Tag: Twilight Zone baseball

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Pirates Morning Report: Proving A Point Rather Than Trying To Win

Final Score: Pirates 7 Cardinals 11

Why The Pirates Lost: The Pirates wanted to show everyone that their bullpen was depleted. In reality, it was not. The Pirates, however, live in the Twilight Zone. Don Kelly and his staff must believe that if the Pirates are 2-3 runs down going into the 7th inning, they are out of the game. This is the second time this year in that scenario that the Pirates went with a struggling pitcher when there were much more viable options available. The first time, the Pirates were only 2 runs down. Last night, the score was 6-3 going into the 7th. Yohan Ramirez was available; he had not pitched since Saturday. Isaac Mattson had only thrown 3 pitches the night before. Mason Montgomery had thrown 7 pitches the night before, and Justin Lawrence 9 pitches. Any one of those 4 pitchers could have come in. Instead, the Pirates decided to let Hunter Barco take a beating, to hell with his psyche. The Pirates wanted to show everyone that, see, our bullpen is totally exhausted, so there is no way we can win this one. The only good news here is the offense came alive, hitting 3 home runs and scoring 7 runs, but without a bullpen, what can you do but lose? It does appear that this team is going to be so mismanaged that there is no way they are going to contend.

Key Moment Of The Game: It had to be the pregame meeting. What were they going to do if Braxton Ashcraft had a bad night? I can hear the discussion now. If Ashcraft can’t go 6 innings or more, then we will put Hunter Barco out there until his arm falls off. What do you think, Don? Great plan, hope we score 12 runs tonight. Plus, there was real high-level strategy late in the game. With the score 11-3, Kelly pinch-hit for Brandon Lowe with Nick Yorke against a left-hander on the mound. I’m sure he wanted to show he still thought this was a good move. Yorke struck out, so at least he did not hit into a double play. Other Pirates took care of that as they hit into 4 double plays for the game. With score 11-3 don’t you think it would have been nice for Lowe to see a left hander. He also pinch-hit for the .160 batting average Henry Davis with the .161 batting average Marcell Ozuna. He struck out. I think what Kelly should have done is let Justin Lawrence bat just to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Pirates had no intention of trying to win this game.

Next game: Tonight, the Cardinals are in Pittsburgh at 6:40 PM. I knew that playing 13 games in 13 days would really mess the Pirates up. When you have a team that is this old and fragile, you cannot expect them to perform at a high level for this many days in a row. Now that they have had two days of rest, maybe they can salvage a series split. Bubba Chandler is going tonight for the Pirates. It was thought that he was going to start last night, but Ashcraft started instead. Chandler does need to have a good start for everyone concerned. The Pirates have lost three in a row and are in last place. It is where this team feels comfortable.

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Pirates Morning Report: What Is Derek Shelton Thinking?

Final Score: Pirates 4 Blue Jays 5

Why The Pirates Lost: This loss goes right on Derek Shelton, starting with the bizarre decisions he made in the bottom of the 5th inning, and continuing the rest of the game concerning the bullpen. More on that in the key moment of the game segment. The Pirate offense collected 11 hits and walked 4 times but could only score 4 runs. They left 13 men on base and were 3 for 16 with runners in scoring position. Rowdy (Of All People) Tellez had the big game driving in all 4 runs going 3 for 4 with a walk, to raise his average to .194. Is it an omen, that despite Tellez having his game of season, that the Pirates still lost. This lost left the Pirates with a record of 27-32, 9 games out of first place. When the Pirates had a chance to win a big series on the road, their manager played it like the season was over, and the Pirates were just playing out the string. Maybe that’s the way management looks at this team now. It is the only explanation for what happened in the bottom of the 5th inning.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates had just taken the lead in the top of the 5th, 3-1 on a double by Rawhide Rowdy. In the bottom of the inning Quinn Priester gave up 2 singles to start the inning. He managed to get a pop out but gave up another single, making the score 3-2 Pirates, putting runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Priester then got a big strikeout on Bo Bichette for the 2nd out. That’s when the Pirates headed into the Shelton Zone. Even with Priester’s history of really going south quickly, you could argue that he could have been left in to see if he could get out of the jam. Let’s give that the benefit of the doubt. I really did not have a big problem with lifting him. To bring in Hunter Stratton was totally asinine. The entire bullpen except for Luis Ortiz had not pitched since Friday. David Vogelbach was the batter. He is downright horrible against left hand pitching. We had at least, to my knowledge, two left handers in the bullpen. Aroldis Chapman and unless he has some unknown injury, Jose Hernandez, who has not pitched since May 23rd. Besides the fact that Hunter Stratton has been mostly ineffective, of all the relievers that were used in the 14 inning debacle he threw the 2nd most pitches. If a lefty would have been brought in, the Blue Jays might have pinched hit for Vogelbach. Would that have been so bad considering how Vogelbach has been hitting the Pirates. Needless to say, The Turtle rips a double to center field on a 1-2 pitch that was thrown right down the middle to score the tying and go ahead runs. Despite the fact the entire bullpen was well rested, Shelton allows Stratton to come out for the next inning to ensure that the Blue Jays score an insurance run. Then he brings in Carmen Mlodzinski who threw the most pitches of any member of the bullpen on Friday. For the 8th he brings in the most ineffective member of the bullpen Kyle Nicholas just to give the Blue Jays even more of a chance. The A team of the bullpen just sat on their behinds and won’t pitch until at least Tuesday with the Pirates off today. Rod Serling must have been smiling down from above to see his television show right on the baseball field. Cue the music please.

Next Game: Tuesday, Dodgers, in Pittsburgh. I am almost hoping for a Dodger blow out so Bednar can pitch the 9th so he won’t get rusty. Rowdy Tellez should still be DFA, over and out.