Final Score: Pirates 3 Rangers 4
Why The Pirates Lost: When your 1,2,3,5 and 6 hitters go 1 for 19 with 6 strikeouts, you are not going to win many games. Grandal batting 6th is a mystery to me. I'm in San Diego right now where the Padres are playing the Twins. Carlos Santana and that great glove has hit 18 home runs, slugging .428, has an OPS+110 and a 1.9 WAR. The Pirates saved 2 million dollars by signing Rawhide Rowdy Tellez who has 10 home runs, slugging a whopping .388, an OPS+ 90 and a negative 0.3 WAR. I wrote out the word negative just to emphasize the fact that he stinks. I am sure Bob Nothing is so happy he saved 2 million while he thinks of an excuse not to pitch Skenes on Wednesday. Ortiz pitched a decent game going 6 innings, striking out 7, walking one and giving up 5 hits. However, he grooved 2 pitches right down the middle to Corey Seager, paying the ultimate price as he blasted 2 home runs to drive in all 4 runs.
Key Moment Of The Game: Even though it was counteracted by the Jarod Triolo's 3 run homer an inning later, the 3 run homer by Seager was the key hit of the game. It was the first pitch of the at bat and it could not have been more grooved down the middle, even if Ortiz had tried to do that. With that Pirate lineup you just had the feeling it was going to be enough to win the game. The Pirates had a few minor threats the rest of the game but could not get the big hit. The are thoroughly entrenched in last place a full 14 games behind the Brewers. The management team should be so proud.
Next game: Tonight, Rangers in Texas. Mitch Keller starts tonight and we will see if he can get his act together after two horrendous starts where he has given up 15 runs in 9 innings of work. Those are Ben Heller kind of numbers. Maybe Grandal will bat clean up tonight.
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