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Well, that hurt like hell
Last night the Pittsburgh Pirates lost to the San Francisco Giants by a score of 15-4. Wilfredo Boscan pitched very poorly in his return to the big leagues as he lasted just three innings and gave up seven runs on six hits. He was pretty much a disaster and as a result, the Pirates never really had a chance in the ballgame. He looked very solid in his first two innings of work, but it pretty much all came unraveled in the third. He allowed two home runs in the inning, including a grand slam to Angel Pagan.
The Pirates are most certainly not THIS bad, but right now they are in a tailspin and it is not fun to watch. Losing baseball is still a three hour commitment most days, so it isn’t really a fun way to spend an evening. The Pirates will start to play better, but they need to hope it isn’t too little, too late.
The Adventure of Kratz the Pitcher
Whenever a baseball game gets out of hand, one of the only really enjoyable things is getting to watch position players pitch and last night that honor fell to Erik Kratz. Kratz threw a scoreless inning and even struck out Brandon Belt.
Kratz hasn’t played too well in his second go-around with the Pirates, but you can’t deny his effort and willingness to help the club. It had to be a cool for him to not only pitch, but also strikeout an above average MLB hitter.
Watching a position player pitch is fun, but it’s not a good indicator of success. Kratz deserves kudos for recording his first career strikeout, but watching the team win would have been the preferable result.
Injury to Insult
The Pirates lost the game last night but more importantly Starling Marte had to leave the game with an apparent foot injury. The severity of the injury is not yet known, but this is not good news for a struggling team.
Marte has been one of the team’s most consistent players so far this season as he is currently slashing .333/.374/.502/.876 with a 136OPS+. The Pirates cannot afford to lose him for an extended period of time. If Marte is out for awhile, it’s going to be even more difficult for the team to bust out of this funk. When it rains, it really does pour sometimes. It’s bad enough the Pirates aren’t playing well, but they have already lost Francisco Cervelli and Gerrit Cole to injuries, losing Marte could be a death blow for the 2016 team.
Baseball Talk on the Web
Rob Manfred says he ‘would not disqualify’ Las Vegas for an MLB team
Kevin Stallings rises early to enjoy son’s MLB debut with Pirates
Ex-MLB player Darryl Hamilton’s death still resonates one year later
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