Brach roughed up in Virtual Pirates' loss to Cubs

Virtual Pirates fans were wishing Brad Brach was still with the Mets on Tuesday night.


 I will be serving as general manager/manage of the Pirates in a 2020 season simulation along with 29 others using Out Of The Park Baseball. Feel free to check here for daily updates. I realize baseball is a lot less important than what is going on in the world today but perhaps it can provide a diversion for a few moments.

 PITTSBURGH – Brad Brach’s second relief appearance for the Virtual Pirates was far different than his first.

Brach was tagged for three runs in just 2/3 innings and took the loss as the Pirates fell to the Virtual Chicago Cubs 8-7 on Tuesday night at Virtual PNC Park.

After getting the final out of the seventh inning in relief of Chris Archer to preserve a 4-4 tie, Brach failed to retire any of the four batters he faced in the eighth.

The Cubs opened the inning with four consecutive singles. Miguel Amaya drove in the go-ahead run and pinch-hitter David Bote followed by driving in another.

Michael “Big Mike” Feliz came on and allowed a sacrifice fly to Anthony Rizzo before getting out of the jam as the Cubs moved in front 7-4.

Brach pitched two scoreless innings in his Pirates’ debut last Saturday against the Virtual Cincinnati Reds after being claimed off waivers from the New York Mets.

The game took more twists over the final two innings before the Pirates ultimately fell a run short and had their record drop to 5-6.

Jarrod Dyson drew a two-out walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth from Rowan Wick to make it a one-run game. However, Wick then got pinch-hitter Jose Osuna to ground out for his first save.

The Pirates scored twice in the bottom of the eighth to close within 7-6. The Cubs’ Tyler O’Neill, though, hit a leadoff home runs in the ninth off Kyle Crick to provide what turned out to be a pivotal insurance run.

Josh Bell hit his team-leading fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot in the third inning off Cubs starter Yu Darvish that put the Pirates ahead 2-1.

Elias Diaz had a double and a triple while Bryan Reynolds and Colin Moran also collected two hits each. Diaz’s run-scoring triple in the sixth gave the Pirates a brief 4-3 lead.

Archer, who won his first two starts, worked 6 2/3 innings in a no-decision. He gave up four runs and eight hits, struck out six, walked two and threw 109 pitches.

Kris Bryant hit a solo homer off Archer in the fifth that broke a 2-2 tie.

The skies were clear following a rainy Monday and the game-time temperature was 49 degrees with a 14-mph wind blowing out to center field. Time of the game was three hours, 47 minutes and attendance was again surprisingly good as 27,909 came out to see bench coach Craig Wilson.

Chad Kuhl will be recalled from Virtual Triple-A Indianapolis to start Wednesday night’s game against the Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks (0-0, 8.74). Kuhl will be taking the rotation spot of Joe Musgrove, who is serving a six-game suspension for his role in a benches-clearing incident with the Reds last Thursday.

Geoff Hartlieb was optioned to Indy to open a roster spot.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter aside, my Hall voting methods won't change

Image
Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan is undoubtedly one of the top baseball writers in the country and I’m proud to call him a friend. However, I am not going to follow his lead and refuse to vote in the Hall of Fame election. I certainly understand Passan’s reasons for declining to cast a ballot. I believe it was quite heavy handed of Joe Morgan and the Hall of Fame to send a letter to the voters last week urging us not to vote for anyone who has been connected to performance enhancing drugs. As I wrote last week, the toothpaste is already out of the tube on that issue. I have already voted for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens during each of the six years they have been on the ballot. My biggest issue with Morgan and the people in Cooperstown is that their advice is too little, too late. For nearly a decade, the Baseball Writers Association of America asked the Hall for guidance on how to deal with players who had been linked to PEDs and the answer was always “sorry, you’re on your ow...
Read more

My 2022 MLB Predictions

Image
Here's how I see the 2022 MLB season turning out: AMERICAN LEAGUE AL East 1-Toronto 2-Tampa Bay 3-Boston 4-New York Yankees 5-Baltimore   AL Central 1-Chicago White Sox 2-Cleveland 3-Detroit 4-Minnesota 5-Kansas City   AL West 1-Houston 2-Oakland 3-Los Angeles Angels 4-Texas 5-Seattle   AL PLAYOFFS AL Wild Card: White Sox def. Boston, Tampa Bay def. Oakland ALDS: Toronto def. Tampa Bay, Houston def. White Sox ALCS: Toronto def. Houston   NATIONAL LEAGUE NL East 1-Atlanta 2-Washington 3-Philadelphia 4-Miami 5-New York Mets   NL Central 1-Milwaukee 2-Cincinnati 3-St. Louis 4-Chicago Cubs 5-Pittsburgh   NL West 1-Los Angeles Dodgers 2-San Francisco 3-San Diego 4-Colorado 5-Arizona   NL PLAYOFFS NL Wild Card: Milwaukee def. Cincinnati, San Francisco def. San Diego NLDS: Dodgers def. San Francisco, Atlanta def. Milwaukee NLCS: Dodgers def. Atlanta ...
Read more

Will Pittsburgh Pirates non-tender Jordy Mercer?

Image
One can’t help but wonder if Jordy Mercer’s run with the Pittsburgh Pirates might end Friday night when the deadline arrives for tendering contracts to arbitration-eligible players. Mercer figures to have a salary of approximately $6.5 million in 2018 if he goes through the arbitration process for the third and final time. On the surface, that price does not seem unreasonable for a shortstop who hit .255/.326/.406 with 14 home runs in 502 at-bats with 1.4 bWAR. However, it is fair to wonder if the Pirates would be willing to pay that much money to Mercer when they already have 10 players under contract for 2018 for a total of just over $75 million. That doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for a team that finished last season with a $102-million payroll and figures to pay around $7.5 million to right-hander Gerrit Cole and $3 million to closer Felipe Rivero in arbitration. Furthermore, it is hard to imagine the penny-pinching Pirates opening next season with a higher...
Read more