Manaea rocked as Pirates fall into 3-0 Series hole against Indians

 


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 regular 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 Virtual Pirates’ magical season is one loss away from ending and their starting pitching is the culprit.

Sean Manaea was blasted for seven runs in 1 2/3 innings on Thursday night as the Virtual Cleveland Indians routed the Virtual Buccos 15-7 in Game 3 of the World Series at Virtual PNC Park to reach the brink of a sweep.

None of the Pirates starters have yet to make it past the fourth inning in the first three games.

Game 4 is Friday night with Joe Musgrove hoping to save the Virtual Corsairs’ season when he faces Shane Bieber.

The Virtual Tribe’s Carlos Santana keyed a seven-run second inning with a three-run double and finished with six RBIs.

The outburst in the second inning wiped out the Pirates’ early 3-0 lead and included Jake Bauers’ two-run double and an RBI double by Tyler Naquin.

Manaea retired just five of the 13 batters he faced. The left-hander gave up six runs, struck out three, walked two and threw 51 pitches.

The bullpen did not fare much better as the Indians extended their lead to 15-3 by the middle of the fifth inning. Kyle Crick was rocked for three runs in 2/3 inning and Richard Rodriguez served up four runs in 2 1/3 innings.

The Pirates got off to a fast start in the first Fall Classic game ever at Virtual PNC Park, scoring three runs, one of which scored on Adam Frazier’s double.

The Indians changed plans and started left-hander Logan Allen rather than ace Shane Bieber. However, Allen was injured two batters into the game and was replaced by Phil Maton, who got the win.

Frazier finished with two hits and Bryan Reynolds had two hits and two RBIs.

Bauers drove in three runs for the Indians.

Bench coach Craig Wilson decided that the 60th anniversary of the 1960 Pirates’ World Series championship team should be observed during the 2020 Virtual Fall Classic.

Thus, Bill Mazeroski, whose home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 gave the Pirates an upset victory over the Yankees, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

“I thought about having him turn a ceremonial double play,” Wilson said. “We could use a real home run like he hit in ’60 to turn this series around.”

The loss also left Wilson searching for anything to pull the Pirates out of their deep hope.

“I’ll going to get my Jobu doll out and I’m going to call Kevin Millar for shots,” he said. “But you have to look at this as a positive. Maybe the Indians are overconfident. Maybe we’ve got them right where we want them.”

 


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