Tag: pittsburgh pirates

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Pirates Morning Report: All Gifts Accepted

Final Score: Pirates 6 White Sox 2

Why The Pirates Won: The White Sox showed why they are one of the worst teams in baseball. They handed this game to the Pirates on a silver platter. Through both mental and physical errors the White Sox contributed to the Pirates scoring in all 3 innings the Pirates scored. Only one of the Pirates 6 runs were unearned but they really did not have to work much to score runs. The Pirates got 9 hits but only 4 of the Pirates got those hits, with Reynolds getting 4, and McCutchen and Hayes getting 2 each. I refuse to write the name down of the other Pirate that got a hit, I just can’t do it. Luis Ortiz had another strong outing giving up 1 run on 4 hits, walking 1, striking out 5, but he had to throw94 pitches to go 5 and 2/3 innings. The bullpen gave up another run in the 8th and the score was 3-2 Pirates going into the top of the 9th. Then the White Sox said Merry Christmas Pirates.

Key Moment Of The Game: Conner Joe started off the 9th with a 5 pitch walk. Yasmani Grandal hit a double play ball right to the first basemen but then he threw high to second and everybody was safe. Joey Bart walked on 4 pitches to load the bases. Bryan Reynolds wasted no time lining a single to right field on the second pitch to give the Pirates a 5-2 lead. Oneil Cruz hit a sacrifice fly to get his second RBI of the game without getting a hit to make it 6-2. The Pirates scored 3 runs on just one hit, thank you White Sox. The Pirates were so confident that they brought in Dennis Santana to pitch the 9th and he showed he was up to the task by retiring the White Sox in order.

Next Game: This afternoon, White Sox in Chicago. The Pirates have won 3 in a row. Hard to believe. If they win today they will be 48-48 at the All Star break. Hard to believe. The only question remains will the White Sox help us out again.

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Pirates Morning Report: Beating The White Sox

Final Score: Pirates 4 White Sox 1

Why The Pirates Won: Marco Gonzalez, doing his best Colin Holderman impression, scattered 7 hits over the first 4 innings only giving up 1 run. His friend was the double play ball as he induced the White Sox to ground into 2 of them to help get him out of jams. The bullpen took over in the 6th and shut the White Sox down, with the exception of Colin Holderman doing his best Colin Holderman impression, by allowing the first two batters to reach base in the bottom of the 8th. Again, the double play ball came to his rescue, and he got out of the inning with no runs scoring. The offense was able to put 2 good innings together so the Pirates could win the opening game of the series against the pathetic White Sox.

Key Moments Of The Game: Going into the top of 5th the Pirates had gotten just one hit. In the top of the 5th the bottom half of the order, be still my beating heart, manufactured 2 runs. Ke’Bryan Hayes singled to start the inning. Then Joey Bart got one of the most missed strike calls of the year. On a ball that was well inside the strike zone but was called a ball, that was completely lost in the action, because Hayes tried to steal 2nd on the 3-2 pitch. The ball was thrown into centerfield and Hayes advanced to third. Now Hayes would have scored on the Triolo (Another miracle) single, but the Michael Taylor sacrifice fly should have been the 3rd out of the inning. I guess this is what happens to you, when you are one of the worst teams in baseball. The Pirates added 2 more runs in the top of the 6th and the umpires didn’t help at all this time. In typical Pirate fashion they only got 2 hits in the last 3 innings. They still have a shot at the sweep.

Next Game: This afternoon, White Sox in Chicago. Rumor has it that Greg Brown was late getting to the radio booth because he went to Wrigley Field first but I can not confirm that. Luis Ortiz is taking the mound today for the Pirates and the poor bastard is pitching on only 5 days rest. I hope he will be able to hold up against such an elite lineup. I know the Pirate “brain trust” will be keeping a close eye on him in the early innings to see if he is showing signs of fatigue. The pressure is unbearable.

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Pirates Morning Report: Making 2024 Bearable

Final Score: Pirates 1 Brewers 0

Why The Pirates Won: Two words, Paul Skenes. He is making this disappointing season worth watching. In a remarkable performance Skenes went 7 innings, gave up 0 runs, 0 hits, walked 1, hit a batter, struck out 11, while throwing 99 pitches. What was amazing that after 3 innings he had thrown 62 pitches. At the time I thought he would be lucky to get through 5 innings. He made it through 7 in under a 100 pitches. Of course with this putrid offense the score was tied going into the 7th. We managed to get a run in the 7th and we held on to win and take the series.

