Pirates Morning Report: Running Into The Buzz Saw Called The Brewers

Final Score: Brewers 10 Rays 1

Why The Brewers Won: The Brewers rode another night of superior pitching and an incredible 8 run 5th inning to get withing one game of winning their first World Series Championship. Starter Robert Gasser gave up an opening 1st inning single and a leadoff walk in the 6th. Thanks to a caught stealing in the 1st and a double play ball in the 6th he faced the minimum 18 batters. He threw only 75 pitches. The Rays were able to get just 3 hits for the game. Two of those were in the bottom of the 9th off Brandon Woodruff who had to be shown where the mound was. The Brewers will go for the sweep tonight.

Key Moments Of The Game: The score was 2-0 going into the top of the 5th. Freddy Peralta was dancing through some raindrops with some command issues but he was hanging tough. The inning started with a line out, single and fly out. Peralta then walked Christian Yelich putting runners on 1st and 2nd. William Contreras hit a ground ball that was cut off by Junior Caminero he went to second and the runner was called out. The Brewers challenged immediately and the call was overturned. It turned out to be the biggest overturned call in the history of baseball. The Rays brought in lefty Cam (After This I Am Becoming One) Booser. In 12 pitches he gave up 2 singles and 2 doubles and before you could say get the brooms ready the Brewers had an 8-0 lead. Out went Boozer. In came Cole (I Need Alka) Sulser. He got touched up for another single and a double to make it 10-0. The Brewers had gotten 7 straight hits and scored 8 runs after there were 2 outs. That is the most in World Series history.

Next Game: Tonight, in Tampa Game 4. It could all end tonight with the Brewers having the chance to become the first team in history to sweep both the League Championship Series and the World Series. For the Rays they must have visions of Red Sox dancing in their head. There is one interesting aspect to all of this. When the Red Sox made that historic comeback from being down 3-0 to the Yankees, game 3 was a blow out win for the Yankees. Can history repeat itself? Stay tuned.

Pirates Morning Report: World Series, Game 3

Final Score: Dodgers 4 Yankees 2

Why The Dodgers Won: The Dodger’s pitching continued to shine, the defense came up big, and even the umpires helped the Dodgers to their 3rd straight win over the Yankees. This game got into post season mode 2024, by both teams walking a combined 12 batters and the Yankees hitting 2 just for good measure. There were lots of foul balls just to make things perfect. Freddie Freeman hit another homer for 3 games in a row and 5 games in a row going back to the Atlanta series. The Yankees made it a little interesting in the 9th with a 2 out 2 run homer, but it was too little too late. The Dodgers are one win away from a World Series Championship and unless something radically changes, they should get it tonight. The Yankees do not play sound baseball and with such a good team like the Dodgers you are going to lose.

The Key Moments Of The Game: This game had a lot of big plays. In the bottom of the 4th with one out Giancarlo Stanton doubled to left field. Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a sinking line drive that Mookie Betts, after getting a late jump made a spectacular catch. Anthony Volpe lined a single to left but Stanton was thrown out at the plate on a great throw by Teoscar Hernandez and tag by Will Smith. There was no room for error and the Dodgers executed the play perfectly to end the inning. In the bottom of the 6th Tommy Edman made a great play to catch a bad throw by pitcher Brusdar Graterol to get a force out at 2nd. If he does not make that play, most likely the Yankees go on to score a run in the inning. The Yankees had 1st and 2nd with 2 out in the bottom of the 7th with Gleyber Torres at the plate. He had worked the count to 2-2 when a pitch that was at least 2 baseballs above the strike zone was called a strike. This should have been ball 3 and the at bat would have continued but with that call the inning was over. Electronic strike zone HELP! The Yankees never threatened after that other than the home run and are on the brink of elimination.

The Next Game: Tonight, Yankee Stadium. Even though I do not see the Yankees coming back to pull off the miracle, there is one interesting historical note. Dodger manager Dave Roberts was a member of the Boston Red Sox team that came back from the 3-0 deficit to defeat the Yankees in the League Championship Series in 2004. In fact, he stole 2nd in the bottom of the ninth and scored the tying run to send game 4 into extra innings, that the Red Sox won to start that amazing comeback. Could the fates even things up here? I do not see that happening, because the Dodgers are simply out baseballing the Yankees. Could be the last baseball game of 2024.