In my last post I mentioned how home field was such a small part of the equation for Tuesday and how home field could not matter that much in the scheme of things.
I take it back. I take it all back.
I knew the atmosphere would be incredible. I went in with high expectations. I mean, I was nervous to hell about the game itself, who could blame me, but the one thing I was high on was watching the fans and the feelings in PNC Park. And at the moment of the first pitch I was blown away with how the Pirate fans were acting. They were deafening, in your face, raucous, and of course, deeply into the game. It reminded me of Oakland and the fans they have there. Raiders fans are loud and in your face, and A's fans are often the same, though their ballpark limits their impact a bit.
The Pirates were that and more. They wore all black. They screamed at the top of their lungs. And thanks to PNC Park, they were right on top of the game (and, in a couple cases, perhaps too on top of the game, when a fan seemed to touch an eventual Choo homer, and another touched an in play ball the next at bat). All the weight of 20 years of losing came crashing into PNC Park at once. In an elimination game. It was glorious.
The fact that it was an elimination game no doubt added to the elation. This was the first Pirate game in a long time, and it was life or death.
There were so many great moments of the game, but I want to focus on one: Cueto dropping the ball and immediately giving up a homer to Russell Martin.
Earlier that inning, Marlon Byrd assaulted a Cueto pitch into the left field stands (and those seats and bleachers out in left looked crazy by the way, with all the black shirts). The fans, sensing weakness, started chanting "Cue-to! Cue-to!" over and over.
With 1 out and nobody on, the count was 1-1 to Martin. Cueto delivered a ball outside to Martin, and the fans jumped on him. Here's the video. They were relentless, and Cueto dropped the ball as he approached the rubber. After that, there was no stopping the fans from having their way with Cueto.
In the most direct fans has an effect on the game situation I've ever seen, Cueto badly missed his spot with his fastball and catcher Ryan Hanigan knew it. Martin was all over that pitch in the center of the zone and slammed the ball to left. 2-0 Bucs.
That sequence represented the game for me.
There's so much else to talk about, almost too much, that I'm just gonna run them down, because you could go on for days honestly about this game and there's just no way to do it justice. Just watch the replay.
Liriano was brilliant, especially in the early innings. He was poison to the Reds' big lefties Choo, Votto, and Bruce as they combined to go 1 for 8 against him, with a single, a HBP, and 4 strikeouts.
Liriano's control and energy tailed off a bit in the 6th and 7th giving up a few hits, but he held it together, and the Reds only tallied one run off him.
Even with Liriano taling off in the later innings, panic never really set in, the Pirates had a comfortable lead by then, and you knew Hurdle would be quick to use his biggest weapon, his bullpen. The biggest scare in the game happened in the 4th, when with 1 run already in in the inning, 2 outs, and 2 runners on, Todd Frazier hit a long and high fly ball that looked foul off the bat but just kept.... on... staying.... straight. It just would not bend foul! Thankfully, it lined a good 10 or so feet to the left of the left field pole, but that strike gave just about every Pirate fan in the universe a mild heart attack.
Liriano recovered and struck out Frazier to end the inning.
Frazier was actually the biggest thorn in the Pirates side, as he nabbed a couple of balls at third to sap some of the pirates chances, including a great dive into the left camera well to catch a Walker foul, and a humpback liner off the bat of Justin Morneau.
But it wasn't enough for the Reds.
McCutchen was clutch as expected. 2 for 3 with 2 BB (including 1 IBB) was key in the center of that lineup. He also went all out an eventual double that showed he was all-in on this game. Love seeing a player pay out like that.
Neil Walker continued his hot hitting, lacing a double off the left field wall off Sean Marshall (Who is a lefty! That's supposed to be Walker's kryptonite!)
And the big star Russell Martin, with two big homers.
Marte, Byrd, Morneau, Alvarez, Barmes were also big parts of the win, all getting at least one hit, except for Pedro who made up for that with a key sac fly that he fisted into center.
It really was a team victory. From the 1st man to the 10th.
Watson (who gave up the Choo homer) and Grilli finished it off, Grilli having a particularly swift 9th.
Bucs win 6-2. This is what I've been dreaming about all year.
See you in St. Louis on Thursday!
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Pirates end the regular season with a sweep in Cincinnati
Finishing strong. You hear the media talk about a team like the Braves or the Dodgers and they say "they haven't had much to play for these past couple weeks, and their not blowing away the competition; they're not finishing strong."
I honestly don't think there's much value in "finishing strong." A team that's on a hot streak could cool off any day, and a team that's not playing well could string a couple games together at the beginning of the postseason easily. Especially good teams like the Braves and the Dodgers.
However, there is something to be said for a team that looks relaxed and is not trying to do too much.
You can easily notice when a bunch of players are swinging out of their shoes. They refuse to work the count, they can't stay back on off-speed stuff. They're just dying to be that spark. A team that's relaxed and playing their own game at their own pace is in a good place. It's not much, but it's something, and it can dictate the direction of a few games for sure. I've seen it this season when the Bucs have gone on extended stretches without scoring. It happened earlier this month.
Why mention all this?
Because this paltry bit of analysis is the best I can provide going into the Wild Card game. Liriano's starting. Great. Cueto's starting. Not so great. The Pirates have home field. Great to see, but will have barely any effect on the game, despite what some people will say of Liriano's home/away splits (his worse ERA on the road is due entirely to the Milwaukee and Colorado meltdowns, his xFIP is almost identical home or away). It's very possible none of these facts will have any bearing on the outcome of the biggest game of the year for the Bucs. It's one game. Anything could happen. Anything.
And since there's basically no way to tell what will happen heading into Tuesday, the only thing I can say is that as I've watched the Pirates this past week, they look like a team that can play. They look competitive (not just cause they've won, but how; they've honestly played some nice fundamental baseball this past week and they look like a complete team). They have Grilli back, though he's not quite at 100% he's looked better this past week than he has in a while. Justin Wilson is back, a key part of the bullpen that we need in there. The rest of the bullpen has been holding strong, with extremely few red flags of late. Even Bryan Morris has pitched well of late. On the offensive side, McCutchen, Alvarez, Byrd, Morneau, and especially Neil Walker have been looking good. Starling Marte is healthy and back with the team and in the lineup every day. Probably the biggest red flag for the offense is Russell Martin, who still more than makes up for his nosediving OBP by dint of his defense. And then the starting pitching. Cole's been amazing lately. Morton's been very good (not his best start Saturday but with a wider lens he's been very good). A.J. holding up, he's not tiring at all. And of course Liriano is still as Liriano as he's been all year. On top of that, the defense has looked solid lately, with few errors, and a smart strategy that puts the defenders in the right places more often than not.
