. Otherwise things were back to normal for the offense. Even with 5 other hits and 5 walks they could not score a run. They were 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position stranding 9 runners, while striking out 14 times. The pitchers won this game.

Key Moment Of The Game: Carmen Mlodzinski opened the bottom of the 7th by walking the lead off hitter. T. J. Friedl hit a pop up in no man’s land to left field where Billy Cook made a sensational sliding catch. If that had fallen there is no telling what might have happened next. As it was Ty France grounded into a double play ending the inning. The Reds never threatened again to give the Pirates a 2-0 win

Next Game: Tomorrow, Brewers in Pittsburgh. Just 6 games left in this miserable season. The Pirates have three at home with the Brewers and then finish the season with three games in Yankee stadium. There is a rumor that the Yankees are thinking of forfeiting all 3 games so the Pirates won’t desecrate Yankee stadium. The Pirates need to go 3-3 to win as many games as last year. They are lucky that neither team has a lot to play for. The Brewers have a slim chance of catching the Dodgers or Phillies for a first round bye so they may be a little more interested than the Yankees will be.

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Complete Loss

Final Score: Pirates 1 Reds 7

Why The Pirates Lost: For the 2nd consecutive game the Pirates couldn’t pitch and hit. Jared Jones another pitcher with velocity and command issues got blasted for 6 runs, 6 hits, including 2 home runs, walked 3, while throwing 90 pitches in 5 innings of work. He seemed to be having physical issues as well, which the Pirates seem to care little about. The Pirate offense, a loose term, could only muster 1 run, a home run by Billy Cook. He probably won’t start today to give Connor Joe more playing time. The Pirates left 11 men on base but “only” struck out 9 times. The road trip goes to 1-5 as the players are following their manager’s lead, sleep walking through the rest of the season.

Key Moments Of The Game: Despite Jones’s apparent issues he got through the first two innings unscathed. He quickly got 2 outs in the bottom of the third. In the next, count em, 6 pitches he gave up a double, single and a home run, and before you could say please fire Shelton and the entire coaching staff, it was 3-0 Reds. In the bottom of the 4th Elly De La Cruz hit a big 2 out 3 run homer to make it 6-0 and another game was over before it hardly started.

Next Game: This afternoon, Reds in Cincinnati. Paul Skenes is going today and let’s hope that he has not caught the velocity command virus that has infected the other Pirate starters. I think Shelton called it the VCV Infection. It seems the coaching staff are not doctors. Just another thing they know little about.

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Pirates Morning Report: A No Doubter To Ensure A Losing Season

Final Score: Pirates 3 Reds 8

Why The Pirates Lost: Mitch Keller had no command, no velocity, and no movement on his pitches. Other than that it was a pretty good performance. Going 3 and 1/3 innings, he gave up 8 runs, 8 hits, walked 5 and only struck out 1. He did all of this while throwing only 84 pitches. Shelton just sat there and let him take the beating when he should have been removed after the 3rd inning. The Pirates struck out 11 times to ensure a losing season in style.

Key Moment Of The Game: The top of the 3rd when Keller started the inning by walking the first two batters. Two 100 MPH+ line drives later and the score was 4-0. The Reds added another run on a sacrifice fly and this game was over. They let Keller come out for the 4th and he was pummeled for 3 more runs while getting one more out. They woke Derek The Fox up and he finally took him out.

Next Game: This afternoon, Reds in Cincinnati. Jared Jones goes for the Pirates today so there may be some hope. It certainly looks now that this team will not reach 66 wins to match last year’s total. What a disappointment. This regime has certainly let Pirates fans down with this horrible season.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Royals Took Pity On The Pirates

