Final Score: Pirates 6 Cardinals 2
Why The Pirates Won: Their offense finally woke up a little bit on this road trip. They scored 6 runs on 11 hits. Brandon Lowe got the Pirates off to a good start by homering in the 1st. Just when it looked like the Pirates were not going to score again with a runner on third and less than 2 outs, Rafael Flores hit a big 3 run homer to give the Pirates a 5-1 lead. The Pirates overcame making 3 errors on three consecutive plays. Carmen Mlodzinski had to get 6 outs in that inning and limited the damage to 1 run. He pitched 3 and 1/3 innings throwing 50 pitches. He gave up 0 earned runs, 1 hit while striking out 2 and walking none. It was by far his best outing in a month. At that point Don Kelly decided to waste his bullpen and took Mlodzinski out of the game. The Pirates were ahead 5-2 at the time. He used pretty much his A squad, Soto, Weaver and Montgomery in a nonsave situation. He also used Evan Sisk for the 2nd day in a row with horrible results. Sisk walked two and hit a batter to load the bases. Mlodzinski got out of that jam on one pitch. The Pirates won but they were sloppy again. We will see how effective the bullpen will be tomorrow. Kelly was informed after the game that yesterday was not the last game of the season. He thought it was because college football had started.
Key Moments Of The Game: Mlodzinski getting out of the bases loaded jam was big. In the bottom of the 6th with one out Jacob (I Can’t Hit Either) Gonzalez booted two routine ground balls in a row. One would have been an easy double play as he was standing right by the second base bag when he “fielded” the ball. Oneil Cruz looked even worse by allowing a routine fly ball to go over his head because he was trying to make a quick throw. Cruz’s error allowed a run to score and put runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Mlodzinski got 2 pop ups on 5 pitches to stop the Cardinals from scoring more. Apparently, this was not good enough for Kelly because Mlodzinski did not come out for the 7th even though he got 6 outs pretty efficiently in the previous inning. His stuff looked better than it had in about 4 weeks. The Pirates had a plan, and they stuck to it by God, even if it costs them the game today.
Next Game: This afternoon, the Cardinals in St. Louis. Braxton Ashcraft is going for the Pirates today. Kelly must be anticipating another Ashcraft 8 to 9 inning performance the way he used the bullpen yesterday. The Cardinals are sending another mediocre left handed pitcher out there, Matthew Liberatore. In his last 7 starts he is 0-6 with an ERA of 6.62. I basically expect the Pirates to be shutout today. Even if they win today the road trip will be 4-5 when they needed to go 7-2. The Pirates are 6.5 games out of the wild card behind both the Padres and Diamondbacks who are essentially tied for the final wild card spot. Their playoff chances are now at 0.3%. This should be fun to watch today. I cannot wait to see the starting lineup for the Pirates. Stay tuned.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 