Key Moment Of The Game: Colin (How In The Hell Does He Do It) Holderman came into the game in the top of the 8th. He ended the no hitter suspense right away giving up a single on his 2nd pitch of the inning. Holderman gave up another hit to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. He struck out Andruw Monastario on 4 pitches getting him to chase on two of them, thank you very much. He struck out Brad Perkins on 5 pitches. He walked Brice Turing on 7 pitches with only 2 being in the strike zone to load the bases. He got out of the inning by striking out William Contreras on 5 pitches with one of them in the strike zone. He faced 4 batters, struck out 3, walked 1 and only threw 6 pitches out of 21 in the strike zone. WOW! Aroldis Chapman pitched a clean 9th to pick up the save and someway, somehow the Pirates took the series from the 1st place Brewers.

Next Game: Tonight, White Sox, in Chicago. Greg Brown called the stadium to make sure the Pirates are playing the White Sox and not the Cubs. The White Sox are 27 and 68. How many ways will the Pirates find to lose 2 out of 3 to them. We will start counting tonight.

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Pirates Morning Report: Brewers Return The Favor

Final Score: Pirates 0 Brewers 9

Why The Pirates Lost: The offensive blues returned. The Pirates had 5 innings where they were retired in order. They were 1 for 3 with runners in scoring position and that was all in the same inning. They only left 4 men on base. They hit more home runs in the game before than they got hits in this one. On the pitching side Martin (The Hell With His Arm) Perez toiled for 4 and 2/3 innings giving up 5 runs on 9 hits walking 3, striking out 5 while throwing 107 pitches. His ERA is now over 5. The bullpen gave up 4 runs in 2 and 1/3 innings to round out a great game for the Pirates. At least they didn’t make any errors other than showing up at the ballpark.

Key Moments Of The Game: In a game like this there are not many key moments, but the Brewers scored their first 5 runs after 2 were out. They scored 2 in the first, 2 in the 4th, and 1 in the fifth. The Pirates made some noise in the top of the 7th when Rowdy (I Never Hit This Well In My Life) Tellez legged out a double to lead off. One out later Josh (We Have A Lot Of Energy When I’m In The Game) Polacios singled to left. According to Greg Brown, Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a sharp, but really only 75 MPH, ground ball that Rhys (What Kind Of Spelling Is That) Hoskins made a nice play on to turn it into an inning ending double play.

Next Game: This afternoon, Brewers in Milwaukee. Paul Skenes goes today, so we do have a legitimate shot at taking the series, but I am sure that Shelton is going to have a goofy lineup. Maybe lead off with Hayes and bat Grandal 2nd. I really do wish that they would just lose these last 4 games so they can sell and maybe find some good young hitters. However, if this organization was capable of finding good young hitters, then I guess they would have done so by now.

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Pirates Morning Report: Breaking Open Another One.

Final Score: Pirates 12 Brewers 2

Why The Pirates Won: For the second time in five games the Pirates brought out the long ball. They hit five home runs including a grand slam by Joey (Don’t Ever Say My Name Rhymes With Fart) Bart to break the game open in the top of the 6th inning. Quinn Priester pitched one of his better games of the year. Starting in the 2nd inning he gave up 2 runs, 1 earned, 4 hits, walking 2, striking out 8 in 6 innings of work. Four of those innings the game was close. The other thing the Pirates learned last night is if you have a 10 run lead to protect, Dennis Santana is your man. At least the Pirates won’t get swept.

Key Moments Of The Game: Josh Fleming survived a very shaky first inning as the opener. He threw 24 pitches and only 9 of them were for strikes. A double play helped and the final Brewer batter of the inning swung at a pitch way above the strike zone to pop out. Going into the top of the 6th inning the Pirates had gotten only 1 hit, the Bryan Reynolds home run to take a 2-0 lead at the time. Then they turned into the ‘27 Yankees. Reynolds single. Tellez single. Gonzales bad hop single, 3-2. Hayes single, bases loaded. Suwinski single, 4-2. The Brewers brought in Bryse (Love Milwaukee Beer) Wilson. Joey Bart lit up a 2-2 curve ball for a grand slam home run and this game was over. The Pirates had just gotten 6 hits in a row, where many times, they don’t get that many for an entire game. They added another 4 meaningless runs, on 3 more home runs, but I heard that Santana breathed a big sigh when the 12th run crossed the plate.