Final Score: Pirates 4 Royals 3

Why The Pirates Won: The Royals decided to play Pirates baseball. They were 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. For the third consecutive game the team that got the most hits lost the game. The Royals suddenly became the masters of miss opportunities. Top of the 2nd, bases loaded nobody out, 1 run scored. Top of the 3rd, leadoff triple, no runs scored. This was made possible by a great throw by Billy (I Can Throw But I Can’t Hit) Cook to the plate, on a fly ball to right field, that nailed Tommy Pham at the plate. This was followed by two more singles, but of course they did not score. Top of the 4th, 1st and 3rd and one out, no runs. Top of the 6th, bases loaded and one out, one run scored, and that was walked in. In the top of the 7th, a leadoff double, no runs scored. After that, the Royals said the hell with it, let’s just get out of town, going 6 up and 6 down to end the game. This was probably one of the worst games the Royals played all year to allow the Pirates eek out a victory. Jared Jones took 97 pitches just to get through 4 innings. Even with the pitch clock this game took 2 hours and 48 minutes to play.

Key Moment Of The Game: The score was tied 2-2 going into the bottom of the 5th. Billy (I Can Too, Hit) Cook singled to left field. With Cook breaking on the pitch, Isiah Kiner-Falefa stroke a single into centerfield and Cook scored all the way from first base to make the score 3-2. From that point on in the inning the Royals gifted the 4th run to Pirates. They walked 3 of the next 5 baters and 2 of those were with 2 outs to give the Pirates a 4-2 lead. It was a lead that the Pirate bullpen barely managed to protect but they did to help the Pirates avoid the sweep. Bednar and Chapman pitched perfect 8th and 9th innings to seal the win. Let’s go turn some water into wine.

Next Game: Tonight, Cardinals in St. Louis. The Pirates open a 7 game road trip in 7 days against the Cardinals (4) and the Reds (3). Man are these guys going to need the rest. Shelton is already scheduling their days off. Such a fragile young team. They are going to play baseball 10 days in a row with trips to St. Louis and Cincinnati. Holy shitballs how are they going to hold up. Already Bednar Chapman and Santana have all been told they won’t pitch until Wednesday. I heard that Bednar was very relieved.

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Pirates Morning Report: Too Bad We Don’t Play The Marlins Every Game

The Pirates have won 3 in a row and they are a much better team when the games are meaningless. Management is taking them seriously because they desperately want the team to win more than 76 games so they can say the team has improved. They are 69-76 in fifth place 1.5 games behind the Reds. They have to go 8-9 to show any improvement. This will be no easy task considering they have 3 games against the Royals and 3 games against the Yankees. They do have a game with the Marlins today trying to go for the season sweep. It seems like a must win if the Pirates are going to improve. The no fault insurance man Barry Falter is pitching for the Pirates. McCutchen got is 20th home run last night, and it was a big 2 out 3 run homer that helped the Pirates to their 6-4 victory. Aroldis Chapman had another shaky save and you have to wonder why he is closing. When Bednar had the closer role taken away, Shadow Shelton said the closer was going to be by committee. He must have not been paying attention to what was coming out of his own mouth, what a shock, because he essentially made Chapman the closer. As The Beach Boys would say wouldn’t it be nice to see what some of the other bullpen guys, like Nicolas, Mlodzinski, and Santana, could do in the 9th. Wrong, common sense breath. Hopefully the blog will be back on a daily bases on Friday.

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Pirates Morning Report: 3 And 2, Shelton Gets Testy

Since I have been away the Pirates have won 3 out of 5. In one of the losses they did not get a hit at Wrigley Field one of the most hitter friendly ballparks in baseball. Andy Haines said after the game that their process was good. It’s was after that game Derek (I Only Fall Asleep After The Seventh Inning) Shelton got testy about a question concerning Rowdy Tellez making his 3rd pitching appearance in about the last 10 days. There are about 3 of 4 pitchers coming off injuries that could have been used, that need the work. I think what bugs a lot of people is Rawhide Rowdy pitches the way he does everything in baseball like he could care less. Maybe this is why management uses him because it reflects their attitude toward the games. I would imagine that the sign, Never Give Up, is nowhere to be seen in the Pirate locker room. Don’t expect any 10-3 comebacks going into the 7th inning from this bunch. Even if there looked like a rally was brewing, Shelton would probably pinch hit for Bryan Reynolds with Alika Williams. The reporters are going to have to tread lightly with sour puss Shelton after games from now on. Poor baby.

