7-7-21 – By Gary Morgan
After a 1 run top of the first for the Braves, the Pirates broke out the bats.
They scored 3 runs but it could have been so much more, missed opportunities were the storyline until the 6th inning where the story took a decisive turn to pitchers not throwing strikes.
Kyle Crick and Chasen Shreve combined to allow 4 walks, 3 hits and 5 runs. The slim 3-2 lead was turned on its head 7-3 Braves. After a couple outs in the top of the 7th, and a couple baserunners were on, the heavens opened.
Rain delay theatre is never fun when you aren’t in a good spot.
Kyle Keller remained in the game after the brief delay down 2-0 to Freddie Freeman and induce a fly ball to center.
The Pirates had left runners on base each of the first 6 innings and the 7th would start with another Nogowski base hit facing Shane Greene who had an ERA north of 11.00 coming in.
He walked Wilmer Difo and worked through Kevin Newman and Jared Oliva and the Pirates went to Ben Gamel which prompted the Braves to change to AJ Minter who struck him out in last night’s contest. Gamel came through, but for some reason they held Nogowski at third to bring up a bases loaded situation for Adam Frazier. Huge strikeout to strand 3 more Pirates on the base paths.
Duane Underwood Jr. who hadn’t pitched since Saturday was asked to pitch the 8th and he got hammered. 7 more runs to make it 14-3. I don’t used the term hammered lightly, he was giving up absolute lasers.
As most joke games do, we got a position player pitching. John Nogowski on the mound for the 9th and Cole Tucker came in to play first base. Yup you guessed it, a scoreless inning and guess who led off the bottom half and had his fourth hit of the game.
Final Braves 14, Pirates 3.
Back at it tomorrow against the Mets. The Pirates send JT Brubaker to the mound to face Taijuan Walker and the NL East leading Mets. This is the start of 7 straight against the Mets spanning the All Star Break.
News & Notes
- Some seem to think Kyle Crick is a trade piece, but regardless, I’ve seen enough of him in a Pirates uniform. That slider is pretty, but he just isn’t an effective pitcher. Take the good part of the McCutchen trade and smile, time to sort out the husks and hulls.
- The Pirates reached agreement with Dee Strange-Gordon (formerly Dee Gordon in case you weren’t aware) He will report to AAA Indianapolis. Yeah, again, this probably has something to do with the impending move of Adam Frazier but I’d really rather they just use internal options. He recently opted out of his contract with the Cubs.
- John Nogowski had four more hits on the day. He’s really had a good start with the Pirates.
- Some might say, why call out Crick and not Underwood? Well, coming into the game Underwood had an ERA under 4. This hasn’t been the norm for him. When I watch it for an entire year or so like Crick, maybe I’ll call for that.
- I’m completely fine with Acuna doing whatever after he hits homeruns. Why does he take exception to pitchers being animated when they strike him out? Of all people shouldn’t he think that’s fun? Good for the goose is good for the gander.
Inside The Bucs Basement 
We’ve seen Crick can be effective, seems like he’s struggled to find consistency this year. Maybe I’m a fool for having more faith in his career 3.53 ERA than (for example) Chad “Never Had a Season ERA Under 4.20 in My Five Seasons” Kuhl, but that’s a risk I’ll take. Maybe Crick has lost “it,” which happens sometimes.
As for Underwood, though he’s been so-so, it’s hard to get behind a guy who’s putting up mediocre numbers in the mop-up role. He’s not exactly high leverage, whereas Crick is medium leverage and has done well in high leverage in the past. And though I’m not great at reading how deceptive or well-moving anyone’s pitches are, I’d say both were throwing straight-up BP in this game.
Way too many LOB, especially with RISP.
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