Final Score: Pirates 0 Cubs 1
Why The Pirates Lost: It was a great pitcher's dual as Barry (Not My) Falter matched the best pitcher in baseball Shota Imanaga pitch for pitch. Imanaga gave up 4 hits but 3 of them were of the very weak variety, only walked 1 and struck out 7, while throwing 88 pitches in 7 innings. Falter gave up 3 hits but one of those was another pop up that should have been caught. He walked 2, struck out 2, throwing 83 pitches in 7 and 2/3 innings of work. Shelton pretty much slept though another game. In the top of the 8th he did not pinch hit for Alika Williams with Oniel Cruz when a right hander was brought in to start the inning. Colin Holderman got out of the bottom of the 8th jam throwing only 9 pitches. He should have come out for the bottom of the 9th. Instead, David Bednar pitched and after one out gave up a double and the game winning single. Yes, there was the close controversial call at the plate that replay upheld. It was not as obvious as Matt Capps made it out to be. Capps also described Imanaga has having a nice start to his career. That is like saying Shohei Ohtani is a pretty good player. The question to ask about that play is why did Bart take the ball out of his glove in the first place. Just make sure you hold on to it. It was a tough loss but the Pirates certainly did not do much to try and win the game.
Key Moments Of The Game: The decisions of Derek Shelton. The lack of moves and some moves that he made were all bad. You could argue that he should have left Falter in the game in the bottom of the 8th. Yon Gomes may have batted if Holderman had not been brought it. Holderman wound up walking the more dangerous hitter in Michael Busch. Without question this game was kept from going into extra innings or being a Pirate win by the manager.
Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. Jameson Taillon will go to mound for the Cubs, another one that the Pirates let get away. The Pirates will counter with Mitch Keller who has had one great and one good outing in his last 2 starts. No matter what happens tomorrow the road trip at least has not been a disaster. In the 6 games, the Pirates have been competitive in 5 of them. That is not bad considering you are playing the top of your division. Having said all of that it would be nice to see a winning road trip and a series win. The next 36 games, the Pirates play 18 at home and 18 on the road with lots of days off. They play some great teams and average teams during the stretch. We are heading into June. This team needs to get on a roll.
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