Monday, August 28, 2017

Pirate Batters Dominated, Fielding Falters In 6-1 Thumping by Cubs

Should be a quick game tonight; Mike Montgomery served up five pitches and Trevor Williams spun nine more to get through the first. Pittsburgh stranded a couple of second-inning raps, but not Chi-town. An Anthony Rizzo double and Ian Happ rap made it 1-0. Trevo left a couple more on in the third. The Cubby pitcher opened the fifth with an infield knock; of course he eventually scored on a sac fly (actually, an extra-base hit denial by a flying Cutch) to make it 2-0. Steven Brault got the call in the sixth. With the bases loaded thx to an intentional walk that set up a lefty-lefty showdown and two outs, Alex Avila bounced a ball weakly to second. S-Rod airmailed the shoulda-been inning-ending toss and by the time the Pirates quit throwing the ball all over the lot (Stew, backing up, fired the apple into center) and the Cubs stopped running, three Bruins had plated. Jordy went deep in the eighth to chase Montgomery and bring on Carl Edwards. Angel Sanchez was tapped for an eighth-inning run, then Wade Davis turned out the lights.

Jordy had half the Bucco hits tonight (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

Well, by the looks of the scorecard Clint handed the ump before the game, audition time has started for Pittsburgh as he turned in a Sunday lineup. If you're not going to play your best eight in their most productive order against the team you're chasing, what else could it be?

Notes:
  • Jordy had three hits tonight and Freeser chipped in a pair; the rest of the team added one more.
  • S-Rod made two errors at second tonight; he made two errors at short yesterday. That may be an indicator that he may not be all the way back from shoulder surgery yet.
  • DL'ers Wade LeBlanc & Joaquin Benoit will pitch sim games tomorrow.
  • 1B Edwin Espinal was named to the Eastern League All-Star team. Espinal had a .283/15 HR/72 RBI line in 95 games with Altoona before being bumped to Indy.

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