Turning the page

After yesterday’s embarrassment, I wasn’t sure what to expect entering tonight’s game. Overall, I liked what I got to see. Losing two of your most valuable players is never an easy thing to do, but we played with a lot of resilience and heart. No, it wasn’t enough to win the game, but it was encouraging.

We gave up one run in the top of the first, but fought back and tied it up in the bottom half. The Red Sox eventually answered by scoring seven runs. Normally at this point, we start to beat ourselves by taking ourselves mentally out of the game. That was not the case tonight.

I led off the bottom of the third inning with a flare just out of the reach of the shortstop’s glove. That was followed by a bloop single to right field, where both I and the batter advanced thanks to a throwing error. A few hits later, and we had quite a rally going. The next thing I know, it’s a one run ball game, and I’m up to bat for the second time in the inning.

With two outs, and runners on first and second, I singled on a ground ball between first and second. Unfortunately the runner at second was out at the plate, but we still battled hard. After three innings, we were trailing by a score of 7-6.

From there, our pitchers struggled a bit on the mound, and we were unable to put together another real offensive threat. We may not have been able to win the game, but we showed that even without two of our best players, we’re still good enough to compete with the best teams in the league. If that doesn’t help boost your confidence, I’m not sure what will.

Trailing two games to none in the best-of-five series, the Pirates will be back in action on Wednesday evening. I’m hoping for a win, because I’m not quite ready for the season to be over just yet.