The Pittsburgh Pirates took it to extra innings in what could be Jose Quintana’s final start.
They had a two run lead but the bullpen wasn’t able to hold the Philadelphia Phillies scoreless.
There really isn’t much more to say other than the Pirates got a strong starting effort, the offense put up a couple runs, but it wasn’t enough.
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Josh Lowe. Jarren Duran. Bligh Madris.
Three outfielders that have recently had a misplay turn into a big scoring hit for their opponent.
Josh Lowe took a Trey Mancini flyball to the face that turned into a two-run inside-the-park homerun.
Jarren Duran lost a Raimel Tapia flyball in the lights that landed about 40 feet behind him and turned into an inside-the-park grand slam.
Bligh Madris misplayed a Darick Hall flyball that went down as a two-run triple.
To me, I feel bad for the pitcher on the mound who did his job only to get tagged with earned runs.
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If you look at the trend of errors per game over the history of baseball, you notice that errors continue to gradually decrease over time. Each decade is mostly bunched together.
Not to say old timers didn’t practice or practice hard, but I think it’d be fair to say that teams have developed better techniques and drills at this point. Previous players passing down their knowledge. Do you believe it could be because athletes have become bigger, faster, and stronger? More athletic?
Back to the three outfielders I mentioned above, I think a lot probably just has to do with official scorers just not freely handing out errors. You could probably make the argument that dealing with a ball in the lights shouldn’t be held against the outfielder.
But there are also some heinous non-error calls that you will see in the minors. I don’t have exact dates of games, but I can assure you last year that Mason Martin got at least three or four friendly “doubles”. Balls that landed not even ten feet from the infield dirt behind second base.
Though in a time when there is often complaints about the lack of batting average in today’s game, it probably wouldn’t behoove the game of baseball to begin handing out errors to outfielders more frequently on routine flyballs gone rogue.
Phillies @ Pirates
Time: 7:15 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Mitch Keller (3-7, 4.55)
Phillies Starter: Ranger Suarez (7-5, 3.84)
Keller Notes: Mitch Keller is easily in the midst of his best month of the season, and may even be the best month of his career to date. Through four starts, he’s given up only eight earned runs through 25.0 IP which is good for a 2.88 ERA. He’s managed to complete at least six innings in all four July starts, while striking out 25 batters to only 3 walks. Sinker Mitch has been very effective.
LINEUPS:
Pirates
Mitch on the mound at PNC.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/Bu4Pl8XYww
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 30, 2022
Phillies
1. Kyle Schwarber (L) LF
2. Rhys Hoskins (R) 1B
3. Alec Bohm (R) 3B
4. J.T. Realmuto (R) C
5. Nick Castellanos (R) RF
6. Darick Hall (L) DH
7. Bryson Stott (L) 2B
8. Didi Gregorius (L) SS
9. Matt Vierling (R) CF