Any of this could change on Tuesday. Hot streaks, trends, and health can turn on a dime. But the point is, if you could draw up what you wanted the Pirates to look like heading into the post-season, this would just about be it. Their players are healthy, strong, and playing good baseball. It won't guarantee anything, but it's better than any of the alternatives. And with such a crapshoot coming up, that's all you can say.
The Pirates will play a competitive game on Tuesday in Pittsburgh. It'll be the first postseason game in the history of PNC Park.
Amazing.
After all that ado, let's review the last three games of the season. The first two of which guaranteed that the Wild Card game would be played in Pittsburgh, eliminating Scenario 1 from my last post.
27 September - Pirates 4 Reds 1 - Burnett vs. Bailey. Burnett was great. He had the Reds diving after his curve all night, they were helpless.
After a Marlon Byrd 2 RBI single in the 3rd and a Todd Frazier HR in the 4th, the score was 2-1.
Bailey, who had been laboring through 5 tough innings was brought out for the 6th. He was greeted by Marlon Byrd with a long double that was objectively the farthest you can hit a ball in that ballpark and not get a HR (the ball somehow hit a jutting corner at the top of the left center field wall, it was reviewed and rightly ruled a double).
Bailey dodged that bullet, but he wouldn't dodge the next.
Pedro Alvarez crushed a 2 run homer and the Bucs went up 4-1. Bailey was taken out before retiring a batter in the 6th.
Burnett continued his dominance of the Reds lineup through 8, and finished with a stellar line of 8 IP 1 ER 5 H 1 BB 6 K's. Jason Grilli entered in the 9th to rack up his 33rd and final save of the regular season.
Bucs win #92.
28 September - Pirates 8 Reds 3 - Morton vs. Arroyo. Both pitchers got a bit roughed up, one more than the other.
The Pirates launched 6 home runs this afternoon (5 of which were off Bronson Arroyo). Those six were, in order:
Walker, McCutchen, Alvarez, Walker, Byrd, Lambo.
All solo shots except for Byrd's 2 run HR, which also knocked in Morneau. Lambo's, a pinch-hit homer, was the first of his career, and the only one off of a reliever.
The Reds fell behind early, but clawed back to a 3-2 lead against Morton in the 3rd, before falling victim to the Bucs' home run barrage.
Neither starter made it to the fifth.
The Pirate bullpen stepped up in a big way, with Mazzaro, Wilson, Watson, Melancon, and Morris combining for 4 2/3 scoreless innings. Big props to Mazzaro who got out of Morton's jam in the 5th, and Wilson who threw a scoreless inning despite not having his best control. Watson and Melancon did what we've come to expect and Morris pitched a nice 9th to end the ball game.
With win #93, the Pirates ensured the Wild Card game would be in Da Burgh.
29 September - Pirates 4 Reds 2 - Sunday's game was completely void of any meaning, as the NL playoff picture was entirely set, except for who would play the winner of the Wild Card game, which the Cards ensured would be them after completing their sweep of the Chicago Cubs to end the season.
At the end of last week, I guessed that in order to have a shot at the division the Bucs would have to go 5-1, and hope for the Cards to go 3-3. The Bucs actually nailed their part of the deal, but the Cardinals went 6-0. Such is the life of a team needing help.
The Bucs will have to do it themselves on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Brandon Cumpton won, Greg Reynolds lost, Jordy Mercer hit an inside the park HR (a line drive that an outfielder dove at and missed), and Garrett Jones also added a solo shot. Bucs tally #94, far exceeding my expectations from the beginning of the year.
I had them at 87 I think, and even I thought I was being optimistic.
The Bucs have had a great regular season. But there will be plenty of time to look back on it during the winter time.
For now, it's all about Tuesday night on the North Shore.
LET'S GO BUCS!
I honestly don't think there's much value in "finishing strong." A team that's on a hot streak could cool off any day, and a team that's not playing well could string a couple games together at the beginning of the postseason easily. Especially good teams like the Braves and the Dodgers.
However, there is something to be said for a team that looks relaxed and is not trying to do too much.
You can easily notice when a bunch of players are swinging out of their shoes. They refuse to work the count, they can't stay back on off-speed stuff. They're just dying to be that spark. A team that's relaxed and playing their own game at their own pace is in a good place. It's not much, but it's something, and it can dictate the direction of a few games for sure. I've seen it this season when the Bucs have gone on extended stretches without scoring. It happened earlier this month.
Why mention all this?
Because this paltry bit of analysis is the best I can provide going into the Wild Card game. Liriano's starting. Great. Cueto's starting. Not so great. The Pirates have home field. Great to see, but will have barely any effect on the game, despite what some people will say of Liriano's home/away splits (his worse ERA on the road is due entirely to the Milwaukee and Colorado meltdowns, his xFIP is almost identical home or away). It's very possible none of these facts will have any bearing on the outcome of the biggest game of the year for the Bucs. It's one game. Anything could happen. Anything.
And since there's basically no way to tell what will happen heading into Tuesday, the only thing I can say is that as I've watched the Pirates this past week, they look like a team that can play. They look competitive (not just cause they've won, but how; they've honestly played some nice fundamental baseball this past week and they look like a complete team). They have Grilli back, though he's not quite at 100% he's looked better this past week than he has in a while. Justin Wilson is back, a key part of the bullpen that we need in there. The rest of the bullpen has been holding strong, with extremely few red flags of late. Even Bryan Morris has pitched well of late. On the offensive side, McCutchen, Alvarez, Byrd, Morneau, and especially Neil Walker have been looking good. Starling Marte is healthy and back with the team and in the lineup every day. Probably the biggest red flag for the offense is Russell Martin, who still more than makes up for his nosediving OBP by dint of his defense. And then the starting pitching. Cole's been amazing lately. Morton's been very good (not his best start Saturday but with a wider lens he's been very good). A.J. holding up, he's not tiring at all. And of course Liriano is still as Liriano as he's been all year. On top of that, the defense has looked solid lately, with few errors, and a smart strategy that puts the defenders in the right places more often than not.
Any of this could change on Tuesday. Hot streaks, trends, and health can turn on a dime. But the point is, if you could draw up what you wanted the Pirates to look like heading into the post-season, this would just about be it. Their players are healthy, strong, and playing good baseball. It won't guarantee anything, but it's better than any of the alternatives. And with such a crapshoot coming up, that's all you can say.
