After a enjoyable and relaxing Friday night for Pirates Fans, where it seemed like their team couldn’t do anything wrong, tonight’s game was a quick drop back into the reality of what it’s like to cheer for a rebuilding ball club. Enter the veteran pitcher, Trevor Cahill, whose signing was a little curious at the time, followed up a surprisingly strong performance in his last outing with a first inning that took the wind out of the Pirates’ sails immediately; giving up five runs with two outs on not a lot of hard contact. And for good measure he gave up two more the next inning, which would turn out to be an insurmountable lead for Pittsburgh to overcome.
Cahill’s counterpart, Brett Anderson, did not have nearly as rough of a time with the Pirates lineup as he spread 6 hits out over seven innings; even making up for his team’s miscues at times. Not that Pittsburgh’s hitters put up much of a fight by not even getting one extra base hit; but hey, Anthony Alford struck the ball hard a couple of times.
Now, I realize games like this are going happen from time to time, and more than likely pretty often this season, however, they still aren’t fun to watch. It just makes it hard to stay positive, and keep the eye on the potential prize; which is probably why I found myself looking at Minor League schedules and making plans during the late innings of today’s game.
News and Notes:
- Bryan Reynolds is hitting for contact the way he was back in 2019; taking what is given to him and placing the ball all over the park.
- Adam Frazier extended his hitting streak to six games, while going 10 for 24 during this small stretch. The guy is just plain streaky.
- Sean Poppen put together an unexpectedly solid two innings of relief work; striking out two, giving up to hits and walking none.
- I am officially pushing a panic button of sorts on Kevin Newman. He’s still not striking, but he isn’t getting hits or drawing walks either. Sit him down for a couple of days, hit the cages and figure it out.
- Clay Holmes had one disastrous third of an inning against the Reds, but otherwise has looked solid. He has only given up on hit over his last three appearances, over 4 innings of work.
The Pirates won’t have long to let this loss soak in because the two teams are back at it again tomorrow at 2:10 PM EST from Milwaukee, with Chad Kuhl (0-1, 6.75 ERA) on the mound to face off against Freddy Peralta (2-0, .69 ERA) for the Brew Crew.
Inside The Bucs Basement 