On Sunday, the Los Angeles Angels were without the designated hitter advantage, but regardless of what seemed on the surface to be a slight disadvantage for the team from the west coast, the Angels put on a designated hitters clinic beating the Pirates 5-4. The Pirates had a chance to at least tie the game and force the game into extra innings but the Angels held on for the win.
Sean Rodriguez was at bat with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. Should he have swung away or at least attempted a bunt?
A suicide squeeze with one out would have made it next to impossible for the Angels to have completed a double play. Instead the Pirates strategy was to swing away which resulted in a groundout in the infield which resulted in a “twin killing” game, set, match.
In addition to that flawed strategy, the Pirates reliever in the top of the ninth inning, the usually reliable Tony Watson offered up a juicy USDA type pitch to Pirates killer Albert Pujols and he threw the final shovelful of dirt on top of the “Jolly Roger,” crushing a two-run homer.
Watson said, “(the pitch to Pujols) was an up-and-in fastball. It was thrown well. He’s been around for a long time. He had one thing on his mind that at-bat, and that was to give his team the lead.”
I beg to differ, if the pitch was “thrown well” why did Pujols smack it out of the yard? A 91 mph or slightly speedier fastball had better be perfectly placed if any pitcher expects to have any success with one of the great hitters in the history of MLB.
As of June 6, 2016, no other second place MLB team was more than 3 games out of 1st place. The Pirates reside in the MLB Central Division and trail the division leading Chicago Cubs by 9.5 games.
The Pirates have up until the All Star break (approx. 4 weeks and some change) to shave at least 4.5-5 games off of the Cubs division leading lead and if they don’t I have a sneaking suspicion that something profound will have to happen before and immediately after the break for a even wildcard postseason berth to be possible for the Bucs’.
In recent seasons past the Pirates allowed the St. Louis Cardinals to mount and sustain the division lead, forcing the Pirates to sneak in the back door just to qualify for the postseason. That is exactly the way that the Cubs are playing and it appears as if Chicago might pull off a similar scenario.
There are no safe strategies when a team is 9.5 games behind in their division. There had better be more “suicide squeezes” than an orange juice factory if the Pirates expect to compete to win a division title.
They don’t have Pedro Alvarez to kick around or to blame anymore. Ya can’t vent about pitcher Charlie Morton.
If they are confident bringing up any of their minor league stars that had better not wait until September because that strategy is almost like pouring oil into car with an undetected leak.
At this point in the season, the Pirates and their management had better, run, gun and have fun because if they don’t at the end of the 2016 season, they will be “well done.”(The source for this article was espn.com)
Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412.583.6741
Follow him on Twitter@ultrascribe
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