The Pirates will play a competitive game on Tuesday in Pittsburgh. It'll be the first postseason game in the history of PNC Park.
Amazing.
After all that ado, let's review the last three games of the season. The first two of which guaranteed that the Wild Card game would be played in Pittsburgh, eliminating Scenario 1 from my last post.
27 September - Pirates 4 Reds 1 - Burnett vs. Bailey. Burnett was great. He had the Reds diving after his curve all night, they were helpless.
After a Marlon Byrd 2 RBI single in the 3rd and a Todd Frazier HR in the 4th, the score was 2-1.
Bailey, who had been laboring through 5 tough innings was brought out for the 6th. He was greeted by Marlon Byrd with a long double that was objectively the farthest you can hit a ball in that ballpark and not get a HR (the ball somehow hit a jutting corner at the top of the left center field wall, it was reviewed and rightly ruled a double).
Bailey dodged that bullet, but he wouldn't dodge the next.
Pedro Alvarez crushed a 2 run homer and the Bucs went up 4-1. Bailey was taken out before retiring a batter in the 6th.
Burnett continued his dominance of the Reds lineup through 8, and finished with a stellar line of 8 IP 1 ER 5 H 1 BB 6 K's. Jason Grilli entered in the 9th to rack up his 33rd and final save of the regular season.
Bucs win #92.
28 September - Pirates 8 Reds 3 - Morton vs. Arroyo. Both pitchers got a bit roughed up, one more than the other.
The Pirates launched 6 home runs this afternoon (5 of which were off Bronson Arroyo). Those six were, in order:
Walker, McCutchen, Alvarez, Walker, Byrd, Lambo.
All solo shots except for Byrd's 2 run HR, which also knocked in Morneau. Lambo's, a pinch-hit homer, was the first of his career, and the only one off of a reliever.
The Reds fell behind early, but clawed back to a 3-2 lead against Morton in the 3rd, before falling victim to the Bucs' home run barrage.
Neither starter made it to the fifth.
The Pirate bullpen stepped up in a big way, with Mazzaro, Wilson, Watson, Melancon, and Morris combining for 4 2/3 scoreless innings. Big props to Mazzaro who got out of Morton's jam in the 5th, and Wilson who threw a scoreless inning despite not having his best control. Watson and Melancon did what we've come to expect and Morris pitched a nice 9th to end the ball game.
With win #93, the Pirates ensured the Wild Card game would be in Da Burgh.
29 September - Pirates 4 Reds 2 - Sunday's game was completely void of any meaning, as the NL playoff picture was entirely set, except for who would play the winner of the Wild Card game, which the Cards ensured would be them after completing their sweep of the Chicago Cubs to end the season.
At the end of last week, I guessed that in order to have a shot at the division the Bucs would have to go 5-1, and hope for the Cards to go 3-3. The Bucs actually nailed their part of the deal, but the Cardinals went 6-0. Such is the life of a team needing help.
The Bucs will have to do it themselves on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Brandon Cumpton won, Greg Reynolds lost, Jordy Mercer hit an inside the park HR (a line drive that an outfielder dove at and missed), and Garrett Jones also added a solo shot. Bucs tally #94, far exceeding my expectations from the beginning of the year.
I had them at 87 I think, and even I thought I was being optimistic.
The Bucs have had a great regular season. But there will be plenty of time to look back on it during the winter time.
For now, it's all about Tuesday night on the North Shore.
LET'S GO BUCS!
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Bucs split last two games of Cubs series, game up on Reds, nearly eliminated from division
The Nats did the Bucs no favors. If we're honest, the Bucs didn't do themselves many favors these past few weeks, so they certainly have no on to blame for losing out on the division but themselves.
But damn, the Nats couldn't get one measly game?
The Bucs took 2 of 3 in the last series at Wrigley. A decent result, but it's not gonna get it done with regard to the division. Let's take a look at the last two games of the series, after the Bucs clinched their playoff spot:
24 September - Pirates 8 Cubs 2 - It was nice to see Marte, McCutchen, Byrd, and Alvarez all have good nights. The Cubs trotted out lefty Chris Rusin, who was tagged and couldn't escape the 3rd.
Gerrit Cole was a tiny bit off relative to his recent stretch of fantastic performances, but was still good: 6 IP 2 ER 7 H 1 BB 6 K's. Cole also had probably the biggest hit of the day, a 2 run single with 2 outs in the 2nd to give the Bucs a 3-0 lead. Very reminiscent of the hit he had in his MLB Debut on June 11.
The story of the night was Cole's balancing act it in the bottom of the 6th. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out. And then a Jordy Mercer committed an error that should've at least been one out.
So with the bases still loaded and nobody out, 1 run in, Cole had to step it up in a 6-2 game that was far from over.
Cole dug deep against Dioner Navarro, falling behind 3-0 he battled back for a clutch strikeout. Next he struck out Luis Valbuena on a 2-2 pitch. Finally, he got Donnie Murphy to fly out on a 1-0 pitch.
That rocky inning spelled the end of the night for him, but it was very impressive to see him step up and hold it together in the face of some adversity.
Overall a good win. Win #91.
25 September - Pirates 2 Cubs 4 - Before this game was over, the Reds had lost to the Mets, which meant that a Pirate win would set the Bucs up very nicely for the final series of the season, only having to win one of the three games to claim home field advantage for the Wild Card game.
Also before this game was over, the Cardinals completed their three game sweep of the Nationals, meaning that a Pirate loss would put the division elimination number for the Pirates at 1.
Francisco Liriano had an alright start, but he was struggling all afternoon. He only had one clean inning, and in all the rest he was dancing around baserunners and pulling a magnificent tight rope walk. Miraculously, the game was 1-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth (what's with the bottom of the 6th in Wrigley lately?)
Liriano put two runners on. His pitch count topped 100, so you just hoped he could get out of the 6th and then he'd be done. But Liriano grooved a pitch to Darnell McDonald (who I didn't even know was still in the majors until this series - I'll always remember him for pitching in that crazy extra inning game with the Red Sox and O's last year) which was deposited in left field bleachers for a 3 run homer. 4-1 Cubs.
As bad as the Cubs bullpen has looked this year, you'd think the Bucs could at least make a run at the 3 run lead, and they did, but it was too little too late, as Jose Tabata's 1 out triple in the 9th knocked in the Bucs' 2nd run of the game, but that's all they could get.
