Tag: The art of losing

Final Score: Pirates 5 Dodgers 6 in 10 innings

Why The Pirates Lost: For the third time in the losing streak, the Pirates could not hold the lead going into the last inning. David Bednar was the pitcher for all 3 times. It is time to look for another closer. Another mismanaged game by The Shadow, in more ways than one. Kyle Nicholas threw 3 pitches in the bottom of the 7th. He should have come out for the 8th inning but did not. This would have moved everybody back an inning and Bedar would not have had to pitch 2 innings. Andrew McCutchen had a big game hitting 2 home runs and driving in 4 runs. Unfortunately, in the top of the 10 with the ghost runner on 2nd base he took all 6 pitches he saw to strike out without swinging at one pitch. The Pirates have finally made it. They are in last place in the Central Division. They are 10-17 against the National League West with 3 games coming up against the Padres. Four of the seven games, they have lost by 1 run and 6 or their last 9 losses have been by 1 run.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Dodgers, with the exception of the ghost runner scoring in the bottom of the 10th, scored all of their runs after 2 outs. In the first inning they had 2 outs nobody on when bam, double, double, single to jump out to a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the 2nd, they opened with a single and a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Barry (It’s Not My} Faulter got the next 2 Dodgers to ground out and hit a short fly ball to centerfield. Teoscar Hernandez lined a double to left to drive in both runs. The Dodgers tied the game immediately in the bottom of the 10 with a leadoff double by Enrique Hernandez. At this point Shelton fell asleep at the wheel again. Instead of intentionally walking the next batter, Andy Pages, whose run is meaningless, to set up a double play possibility, they pitch to him. This at bat turned into an 8 pitch tough at bat that ended on a pitch clock violation to walk him anyway. It would have been nice to save those 8 pitches. Bednar did get the next two outs on a strikeout and pop up. Teoscar (I Love Hitting Against The Pirates) Hernandez singled in the winning run to put the Pirates out of their misery.

Next Game: Tonight, the Padres in San Diego. The Pirates have not announced a pitcher yet to start tonight’s game. I have heard there are no volunteers. Will the Pirates make any hard decisions to help right the ship. Very unlikely, since they have not made any hard decisions all year.