Next Game: Tonight, Brewers in Milwaukee. Martin Perez will start tonight. Let’s hope he can replicate his last start. Looks like Oneil Cruz may be headed to the IL, but this would be a good time to rest the hamstring with the All Star break coming up. I am in California for the week. That is the reason these are like mid morning reports. Could it be possible that the Pirates will rattle off 7 wins a row to take them to the All Star break. I hear that Derek (The Shadow) Shelton is burning the midnight oil to make sure that does not happen.

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Pirates Morning Report: Met’s Two Out NightMare

Final Score: Pirates 8 Mets 2

Why The Pirates Won: Harkening back to the first two weeks of the season, the Pirates broke open a tie ballgame in the bottom of the 6th by scoring 5 runs, after there were 2 out and nobody on base. Mitch Keller pitched a solid 8 innings giving up 2 runs on 7 hits, walking no one, while striking out 6. It brought this disappointing home stand to a 3-4 end. The Pirates head to Milwaukee and Chicago to get to the All Star break. Hopefully someone has informed Greg Brown that the Pirates are playing the White Sox and not the Cubs. Reynolds and Skenes made the All Star team and if there are any injuries Keller may soon follow. He should be on it regardless.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Mets had just tied the game in the top of the 6th on a 2 run home run by Brandon (Yes Spellcheck Nimmo Is A Name) Nimmo. In the bottom of the 6th the Mets seemed to get a huge break when a hit by pitch on McCutchen was overturned, especially when he made the second out of the inning. Magically the calendar went back to late March and early April. First, the Mets decided to inexplicably make a pitching change and the nightmare began. Reynolds walked. Cruz singled to left. Tellez INFIELD HIT. 3-2. Another pitching change😀. Gonzales doubled. Jeff McNeill fumbled the ball so much that Rowdy (Big Train) Tellez scored all the way from first, 5-2. Wild Pitch, Gonzales scored 6-2. Last but certainly not least Josh (No I’m Not Related To Greg Brown) Palacios homered 7-2. The Mets finally get the third out.

Next Game: Tonight, Brewers in Milwaukee. As I am writing this the Pirates have not announced a starting pitcher, but who cares. Yesterday was a nice win but this team almost has to win all 6 games on this trip for me to feel they have any chance of making the playoffs. My only other glimmer of hope would be if they fired Shelton at the All Star break and that ain’t gonna happen, for sure.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Horrible Offense

Final Score: Pirates 2 Cardinals 3 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Lost: Not counting the 2 extra innings the Pirates played 27 innings against the Cardinals and scored runs in just 4 innings. If you go back one more game they played 36 innings and scored runs in 5 innings. This was another game that was lost by the Pirates management team. For all the rest days they give their young players they should have rested McCutchen yesterday. In his last 7 games he is hitting .143. They are battling their division rival in the rubber match of a 3 game series when they put their waiver pitcher in the game in the 10th. Carmen Mlodzinski had only thrown 9 pitches the day before. They used Holderman and Nicolas who threw 23 and 15 pitches respectively, in the previous game. If they were available then certainly Mlodzinski was. The only good news was that Martin Perez pitched a great game going 7 and 1/3 innings giving up 1 run on 6 hits. He came through, too bad nobody in the starting lineup did.

Key Moment Of The Game: It was the top of the 10th when the Pirates brought in Dennis Santana to lose the game. No further words needed.

Next game: Tonight, Mets in Pittsburgh. Paul Skenes goes tonight but who cares. This team stinks. The Pirates put Jared Jones on the IL and brought up Josh Palacios. I don’t have any problem with Palacios being brought up but send Suwinski or Triolo down. Why wasn’t a reliever brought up. Big sigh.

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Pirates Morning Report: Going From Sellers To Byers On One Swing Of The Bat.