Normally you'd be satisfied with any winning series on the road, but the Bucs really needed to sweep the Cubs to have a fighting chance at the division, and that's even if the Cards didn't sweep the Nats. Now it would take a miracle, with the Bucs needing to sweep the Reds in Cincy (very tough to do), the Cards getting swept by the Cubs in St. Louis (flat out not going to happen), and the Bucs then winning a division champion play-off game. Fangraphs gives the Bucs a 0.4% chance of winning the division. So I suppose we can say goodnight to that.
This is disappointing, because I have been pulling for the Pirates to win the division all year. The Pirates have never finished 1st in the NL Central since its inception in 1994. Hell, this is the first time the Pirates have finished over .500 since the inception of the NL Central.
But we have to remember, what's the point of winning the division?
To get to the division series.
The Pirates can still do that. It's gonna take some work, and a lot of luck, but the Pirates can still do this.
In large part, this last series in Cincinnati is irrelevant. The winner of the series will have a very slight advantage in the Wild Card game with home field advantage, but a single game has so much variance that home field is pretty much meaningless except for the sentimental value and the ticket sales. It would be really nice for the city of Pittsburgh to see a playoff game, you'd hate for the Bucs to lose their first game back in the postseason after so many years, but you'd really hate for that one game to be on the road, and have PNC Park remain to see zero playoff games into next year. So here's my expectations and how I'd feel about certain outcomes, ignoring the exceedingly unlikely ones:
1. Pirates lose home field and lose the WC game in Cincy. BAD. This is the worst case scenario and would be a big disappointment.
2. Pirates win home field and lose the WC game in Pittsburgh. Not good, but I've always thought PNC would be a wonderful place for a playoff game. The atmosphere would be amazing, I have no doubt. It would be a disappointing outcome of course, but still would be great to watch.
3. The Pirates make the division series. GREAT. In this case, I don't care whether or not the Bucs hosted the WC game, because they'll be guaranteed at least one home game anyway, which will be super fun. And this is of course ignoring the best part, the Division Series! I would be glued to the television set, I'm gonna relish every moment of this series if it happens, I'm dying to see some competitive October baseball by the Bucs!
4. ???? Everything after the Division Series would be gravy. My goal for this team is to make one of the NLDSs, and then let's see what happens.
Let's do this.
But first, a stop in Cincy. Let's go Bucs.
But damn, the Nats couldn't get one measly game?
The Bucs took 2 of 3 in the last series at Wrigley. A decent result, but it's not gonna get it done with regard to the division. Let's take a look at the last two games of the series, after the Bucs clinched their playoff spot:
24 September - Pirates 8 Cubs 2 - It was nice to see Marte, McCutchen, Byrd, and Alvarez all have good nights. The Cubs trotted out lefty Chris Rusin, who was tagged and couldn't escape the 3rd.
Gerrit Cole was a tiny bit off relative to his recent stretch of fantastic performances, but was still good: 6 IP 2 ER 7 H 1 BB 6 K's. Cole also had probably the biggest hit of the day, a 2 run single with 2 outs in the 2nd to give the Bucs a 3-0 lead. Very reminiscent of the hit he had in his MLB Debut on June 11.
The story of the night was Cole's balancing act it in the bottom of the 6th. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out. And then a Jordy Mercer committed an error that should've at least been one out.
So with the bases still loaded and nobody out, 1 run in, Cole had to step it up in a 6-2 game that was far from over.
Cole dug deep against Dioner Navarro, falling behind 3-0 he battled back for a clutch strikeout. Next he struck out Luis Valbuena on a 2-2 pitch. Finally, he got Donnie Murphy to fly out on a 1-0 pitch.
That rocky inning spelled the end of the night for him, but it was very impressive to see him step up and hold it together in the face of some adversity.
Overall a good win. Win #91.
25 September - Pirates 2 Cubs 4 - Before this game was over, the Reds had lost to the Mets, which meant that a Pirate win would set the Bucs up very nicely for the final series of the season, only having to win one of the three games to claim home field advantage for the Wild Card game.
Also before this game was over, the Cardinals completed their three game sweep of the Nationals, meaning that a Pirate loss would put the division elimination number for the Pirates at 1.
Francisco Liriano had an alright start, but he was struggling all afternoon. He only had one clean inning, and in all the rest he was dancing around baserunners and pulling a magnificent tight rope walk. Miraculously, the game was 1-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth (what's with the bottom of the 6th in Wrigley lately?)
Liriano put two runners on. His pitch count topped 100, so you just hoped he could get out of the 6th and then he'd be done. But Liriano grooved a pitch to Darnell McDonald (who I didn't even know was still in the majors until this series - I'll always remember him for pitching in that crazy extra inning game with the Red Sox and O's last year) which was deposited in left field bleachers for a 3 run homer. 4-1 Cubs.
As bad as the Cubs bullpen has looked this year, you'd think the Bucs could at least make a run at the 3 run lead, and they did, but it was too little too late, as Jose Tabata's 1 out triple in the 9th knocked in the Bucs' 2nd run of the game, but that's all they could get.
Normally you'd be satisfied with any winning series on the road, but the Bucs really needed to sweep the Cubs to have a fighting chance at the division, and that's even if the Cards didn't sweep the Nats. Now it would take a miracle, with the Bucs needing to sweep the Reds in Cincy (very tough to do), the Cards getting swept by the Cubs in St. Louis (flat out not going to happen), and the Bucs then winning a division champion play-off game. Fangraphs gives the Bucs a 0.4% chance of winning the division. So I suppose we can say goodnight to that.
This is disappointing, because I have been pulling for the Pirates to win the division all year. The Pirates have never finished 1st in the NL Central since its inception in 1994. Hell, this is the first time the Pirates have finished over .500 since the inception of the NL Central.
But we have to remember, what's the point of winning the division?
To get to the division series.
The Pirates can still do that. It's gonna take some work, and a lot of luck, but the Pirates can still do this.
In large part, this last series in Cincinnati is irrelevant. The winner of the series will have a very slight advantage in the Wild Card game with home field advantage, but a single game has so much variance that home field is pretty much meaningless except for the sentimental value and the ticket sales. It would be really nice for the city of Pittsburgh to see a playoff game, you'd hate for the Bucs to lose their first game back in the postseason after so many years, but you'd really hate for that one game to be on the road, and have PNC Park remain to see zero playoff games into next year. So here's my expectations and how I'd feel about certain outcomes, ignoring the exceedingly unlikely ones:
1. Pirates lose home field and lose the WC game in Cincy. BAD. This is the worst case scenario and would be a big disappointment.
