Pirates thrash Blue Jays, 23-15

The undefeated Pirates continue to do what the Pirates do best—and that is win in the 2023 Tan Holdings-SBL Masters League.

They defeated the Blue Jays, 23-15, last Thursday night at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Baseball Field and racked their eighth straight win.

It was once again but a flight of fancy of winning for the Blue Jays, even as they pummeled the Pirates’ pitching staff with run after run. The Pirates just outdid them in the last inning of the game as the Blue Jays’ own pitching staff crumbled.

The Blue Jays had a one-run lead at the end of the sixth—thanks in part to J-Boy Deleon Guerrero’s inside-the-parker, 14-13, but the Pirates’ unblemished record isn’t just for show—and they sunk the Blue Jays’ hopes when they added 10 more runs in the last inning.

The Pirates had a lot on their mind—or more like loot on their mind—as they pillaged and plundered every run that they could get from the Blue Jays’ unfortunately weakening pitching staff and faltering defense.

Pirates’ Audie Maratita scored on an inside-the-park homer the inning before and helped himself to more runs as he hit two RBI doubles. Another RBI double was made by Mario Aguon, but not before two more runs scored.

After Aguon, a run was added, and the lineup restarted as the Blue Jays just could not register three outs. Pete Sablan added two more runs for the Pirates before the inning ended mercifully on a groundout.

The Blue Jays then conceded as they could only conjure one more run in their last at-bat.

In the end of this high-scoring game, Maratita continued to tack on to his batting accolades as he went up to the plate six times, scored three runs, had three hits, two RBIs, two doubles, and one inside-the-park home run. Teammate Pete Sablan added to their loot as he went 3-for-4, scored four runs, bagged three RBIs, and walked twice.