Final Score: Pirates 5 Cardinals 4 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Won: The offense had an up and down game. On the plus side they got 11 hits, only struck out 7 times and really hit the ball hard. On the negative side they were only 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position with both of those hits coming in the 10th inning. Same thing could be said for the pitching. Jared Jones pitched well but was only allowed to throw 78 pitches despite having extended rest between starts. Colin Holderman did not dance through the rain drops giving up the 2 run homer to Willson Contreras that tied the game 3-3. Here is the thing about Holderman, he has made 32 appearances and has had only 8 clean innings. When you win all is forgiven, even Michael Taylor’s ridiculous bunt attempts in the bottom of the tenth.

Key Moments Of The Game: It was all in the 10th inning. The Cardinals only scored one run and really did not take advantage of the Chapman mistake of not covering first base. In the bottom of the 10th the Pirates could not move the runner over to third base again and you thought we are going to lose. But then McCutchen walked and the Cardinals brought in lefty JoJo Romero and his 2.61 ERA. Bryan Reynolds took his 4th pitch into center field for a base hit that tied the game. Oneil Cruz wasting no time took the first pitch and lined it down the right field line for another hits and the Pirates had an amazing win.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cardinals in Pittsburgh. Martin Perez will start today and let’s hope he can get his act together. The bullpen got pretty much depleted yesterday. I would assume Ortiz will be available for a couple of innings. It is essential that Perez goes a solid 6 innings.

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Pirates Morning Report: One Inning Of Hitting Not Enough This Time

Final Score: Pirates 4 Cardinals 7

Why The Pirates Lost: Again the Pirates had a putrid offense for 8 innings scoring no runs on 3 hits. For the 2nd game in a row they had a 4 run inning all on the long ball. Jack Suwinski hit a 3 run homer followed one out later by a solo shot by Andrew McCutchen. Unfortunately the Cardinals scored a lot more than just one run. Mitch Keller got knocked around pretty good giving up 6 runs on 9 hits in just 5 innings of work. The bullpen gave up another run for the final score of 7-4. The home stand gets off to a sluggish start.

Key Moment Of The Game: The score was 2-0 going into the top of the 4th. Brenden Donovan opened the inning with a hard hit line drive single to center field. This is where things went bad. Catcher’s interference and a 72 MPH bloop single to left field loaded the bases with no outs. This brought up Nolan Gorman who in his last 15 games was hitting.122 with 2 home runs. No question the man has power, hitting 16 home runs so far this season, more than any Pirate by a wide margin. He took an outside edge curve ball and went with it to hit a grand slam homer for number 17, and faster than you could say this game is over, it was 6-0. That 4 run inning got the Pirates within 2, but you never really felt the Pirates were going to catch up and you were right.

Next Game: Tonight, Cardinals in Pittsburgh. Besides being a disappointing loss it was a surprise to see Luis Ortiz coming out of the bullpen. He pitches one of the best games of the year and he is back in the bullpen? You are trying to conserve innings for Jones and Skenes. It makes no sense. Another mystery decision by the Pirates. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Offense Continues

Final Score: Pirates 6 Reds 1

Why The Pirates Won: Luis Ortiz finally got a chance to start and did not disappoint. He went 6 strong innings giving up 1 run, 4 hits, walking no one, striking out 7, while throwing 85 pitches. Kyle Nicolas followed that up with 2 innings of hitless ball, walking one. Aroldis Chapman pitched the 9th to complete an excellent pitching day for the Pirates. The offense didn’t do to bad either getting 6 runs on 10 hits, led by Rawhide Rowdy and Andrew McCutchen, who each hit a home run. Jack Suwinski and Jason Delay went a combined 3 for 6, driving in the other 3 runs.

The Key Moments Of The Game: The Reds had just tied the game in the bottom of the 3rd, when Rawhide Rowdy led off the the top of the 4th by taking a 3-2 pitch and sending into the seats to immediately take back the lead 2-1. In the top of the 5th Delay doubled followed by the McCutchen homer to give the Pirates a 3 run cushion. In the top of the 6th, Delay got a big 2 out double to drive in 2 more and the Pirates breezed to a series win that they needed desperately. The lineup was good today and all I can say is, it’s about time.

Next Game: Tomorrow, the Braves in Atlanta. The 3 game series begins in Atlanta. Hopefully the Pirates can win one for a 3-3 road trip. No pitchers have been officially announced. This day off today is critical for the Pirates brain trust to have plenty of time to screw this up.