2. Pirates win home field and lose the WC game in Pittsburgh. Not good, but I've always thought PNC would be a wonderful place for a playoff game. The atmosphere would be amazing, I have no doubt. It would be a disappointing outcome of course, but still would be great to watch.
3. The Pirates make the division series. GREAT. In this case, I don't care whether or not the Bucs hosted the WC game, because they'll be guaranteed at least one home game anyway, which will be super fun. And this is of course ignoring the best part, the Division Series! I would be glued to the television set, I'm gonna relish every moment of this series if it happens, I'm dying to see some competitive October baseball by the Bucs!
4. ???? Everything after the Division Series would be gravy. My goal for this team is to make one of the NLDSs, and then let's see what happens.
Let's do this.
But first, a stop in Cincy. Let's go Bucs.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Bucs lose 2 of 3 vs. the Reds, but beat the Cubs and make the playoffs the next day
20 September - Reds 6 Pirates 5 F/10 - Wednesday was a bad loss, but it wasn't a landmark game level of bad.
This was.
The Pirates fell behind from the get-go, with Brandon Phillips coming around to score on a Ryan Ludwick single after being walked by Liriano. Those walks always come back to bite you.
That first inning, and a fifth inning home run by Todd Frazier were the only blemishes on an outstanding start by Francisco Liriano, who was stellar over 8 innings, and only needed 94 pitches.
Then the bottom of the first happened.
BOOM. Tabata HR. Tie ballgame.
BOOM. Walker HR. 2-1 lead.
Wow.
The crowd was fired up and the atmosphere was amazing. The Pirates were gonna fight tooth and nail for their hometown crowd, and everyone loved it.
Fast forward to the 9th inning of the game. The score is now 5-2 Pirates.
It seemed like Liriano could've easily come out for the ninth, but Hurdle opted instead to bring in Mark Melancon to finish the ballgame. A move I 100% agreed, and still agree, with. Liriano was quoted after the game saying that he took himself out, feeling that he was done, though that is mostly irrelevant.
Mark struck out Joey Votto on four pitches. The Reds' biggest hitter is out, and you have to be thinking we've got this in the bag.
Ludwick singled to right, again showing Mark's recent struggled avoiding opposite way hits to righties (he's actually way better against lefties, due to that deadly cutter, shades of Mariano Rivera there; of course, that's no coincidence, as that's who taught Melancon the pitch)
Jay Bruce grounded out. Runner on 2nd and 2 out. Still overwhelmingly confident.
Then the big play. A softly hit grounder by Frazier to shortstop Jordy Mercer, who charges but has to rush the throw. He throws the ball away. A play that should've been made, and now Frazier is a 2nd. Ludwick scores, 5-3.
Cozart singled just barely over the glove of Neil Walker. Billy Hamilton ran for him, and the speedster narrowly stole 2nd. Then Melancon has an extended battle with Reds catcher and Punxsutawney native Devin Mesoraco, and on the tenth pitch of the at bat, Mark lets a cutter leak a bit over the middle inside section of the plate, and Mesoraco hits it on a bounce to Pedro Alvarez's left. Alvarez lunges but the ball bounds off his glove, and at that point there is no catching Billy Hamilton. Tie game. 5-5.
The Reds would win the game in the 10th, when Joey Votto hit a solo shot to center off Kyle Fanrsworth (Good job by Kyle thus far, but this is why I didn't want to see him in any more high pressure situations) and Aroldis Chapman closed out the bottom half.
Just terrible. The Pirates needed this game. And if the Bucs lose out on the division by a game, heck even if they lose out on home field advantage for the Wild Card game by a game... this is the game that people will look back to it.
We had it. And it slipped through our fingers.
Not only was the loss crushing, but this was the first loss of the year that really put the Pirates into “longshot” status for the division, as the Cards took game one of their 3 game set in Milwaukee.
Mark Melancon was ridiculously close to finishing off this game so many times. And it just didn't happen. And now the Pirates will have to dust themselves off and win the next two games, because I don't see how their ever going to catch St. Louis otherwise. And that's not to even mention home field in the Wild Card game.
21 September - Reds 2 Pirates 4 - The story in this one: a stumbling Pirates team faces the man who no-hit them in PNC Park at about this time last year. What would happen?
Homer Bailey didn't come close this time.
Bailey couldn't make it through 6, and despite falling behind 2-0 early, Burnett's fortitude to hold together a great start and the heroics of Russel Martin, Marlon Byrd, and Pedro Alvarez carried this one.
Jason Grilli would record the save in place of a tired Melancon, Grilli's first save since before his injury.
22 September - Reds 11 Pirates 3 - Jeff Locke got crushed in what will surely be his final start, and perhaps will be his final appearance of the 2013 season. Locke only managed to throw 1 IP, and arguably, with the rosters expanded and given his recent track record, he shouldn't have been allowed to go that far. He didn't have enough control to do what he does, and despite a couple of glimmers of hope from recent starts, it's become clear that Locke just doesn't have it in him right now. It's been a good year for you Jeff, don't forget that. I hope to see you back in form next spring. You're one of my very favorite pieces of the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates, kid.
The Pirates were down 5-0 after 1.
Gomez came in and didn't have things go his way either. Bucs down 7-0 after 2.
Brandon Cumpton and Stolmy Pimentel combined for 5 innings of scoreless relief following Gomez, and the Pirates started to look like they might crawl back into this one, as they made it 7-3 by dint of a Walker HR, a Snider pinch hit HR, and a Morneau sac fly.
But Mazzaro couldn't get out of the 8th, gave up 3 runs, and that was all she wrote.
The big crusher in this series is obviously game 1. A winning weekend would've placed the Bucs a game back of the Cards with a week left in the season, as well as a game ahead of Cincinnati, and with the Bucs owning the tie breaker (head to head wins) for home field in the Wild Card game so far, it would've been extremely difficult for the Reds to take that away from them.
But instead the Bucs' division hopes again hang by a thread, somewhere in the 10% range. The Bucs head to Wrigley field, the Reds go home to host the Mets, and the Cards go home to host the red-hot Nationals.
Going into the final week, you have to think that, in order to win the division, the Pirates need to go at least 5-1, since it's hard to imagine the Cards being worse than 3-3, considering they have three games against the Cubs. And of course, there are the Cincinnati Reds in the lane next to us.
23 September - Pirates 2 Cubs 1 - Morton pitched great (again), and it looked like the Pirates would blow another one of his fantastic starts (again).
