Polanco hits two homers, Virtual Pirates roll over Braves



I will be serving as general manager/manager 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 – The real Pirates have raved about Gregory Polanco during the first days of “Summer Camp.” The big right fielder is looking good for the Virtual Pirates, too.

Polanco belted two home runs and the Virtual Buccos rolled to a 13-6 victory over the Virtual Atlanta Braves on Wednesday at Virtual Truist Park.

The Pirates (52-40) won for the seventh time in eight games and maintained their one-game lead over the Virtual Philadelphia Phillies for the second National League wild card. The Virtual Corsairs trail the Virtual Milwaukee Brewers by one game in the NL Central.

The Pirates have taken two of three in the four-game series against the NL East leaders.

Polanco’s first homer came with a runner on base in a five-run fourth inning and helped the Pirates build an 8-1 lead. He also hit a solo shot during a four-run seventh in which the advantage grew to 12-1.

Polanco is hitting .262 with 17 home runs and a team-high 67 RBIs. He is on pace to drive in 118 runs this season.

Guillermo Heredia and Bryan Reynolds added solo home runs.

Polanco, Reynolds, and Elias Diaz each had three RBIs. Reynolds also had three hits and Polanco, Diaz, Heredia, and Ke’Bryan Hayes added two apiece.

Jose Osuna and Hayes hit RBI singles in the first inning as the Pirates took a 2-0 lead against Philip Pfeifer (3-1). Reynolds had a two-run double in the five-run fourth when he had a two-run-single.

Steven Brault pitched into the seventh inning for the win. He gave up only one run and five hits in 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and three walks. The singing lefty threw 100 pitches.

Blake Cederlind worked one scoreless inning of relief after being recalled from Virtual Triple-A Indianapolis prior to the game. He takes the roster spot of Edgar Santana, who was optioned to Indy a day after pitching 2 2/3 scoreless relief innings in an 18-inning loss to the Braves.

Despite the 13-run outburst, Pirates bench coach Craig Wilson was disappointed in the offense.

“I don’t know why we settled for a couple of chip-shot field goals rather than touchdowns,” Wilson said.

Told that Patrick Mahomes wasn’t on the Virtual Pirates’ roster, Wilson mentioned that he was a teammate of Mahomes’ father, Pat, with the 2003 Pirates.

Wilson believes he would have had a chance to steer the younger Mahomes to the Virtual Buccos if ownership would have been willing to come up with $504 million to outbid the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Pirates will not have a starting quarterback for Thursday’s series finale, but will have a double-digit winner on the mound in Joe Musgrove (10-4, 3.09). He will oppose rookie Ian Anderson (1-1, 1.98).

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