Rafael Flores Jr.

I'm thinking of rookies.

I'm like, oh, which Pirates rookie is going to get the pitch? Are we going to get to see Rafael Flores? Maybe he'll get the curse of being a rookie pitcher today for the Pirates.

Well, we didn't get to see a single position player pitch, so I'll give the Pirates props for that.

I really don't enjoy watching position players pitch, but it's fun to see guys like Tyler Callahan come into pitch and just have a zero ERA, if you remember him.

This would have been a quote-unquote sack fly but not score run there.

Reynolds would have moved him up.

And then Rafael Flores rips a single.

Cruz should have came in to score.

advised.

I would say Rafael Flores Jr. is starting to wake up again, and he's still widely available.

I told you, I had a lot of catchers on the docket.

Yeah, you're all over catcher.

And it just doesn't seem like the Pirates do that, except with the catchers.

Jordan, our catcher coach, seems to be doing a great job coaching up Henry and Rafael Flores and whoever else seems to strap on the gear.

And then the other one was the fun, that play I mentioned of the Cubs, the hit and run that they just executed perfectly.

You know, again, they're a team that hits home runs.

And also, another guy I did want to talk about tonight here before we get into giving away some sandwiches.

Got to talk about Rafael Flores a little bit.

He collects another hit tonight.

does strike out twice even with that i do want to mention that i've really been impressed with how he's grown behind the plate he i think he's calling really good games right now i think receiving's been pretty decent he did weird me out by keeping his mask on on a foul ball pop up today that that was strange but all things considered i think he's really starting to grow here behind the plate which hand up i didn't think he had that in him to be honest with you

That was after the second loss in Miami.

And if you remember that next game, that was Braxton Ashcraft's complete game, Rafael Flores Jr. homers twice.

But since that time, outside of the Dodgers series, the Pirates have been very good.

And they've really steadied themselves over this last little while, have been impressed with the quality baseball.

Horowitz stops at third.

RBI single for Rafael Flores Jr., and it's 2-0 Pirates.

A 1-2.

Line, base hit, they're going to get a couple.

Connor Griffin had two RBIs as Marilyn Valdez went deep.

Rafael Flores Jr. drove in a run.

So where do we start with this one? Well, I'm going to start big picture because, I don't know, in June, July, sometime in the middle of the season where things weren't going as well for the Pirates, this is the kind of game that they'd almost find a way to lose.

Or at minimum, there were key things that they had to do that they weren't able to do and they led to a loss.

You know, we're sitting here with a 1-0 lead.

The Pirates in the seventh inning able to string something together, take advantage of a leadoff walk.

The hits that I mentioned, Rafael Flores Jr. and Connor Griffin, but the Pirates were able to add on in a big way.

Kind of covers them for the two runs that the White Sox scored, but they found ways to win this game, and I thought that was very important, very impressive.

Horowitz stops at third.

RBI single for Rafael Flores Jr., and it's 2-0 Pirates.

A 1-2.

Line, base hit, they're going to get a couple.