But Starling Marte said no. After Melancon, who's seemingly returned to his set-up role (a move I don't have a problem with, though it will inevitable be justified by Melancon's perceived "ineffectiveness" recently, which I truly believe has just been ghastly luck) again yielded a run to give up a lead.
Once again, I repeat, Melancon is still amazing. He's still inducing weak contact the vast majority of the time. The only fundamental flaw I notice with him is fewer K's, but really he should be fine and I still have just as much confidence in him as at any point earlier in the season. He's still not getting rocked. Indeed, he never has this year.
Marte delivered a clutch solo HR off Kevin Gregg to untie a ballgame in the top of the ninth. Great to see, for so many reasons.
Now the game up to that point was very good. But the ninth inning made it legendary.
Tony Watson led off the ninth for a lefty-on-lefty matchup with Anthony Rizzo. Watson fell behind 2-0 in the count, but induced a hard grounder down the line that was picked by Pedro, who fired a throw across the diamond, which Justin Morneau somehow snared on an in-between hop. An amazing play on both ends.
Hurdle then brought in Jason Grilli to hopefully record the final two outs.
Grilli immediately walked Dioner Navarro.
Grill then got ahead of Nate Schierholtz and then got him to ground into a fielders choice, a nifty play by Justin Morneau throwing to catch the lead runner before Navarro could reach 2nd.
So now, the situation: 2 outs, bottom of the ninth, Bucs up by 1.
Grilli drives Cubs centerfielder Ryan Sweeney into a 2-2 count. Grilli then delivers a fastball at the top of the strike zone, which Sweeney gets on top of and dunks into right center field. Schierholtz is off on contact and rounding second. Marlon Byrd runs in to snag the ball but the ball bounds off his glove! Cutch quickly picks up the ball and fires it into the infield, where Justin Morneau is standing as the cutoff man. Schierholtz was just waved around third.
McCutchen-Morneau-Martin. Schierholtz caught at the plate. Bucs win.
I couldn't believe that play after I witnessed it. And from the looks of it, neither could Mark Melancon or Jason Grilli.
The Pirates went into the clubhouse at 10:46 Central Time with the Magic Number at 1.
12 minutes later, the Pirates were in the playoffs.
The Cardinals held on to their 4-3 lead to beat the Washington Nationals, and the last team that could possibly take a playoff spot away from the Pirates (or the Reds) was eliminated.
The Pirates are in the playoffs for the first time since Sid Bream slid. And why? Because Martin tagged Nate Schierholtz when he slid.
That relay, picking up the ball booted by Byrd, and getting it into Martin's glove, will forever symbolize the Pirates struggle to re-enter the playoffs after 21 years.
That, and Russell Martin, his knees still on the ground, holding up the ball above his head, victorious.
This was.
The Pirates fell behind from the get-go, with Brandon Phillips coming around to score on a Ryan Ludwick single after being walked by Liriano. Those walks always come back to bite you.
That first inning, and a fifth inning home run by Todd Frazier were the only blemishes on an outstanding start by Francisco Liriano, who was stellar over 8 innings, and only needed 94 pitches.
Then the bottom of the first happened.
BOOM. Tabata HR. Tie ballgame.
BOOM. Walker HR. 2-1 lead.
Wow.
The crowd was fired up and the atmosphere was amazing. The Pirates were gonna fight tooth and nail for their hometown crowd, and everyone loved it.
Fast forward to the 9th inning of the game. The score is now 5-2 Pirates.
It seemed like Liriano could've easily come out for the ninth, but Hurdle opted instead to bring in Mark Melancon to finish the ballgame. A move I 100% agreed, and still agree, with. Liriano was quoted after the game saying that he took himself out, feeling that he was done, though that is mostly irrelevant.
Mark struck out Joey Votto on four pitches. The Reds' biggest hitter is out, and you have to be thinking we've got this in the bag.
Ludwick singled to right, again showing Mark's recent struggled avoiding opposite way hits to righties (he's actually way better against lefties, due to that deadly cutter, shades of Mariano Rivera there; of course, that's no coincidence, as that's who taught Melancon the pitch)
Jay Bruce grounded out. Runner on 2nd and 2 out. Still overwhelmingly confident.
Then the big play. A softly hit grounder by Frazier to shortstop Jordy Mercer, who charges but has to rush the throw. He throws the ball away. A play that should've been made, and now Frazier is a 2nd. Ludwick scores, 5-3.
Cozart singled just barely over the glove of Neil Walker. Billy Hamilton ran for him, and the speedster narrowly stole 2nd. Then Melancon has an extended battle with Reds catcher and Punxsutawney native Devin Mesoraco, and on the tenth pitch of the at bat, Mark lets a cutter leak a bit over the middle inside section of the plate, and Mesoraco hits it on a bounce to Pedro Alvarez's left. Alvarez lunges but the ball bounds off his glove, and at that point there is no catching Billy Hamilton. Tie game. 5-5.
The Reds would win the game in the 10th, when Joey Votto hit a solo shot to center off Kyle Fanrsworth (Good job by Kyle thus far, but this is why I didn't want to see him in any more high pressure situations) and Aroldis Chapman closed out the bottom half.
Just terrible. The Pirates needed this game. And if the Bucs lose out on the division by a game, heck even if they lose out on home field advantage for the Wild Card game by a game... this is the game that people will look back to it.
We had it. And it slipped through our fingers.
Not only was the loss crushing, but this was the first loss of the year that really put the Pirates into “longshot” status for the division, as the Cards took game one of their 3 game set in Milwaukee.
Mark Melancon was ridiculously close to finishing off this game so many times. And it just didn't happen. And now the Pirates will have to dust themselves off and win the next two games, because I don't see how their ever going to catch St. Louis otherwise. And that's not to even mention home field in the Wild Card game.
21 September - Reds 2 Pirates 4 - The story in this one: a stumbling Pirates team faces the man who no-hit them in PNC Park at about this time last year. What would happen?
Homer Bailey didn't come close this time.
Bailey couldn't make it through 6, and despite falling behind 2-0 early, Burnett's fortitude to hold together a great start and the heroics of Russel Martin, Marlon Byrd, and Pedro Alvarez carried this one.
Jason Grilli would record the save in place of a tired Melancon, Grilli's first save since before his injury.
