Final Score: Pirates 1 Guardians 10
Why The Pirates Lost: Mitch Keller got knocked around right out of the box as Guardians scored 5 runs in the first inning, with 4 of them scoring before an out was recorded. In fact, it took only 7 pitches for the Guardians to score the 4 runs. Why the Pirates did not pitch Keller sooner after the All Star break, I would have no idea. What rationale could they possibly have? He only pitched 1 inning in the All Star game, which was last Tuesday. He should have pitched either Saturday or Sunday this past weekend. In 6 innings of “work” he gave up 8 runs on 10 hits, walking 2, and only striking out 1. Do you think he was rusty? Another blowout loss for the Pirates as they did manage to score 1 run, which does avoid them from being shut out in an entire series like the Reds. They only managed 5 hits as their hitting woes continue. They have won only 2 games in July. This is one hell of a massive team slump in every phase of the game. This team is going to have to dig deep to come out of this to even look respectable the rest of the season.
Key Moment Of The Game: Another blowout loss where there was no key moment of the game. You could say the key moment of this game was Saturday or Sunday when Keller did not start either one of those games. It makes you wonder if Keller didn’t or still has some kind of hush hush injury that would make them delay him starting a game. In fact, even two days ago the starting pitcher for last night’s game was to be determined. It does make you wonder, doesn’t it?
Next Game: This afternoon, Guardians in Pittsburgh. Rich Hill goes today to see if he can stop this slide. Yes, the pitching has been horrible in this series but again the Pirates’ bats have gone completely silent. They better get those I pads cranked up because it looks pretty hopeless at this point in the season.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 