And just like that we're heading into the All-Star Break. Representing the Bucs are 2 hitters: Pedro Alvarez and Andrew McCutchen and 3 pitchers: Jeff Lock, Mark Melancon, and Jason Grilli.
Mets 2 Pirates 3 F/11 - There was some trepidation about Morton starting this game. He was shaky his last time out against a bad Cubs team. I credited that mostly due to bad luck and thought he might do better next time around. I mean the Mets are not powerhouses either, right?
Morton went 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 K's. Good enough to keep the Pirates in the game for sure. Melancon, Grilli, Watson, Morris, and Mazzaro combined for 4 innings of shutout ball to keep the game tied at 2 through the 11th.
After two walks, one intentional, one unintentional, Mercer singled in Cutch to win the game. One of the more exciting games of the past couple weeks for sure.
One more thing, Pedro homered. Kinda nice retribution for not being picked by David Wright dontchthink?
Mets 2 Pirates 4 - Burnett didn't pitch great, giving up 11 combined Hs and BBs. But he did record 8 Ks and kept the Bucs in the game, which is all you can ask for really.
Cutch was the offensive star of this one, which is great to see, because although he has been very good this year, we haven't seen "Cutch levels" of production thus far, and thus when nights like this become more frequent, you gotta be thinking that he's gonna explode sometime soon.
I don't believe in "momentum" when it comes to players and teams. However I do believe in the streakiness of hitting (or any other kind of probability - if you flip a coin that has a 3 in 10 chance of coming up heads, flip it long enough you're gonna get a significant streak of heads) and also in the psychology behind "seeing the ball well" and "feeling good" as a hitter. Sometimes things are just clicking as a hitter for whatever reason (could be that you're totally healthy, that the sun is in just the right place, that you've gotten a nice new pair of batting gloves, whatever, it doesn't matter).
The point is production tends to bunch up, and it's exciting to see if this is when it actually begins.
Cutch went 2-4, including a HR and an RBI single which gave the Bucs a 3-2 lead in the 7th.
Grilli held on and closed the door for the save.
Mets 4 Pirates 2 - Too bad we didn't sweep this one, would've been nice going into the break and a bit of a make up for the recent shortcomings. But with this loss the Bucs enter the break having lost 6 of their last 10. The Pirates are 1 game back of the Cards in the Central.
About the game: Cole gave up 3 runs in the 1st but settled down enough to make it through 5 innings. Cole showed improvement last start but this was a step back. Nice to see him show that poise and hang in there though.
Cole took the first loss of his career as the Bucs weren't able to mount much offensively again. This time being held to a run by the likes of starter Dillon Gee.
The Pirates are 56-37. That's over 60%. This is pretty much the best case scenario for our record at the break if you asked me at the beginning of the year.
Keep it up Bucs.
No comments:
Post a Comment