22 September - Reds 11 Pirates 3 - Jeff Locke got crushed in what will surely be his final start, and perhaps will be his final appearance of the 2013 season. Locke only managed to throw 1 IP, and arguably, with the rosters expanded and given his recent track record, he shouldn't have been allowed to go that far. He didn't have enough control to do what he does, and despite a couple of glimmers of hope from recent starts, it's become clear that Locke just doesn't have it in him right now. It's been a good year for you Jeff, don't forget that. I hope to see you back in form next spring. You're one of my very favorite pieces of the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates, kid.
The Pirates were down 5-0 after 1.
Gomez came in and didn't have things go his way either. Bucs down 7-0 after 2.
Brandon Cumpton and Stolmy Pimentel combined for 5 innings of scoreless relief following Gomez, and the Pirates started to look like they might crawl back into this one, as they made it 7-3 by dint of a Walker HR, a Snider pinch hit HR, and a Morneau sac fly.
But Mazzaro couldn't get out of the 8th, gave up 3 runs, and that was all she wrote.
The big crusher in this series is obviously game 1. A winning weekend would've placed the Bucs a game back of the Cards with a week left in the season, as well as a game ahead of Cincinnati, and with the Bucs owning the tie breaker (head to head wins) for home field in the Wild Card game so far, it would've been extremely difficult for the Reds to take that away from them.
But instead the Bucs' division hopes again hang by a thread, somewhere in the 10% range. The Bucs head to Wrigley field, the Reds go home to host the Mets, and the Cards go home to host the red-hot Nationals.
Going into the final week, you have to think that, in order to win the division, the Pirates need to go at least 5-1, since it's hard to imagine the Cards being worse than 3-3, considering they have three games against the Cubs. And of course, there are the Cincinnati Reds in the lane next to us.
23 September - Pirates 2 Cubs 1 - Morton pitched great (again), and it looked like the Pirates would blow another one of his fantastic starts (again).
But Starling Marte said no. After Melancon, who's seemingly returned to his set-up role (a move I don't have a problem with, though it will inevitable be justified by Melancon's perceived "ineffectiveness" recently, which I truly believe has just been ghastly luck) again yielded a run to give up a lead.
Once again, I repeat, Melancon is still amazing. He's still inducing weak contact the vast majority of the time. The only fundamental flaw I notice with him is fewer K's, but really he should be fine and I still have just as much confidence in him as at any point earlier in the season. He's still not getting rocked. Indeed, he never has this year.
Marte delivered a clutch solo HR off Kevin Gregg to untie a ballgame in the top of the ninth. Great to see, for so many reasons.
Now the game up to that point was very good. But the ninth inning made it legendary.
Tony Watson led off the ninth for a lefty-on-lefty matchup with Anthony Rizzo. Watson fell behind 2-0 in the count, but induced a hard grounder down the line that was picked by Pedro, who fired a throw across the diamond, which Justin Morneau somehow snared on an in-between hop. An amazing play on both ends.
Hurdle then brought in Jason Grilli to hopefully record the final two outs.
Grilli immediately walked Dioner Navarro.
Grill then got ahead of Nate Schierholtz and then got him to ground into a fielders choice, a nifty play by Justin Morneau throwing to catch the lead runner before Navarro could reach 2nd.
So now, the situation: 2 outs, bottom of the ninth, Bucs up by 1.
Grilli drives Cubs centerfielder Ryan Sweeney into a 2-2 count. Grilli then delivers a fastball at the top of the strike zone, which Sweeney gets on top of and dunks into right center field. Schierholtz is off on contact and rounding second. Marlon Byrd runs in to snag the ball but the ball bounds off his glove! Cutch quickly picks up the ball and fires it into the infield, where Justin Morneau is standing as the cutoff man. Schierholtz was just waved around third.
McCutchen-Morneau-Martin. Schierholtz caught at the plate. Bucs win.
I couldn't believe that play after I witnessed it. And from the looks of it, neither could Mark Melancon or Jason Grilli.
The Pirates went into the clubhouse at 10:46 Central Time with the Magic Number at 1.
12 minutes later, the Pirates were in the playoffs.
The Cardinals held on to their 4-3 lead to beat the Washington Nationals, and the last team that could possibly take a playoff spot away from the Pirates (or the Reds) was eliminated.
The Pirates are in the playoffs for the first time since Sid Bream slid. And why? Because Martin tagged Nate Schierholtz when he slid.
That relay, picking up the ball booted by Byrd, and getting it into Martin's glove, will forever symbolize the Pirates struggle to re-enter the playoffs after 21 years.
That, and Russell Martin, his knees still on the ground, holding up the ball above his head, victorious.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Pirates only take 1 of 4 from the Padres, Drop to a game back
Just as last series was a bit retro, so was this one. The good ol' Pirates I know from around May would get their wins with exceptional pitching and just enough offense to get by. But along with that pattern always came stretches of "god, are we ever gonna score again?"
These valleys of offense would always seem to crop up at terrible times too. Like when the Bucs faced a division rival. I remember the Pirates going through this against the Reds way back in late May.
And here it is again. Not against a division rival, but these games are pretty damn meaningful and this is not the time you want your offense to go south. Honestly, the bats had been floundering for a few games now, but we didn't really start complaining about it until the L's showed up. At this point in the season, it's all about results.
16 September - Padres 2 Pirates 0 - Now the bats were struggling, I get that. But sometimes you just run up against a pitcher who's just on his game for whatever reason. It's tough to tell how much is them being awesome and you sucking, but there are some clues.
On Monday, Andrew Cashner was on his game. Over the course of 9 innings he 1-hit the Bucs. He threw 97 pitches. He struck out 7.
The Pirates only saving grace was Tabata's single to lead off the 7th which broke up the perfect game.
A.J. Burnett bounced back from 2 straight rough starts and had a good start of his own, but his 2 run 6 2/3 IP was nothing compared to Cashner.
At this point I am getting very worried about the Pirates' bats, but I'm willing to grant them one game to get their act together offensively. This is their 5th straight game scoring 4 runs or fewer, but with regard to tonight I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just Cashner just had a great game.
At least we avoided a Homer Bailey type situation.
The Cards lost to the Rockies so the division is still tied.
17 September - Padres 5 Pirates 2 - After returning to the rotation after his rest/hiatus/minor league time, Jeff Locke had one serviceable start followed by a phenomenal one. Unfortunately his third start was a step backward from both of those.
Jeff gave up 4 runs in 5 innings. He walked 3 and gave up 7 hits. He struggled with command, and his curve was getting swatted all over the place, very reminiscent of his struggles in July and August.
