There are two ways to write this recap:
Recap Attempt #1 – Rationalization
The Pirates lost to the Padres 6-5 tonight, but in order for that to happen, Mat Latos, Eric Patterson, and Rob Johnson all had to hit home runs for the Padres. I mean, sure, the bullpen wasn’t great tonight, but Michael Crotta gave up two infield hits on some toughly placed grounders and Joe Beimel did a good job except for that one hit. The universe really has to come together for Latos, Patterson, and Johnson to all homer and when that happens, maybe it’s just not your night.
Really, the Pirates got another early lead and came through with some big hits against a good bullpen late in the game and besides Beimel, the bullpen was solid again (a great, one-pitch, two-out performance from Danny Moskos).
Recap Attempt #2 – Blind, furious rage
In the seventh inning, the Pirates were all over Luke Gregerson. Every player up was stinging the ball and the three runs they scored seemed to cross the plate in the blink of an eye. The Pirates made three outs that inning; one was on a sacrifice bunt by Brandon Wood (with Chris Snyder on first and Ronny Cedeno on deck). One was on a caught stealing when Andrew McCutchen telegraphed his steal like his middle name is Marconi. It was a big inning, but if the Pirates didn’t give outs away it could’ve been a huge one.
Which leads us to the ninth inning. Brandon Wood lead off with a leadoff walk (his THIRD walk as a Pirate!). Ronny Cedeno then bunted him over in a marginally more defensible bunt with the Pirates being down a run and it being the ninth inning and Ryan Doumit was slated to pinch hit. Then, on the first pitch to Doumit, catcher Rob Johnson briefly lost the ball in the dirt by his foot and Wood decided to book it for third. He was thrown out. So in the ninth inning of a tie game, the Pirates made three outs and one was on a bunt and one was a caught stealing. In a close game, they handed four of their last nine outs to the other team.
Almost certainly, Brandon Wood’s decision to go to third on the ball in the dirt was his own. I don’t care. Clint Hurdle has said time and time again this year that his team will always be aggressive. When Andrew McCutchen was thrown out at home for the final out in a game in which the Pirates trailed by three, Hurdled defended the move by saying that being aggressive would win the team more games than it loses them in the long run. And I’ll say now what I said then: being aggressive, especially on the base paths, is completely pointless if you’re unaware of the situation. Brandon Wood was on second base with one out in the ninth inning of a one-run game. Ryan Doumit was up and Andrew McCutchen was on deck. If there’s any chance at all that he’s going to be thrown out at third, that’s too big of a risk to take. If the manager preaches aggressiveness over everything else at any cost, the players will never, ever think this way. And the Pirates will lose more games than they should win if they’d just use their heads a little bit.
The Pirates tried really hard to give away last night’s game. They succeeded tonight.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