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Pirates Morning Report: Another Bullpen Failure, Wait, What? Grandal Hit Walk Off Homer, No Way

Final Score: Pirates 4 Reds 3

Why The Pirates Won: Despite a bullpen disaster inning, the Pirates were able to pull out a victory, thanks to an unexpected walk off home run by none other than Yasmani Grandal. Luis Ortiz pitched a scoreless 6 innings, but he had traffic on the bases every inning except the fifth. He was able to wiggle off the hook every time. The Reds were 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base for the game. A side note, Edwin Diaz gave up a walk off homer later against the San Diego Padres. This may have been the first time in major league history that brothers gave up walk off homers on the same day.

Key Moment Of The Game: Obviously, Grandal’s homer won the game, but it was the top of the 7th where the Reds let the game slip away, negating the Pirates management team’s efforts to give the game away. It was 2-0 Pirates, when Kyle Nicolas came on in relief of Ortiz. After one out Nicolas gave up a single and a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. This is where The Shadow’s brain spun out of control. There were all kinds of things to do here. What does The Shadow do in this key moment of the game. He brings in Jalen (What’s A High Leverage Situation) Beeks. Have you ever heard of Alroldis Chapman? Beeks takes total control of the game, but for the Reds. To be fair, Elly De La Cruz’s single to score the first run was just a little bloop and he was able to get to second because Rowdy Tellez made a half hearted effort to cut the throw off. However, after that Beeks took over. Intentional walk, booted bunt and walking in the go ahead run is about as bad as it gets. Even The Shadow had seen enough. He brought in Dennis (I Will Never Say Another Bad Word About You) Santana). In what I consider the key at bat of the game, Santana got Santiago Espinal to hit a shallow weak liner to right field that failed to score a run. It was a 7 pitch at bat where only 2 balls were in the strike zone. He could have easily walked. Santana was able to get Dominic Smith to fly out to center field on a 2-0 count to end the inning. The Reds failed to break open the game, which set up the dramatic walk off win for the Pirates. By the way, The Shadow knows that Chapman is on the team. He pitched the 9th.

Next Game: Tonight, Cubs in Pittsburgh. According to Greg Brown, the Cubs will be facing Mitch Keller, Jarred Jones, and Paul Skenes in the series. I would put my faith in that because he does know we are playing the Cubs and not the White Sox. If this is true, a sweep is a must.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Woodford Curse Continues

Final Score: Pirates 2. Reds 10

Why The Pirates Lost: The Jake (From State Farms) Woodford curse continued and now it seems to have affected every phase of the Pirates game. The Pirates could not hit, field, run the bases, or throw to the right bases, all day. They only had 3 hits. On the pitching side they got hammered for 10 runs, 12 hits, and walked 3. The curse even ended Ben (Go To) Heller’s scoreless inning streak as he gave up 2 runs in 2 innings to keep his ERA at double digits. The Pirates decided to desecrate the game even more by having Rowdy Tellez pitch the 9th inning. This was one of the worst games of the year for this pathetic group of losers.

Key Moment Of The Game: The first inning Woodford was able to get the first out of the inning. Then 8 out of the next 10 pitches were called balls. On the Tyler Stephenson at bat the first two pitches could have been called strikes but the umpire fell under the curse of Woodford and could not raise his right arm. TJ Friedl singled to right to drive in the first run and the Pirates decided to forget about baseball fundamentals for the rest of the game, another result of the curse. A double, steal of third and a sacrifice fly gave the Reds a quick 4-0 lead. At that point you knew two things. The game was over and the Woodford curse had not been broken.

Next Game: This afternoon, the Reds in Pittsburgh. Luis Ortiz goes for the Pirates today and let’s hope there are no curse left overs. It would be nice to see the Pirates get a series win but I do not think this is likely. Neither one of these teams, that seem to have an abundance of talent, are fundamentally sound. Both teams are unlikely to make the playoffs. I wonder why? Do you think the Shelton knows? I doubt it. Talk about a couple of clueless managers.

