Pittsburgh Pirates Drop the Double-Head Against Redbirds

Today the Pittsburgh Pirates played two! They scheduled Trevor Williams to go in the first game and Chad Kuhl in the nightcap. After last night’s brilliant performance by Steven Brault, the Pirates were looking to play spoiler for the Cardinals in the playoff race.

These two games for the Pittsburgh Pirates were very, very different. In the first game, Williams had a typical Williams outing. He went 4.1IP, 7 Hits, 6 Runs (5ER,) and 2HR. Again we saw Williams get killed by the gopher balls and XBH. The odd part about this game was that both SP struggled. The Buccos managed to score five runs off of Martinez, but those five runs wouldn’t be enough. The Pirates fell 6-5 with Williams remaining winless on this very bad year.

Bright spots in that game was again the bullpen pitching a combined 2.2IP and giving up just one lone hit. The bats saw some bright spots as well coming from the youngster Ke’Bryan Hayes driving in two. Hayes looks to be as advertised, and it’s extremely exciting.

Chad Kuhl Game 2

Now it’s time to discuss game two. Chad Kuhl was sent out tonight to try and redeem himself from a very bad last outing against the Royals. Kuhl came back to have a good outing, at least compared to his previous one (that’s not saying much.)

Kuhl went 5IP and only gave up 3ER. The defense is what haunted Kuhl in the 6th inning. He got pulled with the bases loaded, and three errors happened, resulting in Kuhl getting tagged with one more unearned run. Those errors spoiled a very good outing from Kuhl, which is a very familiar sight for Pirates fans as of late.

Kuhls’ final line read 5+IP, 5 hits, 4 runs (3ER,) 6K’s, and 2BB. If you just read the line, it seems like a rather pedestrian outing, but he pitched way better than the numbers shown. If he gets one call from the ump or doesn’t get a catcher’s interference called, we are talking about a completely different ball game.

Chris Stratton

Stratton came on in a tough situation, as mentioned before. Little did we know it would be as bad as what happened. It all started with a sac fly by Paul DeJong to Polanco. Instead of throwing to the cutoff man Polanco throws home, getting rid of the DP opportunity. Then Hayes throws an errant throw home, making it 3-2 Cardinals. (But wait, there’s more.) Josh Bell then gets a ground ball and throws it into the outfield, making it 4-2. (There can’t be more, right?!) Oh no, baby, there’s more, Dylan Carlson then belts one to deep right-center, making it 7-2.

Stratton would then end the inning, finally finishing his night at 1.0IP, 1 hit, 3R (all unearned), 2K’s, and 0BB’s. You really can’t blame Straton for any of this even though you want to; you just can’t. Bad defense again goes to spoil the game for the Pirates.

The Hitting

Like most nights, there was nothing really to talk about. The Pirates fell down to 1-0 right before Bryan “Dad Strength” Reynolds hits a towering shot into the Allegheny River, making it a 2-1 game. Other than that, the Pirates could only manage four whole hits, and against this Cardinals team, you just can’t do that. The Pirates fell 7-2 tonight, and yet again, they get swept in a doubleheader. The Pirates will play the Cardinals tomorrow night and try to play spoiler yet again.

Final Thoughts

• The Defense is just god awful right now.
• Ke’Bryan Hayes is going to be special.
• Trevor Williams just needs to go.
• Chad Kuhl looked better
• The Cardinals are EVIL!