6-10-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter
The Pirates bats did next to nothing against the lowly A’s, and because you’ve watched baseball for a long time, of course you knew the Pirates would come out and hit everything against the Mets.
The Pirates started Rich Hill, and the Mets countered with Tylor Megill.
A mixture of Mets Errors, timely hits by unlikely candidates, patient at bats and pure luck led the Bucs to easily dispatch of Megill in the 3rd inning. After a couple solo shots, Rich Hill went on and delivered a 119 pitch, 7 inning performance for the victory. More on that later but first, the offense.
The Mets gave the Pirates their early opportunities, spearheaded by poor defense. Lindor dropped an easy double play and the Pirates made them pay. It’s really that simple, and something the Pirates often fail to do.
Boy that one felt good. Santana has been a mess at the plate lately, and reportedly took some extra batting practice this week, hopefully he gets going a bit.
Pirates up huge, what’s a guarantee? Right! A Jack Suwinski Homerun.
Now, none of that is bad, you score 14 runs and win a game that never got close, what’s there to complain about?
OK, News broke before the game that Vince Velazquez underwent Tommy John surgery and would be lost for the season.
The Bucs are in real trouble here as it pertains to starting pitcher depth. There are a lot of innings left to cover, so in my eyes at least, perhaps running a 43 year old out there up by 12 runs to pitch a 7th inning and hit 119 pitches was at least a little careless.
Rob Z would come in after that and get into trouble after 1.2 innings and the Pirates brought in David Bednar (according to Shelton, having him get 1 out was planned) for the last out. He wound up throwing 20 pitches and giving up 2 earned runs.
Look, the runs, I don’t care, but this is utter mismanagement of a staff as far as I’m concerned. Hill has a history of missing time, and to push the envelope with the only true veteran starter they have is again, careless, and honestly foolish. To plan to ramp up your closer for 1 out is silly, to have him do so up double digits in runs, yeah, I’m sorry, I just don’t see the logic. If you’re so worried about getting him work, well, give him a clean inning and call it a day.
At the end of the day, nothing bad happened, nobody is hurt, they won big, I just felt like they backed into winning what should have been a laugher.
Outside the game, the ballpark was hopping for a different cause…
It was Pride Night dahn at PNC Park and it seemed like everyone had a nice time.
I get that some of you don’t like this stuff, but the Pirates tend to do it rather controversy free, and as I’ve had it described to me by a member of the community, for older members being able to just openly live the way you want was not on the table in their youth, so having nights like this gives them a chance to celebrate that freedom. “The only thing being judged are balls and strikes tonight.”
I think that’s a message we can all get behind, even if this isn’t your cup of tea.
News & Notes
- Prior to the game, Canaan Smith-Njigba was recalled and Chase DeJong was DFA’d to make room.
- Andrew McCutchen is now 1 hit away from 2,000 after an infield single in last night’s contest for 1,999, and Prince would be proud, cause they partied like it was 1999 last night.
- Before the game, Mets Slugger Pete Alonzo was placed on the IL and is expected to miss 3-4 weeks.
- Ke’Bryan Hayes has raised his batting average 50 points in 2 weeks, including his 5 for 5 performance last night.
- Vince Velasquez has undergone Tommy John surgery, it’s not the full procedure so he expects to only be out 10-12 months, but effectively it ends his Pirates season and likely his time in black and gold.
- Bryan Reynolds singled sharply opposite field in the first, but he’s simply not seeing the ball well right now. Feels like the timing is coming back, but as of right now, he’s scuffling.
Steel City Pirates 
Agreed on pitching mismanagement, just strange. I know it’ll never be perfect, but 119 pitches for a 43-year-old is tempting fate. And then as long as he has enough length in the arm to get through it healthy, just let Zastryzny finish–it doesn’t matter.
Reynolds is definitely not seeing it well and pressing. After he most definitely went around on a strikeout yesterday, he was lobbing F-bombs at the umps in the way only a very frustrated hitter does, not someone who’s doing well but just happened to chase this one.
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