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Pirates Morning Report: Big Comeback Win

Final Score: Pirates 6 Reds 5

Why The Pirates Won: After 4 innings, the Pirates trailed 5-0 and had not had a man on base. In the top of the 5th Oneil Cruz made a great defensive play on a sharply hit ground ball to end the inning. Things started going the Pirates way in the bottom of the 5th. They opened the inning with 3 hits, but 2 of the hits had exit velocities of under 70 MPH. Two ground outs, a single, and a throwing error by the Reds, you knew they were going to help some way, enabled the Pirates to score 4 runs and they were back in the game. They added 2 runs in the 6th to take the 6-5 lead they barely held onto. Why oh why are they continuing to use David Bednar in the 9th. After giving up an opening double he somehow escaped without giving up the tying or go ahead run, again. Elly De La Cruz hit an opposite field 95 MPH line drive that Billy (Not Just Bill) McKinney was able to make a sliding catch, to end the game. WOW!

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates scored 4 runs in the 5th and 2 runs in the 6th on several hits that were inches from being outs or foul balls. The doubles by the Cruz’s were nothing more than pop ups that were perfectly placed down the right and left field foul lines. Neither ball was hit over 80 MPH and they were just fair by inches. Joey Bart had two singles that were carbon copies of each other that were perfectly placed in center field, again not over 80 MPH. The Pirates scored 2 runs on ground balls because they were weakly hit. It was two innings where everything went right for the Pirates. Aroldis Chapman pitched the 8th and after getting the first 2 outs, gave up a walk and a single to put runners on 1st and 3rd. Thank God, Stuart Fairchild had just watched the Andy Haines hitting video and did not swing at a pitch to strike out on 6 pitches, to end the inning. Bednar got away with his shaky performance and the Pirates had an unexpected come from behind win.

Next Game: Tonight, Reds in Pittsburgh. Jake (Please Don’t Let Me See A Black Cat Today) Woodford will take the mound tonight. If the Pirates somehow win this game tonight, there could be hope for this season. Will the Woodford curse end tonight? Who knows, only the Shelton knows.

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Pirates Morning Report: Skenes + Big 2 Out Crooked Number=Win

Final Score: Pirates 7 Reds 0

Why The Pirates Won: Paul Skenes was his usual brilliant self going 6 innings giving up 2 hits, 1 walk, while striking out 9 batters. In the last 26 out of 27 innings the Pirate’s pitching staff has not been scored upon while allowing 11 hits, walking 4, and striking out 33 batters. Then there’s Bednar. The Pirates put up the big crooked number in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to control issues by Nick Lodolo, a botched run down play, and big hits by the Cruz not brothers, to score 6 runs. Ben (The Pitcher From) Heller watch continues, going another 2 scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 10.61.

Key Moment Of The Game: In that 6 run bottom of the 5th, the Pirates had the bases loaded thanks to 2 walks and a hit by pitch. There were 2 outs, with Bryan Reynolds at the plate. He hit a ground ball up the middle that Elly De La Cruz made a nice stop on and flipped the ball to second. Isiah Kiner-Falefa made the unusual move of just running through the bag and not sliding. He was ruled safe and when the Reds botched up the rundown the Pirates still had the bases loaded and led 1-0. The Pirates would have led 1-0, but the inning should have been over. Joey Bart got hit by a pitch to make the score 2-0. The Pirates scored 2 runs up to that point with only 1 hit and it did not leave the infield. Bryan De La Cruz hit a big 2 out double to clear the bases and this game was over. Thank you, Cincinnati Reds.

Next Game: Tonight, Reds in Pittsburgh. Barry No Falter Insurance goes for the Pirates and despite the win last night I can’t really generate much enthusiasm for this team. The win was related more to the Red’s incompetence than the Pirates skill. The Pirates are to the point where they have to win all of these games against the Reds and Cubs before they can even remotely think about being in the playoff hunt again.