As I've mentioned before, Locke needs all his pitches working for him to be effective. His fastball looked not great but okay, his change was very good (as usual), but his curve was not good. It's hard to tell what's the cause and effect here. It seemed to me that he was falling behind when he couldn't get swings and misses on his curve, and he would either lay his fastball in there to get hit, or his curve for an even worse result. Was his fastball command off, making him try to get more done with his curve than he could manage? Or was his fastball okay, just that he couldn't get guys out with his curve? In most cases I would say the former, since Locke was falling behind a lot, and guy who fall behind don't have trouble finishing batters off because they aren't even getting to two strikes! Yet I'm not sure I can say that since the Pirate catchers, I've noticed, often have Locke "pitch backwards", establishing his off-speed early in the at-bat. This is reasonable, since you don't want to lay in Locke's average fastball to get hammered on the first pitch, but it makes analyzing which pitch is screwing him up all the tougher.
One thing I can say for sure is that Locke has an awesome changeup. Even on days he's not going well he gets swings and misses on that. I've done in depth looks at Locke in the past, but maybe in the off season I'll have the time to do a pitch type kind of analysis on him. Could be interesting. He's a very interesting pitcher and probably my second favorite Pirate starter to watch after Cole. Liriano's great too, he's just not quite as intriguing to me as Locke is, in a geekery sort of way.
Anyway, let's come off that tangent.
The big blow to Locke was a 3-run home run he allowed to Jedd Gyorko. And from that the Pirates could never recover, why?
Because their offense was gone. Again.
The only guys who had decent nights were McCutchen - 2 hits, Gaby Sanchez - 2 hits (facing a lefty, so no surprise there), and Locke, actually, who was 1 for 1.
Marte, who started for the first time since his hand injury, got a hit, and so did Marlon Byrd (a 2 RBI double that really should've been caught, but right fielder Kyle Blanks tripped and fell), that was it. 7 scattered hits, one was a complete gift. Lots of 0fers.
Locke's start was troubling, and I'm a bit worried for him some his next start against the Reds, but I think he stands a good chance of bouncing back.
However, the real issue continues to be the offense. Getting nothing but 2 gift runs off of Eric Stults is not acceptable. There is too much on the line.
The Cards slaughtered the Rockies 11-4 and took a one game lead in the Central. The Reds beat up on the Astros too, can't be surprised about that, and they continue to inch up in the standings.
18 September - Padres 3 Pirates 2 - One of the more heartbreaking games in recent memory. After the game was over I was hearing the announcers say it was the worst loss of the year. I guess people have really short memories because there were quite a few losses earlier in the season that were way worse than this one. I know this is a little different since it's the last two weeks and the Bucs are fighting for playoff positioning, but the thing is that closers sometimes blow saves, even Melancon, and that's just the way it goes sometimes. Melancon has earned our respect 10-fold and the Bucs don't sniff 87 wins without him. I also get that the Pirates clawed their way from underneath a 1-0 deficit when their offense looked like a pile of bones, but honestly, while a 2-1 win would've been great, and it was a huge missed opportunity to win it, it wouldn't have been an Earth-shattering thing to beat the Pads by a run.
Andrew McCutchen came up in the 7th and hit a 2 run homer to put the Bucs up 2-1. Melancon gave up a bunch of dinky hits to right field, none of them hit hard, and gave up 2 runs to relinquish the lead.
Morton was fantastic. It was tough to see his great start go to waste. 8 IP 1 ER 2 H 3 BB 9 K's.
The Cards and Reds won again, so now the Bucs are 2 games back of the Cards and only a half-game above the Reds for 2nd. The bats are still in the freezer. These 3 games have almost entirely sapped the Pirates chances for the division. Not that a 2 game deficit is impossible to come back from in 10 games, but the Pirates are playing 6 games against the Reds while the Cards over the next week and a half, while the Cards play the Brewers and the Nats. Both teams have a 3 game series against the Cubs. I know for a fact that Reds + Reds >>>> Brewers + Nats. Although, the Nats have been turning it on lately, I still don't think they're as good as the Reds.
(Aside: On this day I wrote this Reddit post trying to explain why the Pirates have been more of an average team in the 2nd half vs. the 1st half)
Signs are starting to point to the dreaded Wild Card game. This is not the time to give up though.
19 September - Padres 1 Pirates 10 - If you would've told me Cole would have an electric start and win the game, I would've believed you. If you had told me the Pirates would score 10 runs and obliterate Ian Kennedy, I wouldn't have.
Both of those happened. And it was glorious.
It's hard for me to celebrate this win, since I mostly look at it as a salvaging of the series. You hear people talk about it as a "momentum shift", but of course momentum doesn't exist in baseball.
But that was a very fun game to watch. Cole was lights-out. 12 K's in 6 frames. He got pulled because of his pitch count and the Bucs were up 6-1 at the time.
The big outburst happened in the 4th, when Pedro Alvarez turned a 1-1 tie (the Pirates got their first run in some not so impressive fashion like a fielder's choice that I don't care enough about to look up) into a lead with a blast to center. Ian Kennedy, who the Pirates battled hard in the early innings (Morneau had a 12 or 13 pitch at-bat against him early), couldn't recover and when the Pirates put runners on 2nd and 3rd he struck out Cole (Cole has a cool moment when he gave a nod to Jay Bell I believe after he gave him a tip to take the next pitch cause it was gonna be a curve, and it was), but gave up a 2-run double to Jose Tabata, who earned my complete respect with that clutch 2-out hit.
Walker also had a two run homer later that inning, and Kennedy was done.
In the 6th Cole continued to cruise despite his pitch count getting up there. The was a funny moment where Tony Sanchez tried to catch a ball that bounced off the limestone but sort of fell over and Cole smiled from the mound, which you almost never see.
Cole struck out the final batter of the 6th for his 12 K and was pumped.
Hurdle's been good lately, but there was a questionable call by him to have Tony Watson relieve Cole for the 7th in a 6-1 game. I would've much rather seen Kris Johnson or Bryan Morris there and saved Watson, since he's really our #2 reliever at this point. Oh well, a minor complaint I suppose.
Tony Sanchez made the highlight reels with a daring catch where he grabbed a foul pop before tumbling hard into the Padres' dugout. It was scary for a moment, as it looked like he might have hurt his head, but he was okay. Love to see a player playing hard, even if it was a 9-1 game. Love the intensity there.
Watson, Grill, and Pimentel were all fine in relief. The Bucs win #88.
The best news of the day though came out of Denver, where the Rockies defeated the Cards after 15 tough innings. The Cards blew the lead in the 9th when Todd Helton, who is retiring at the end of the year, and also is pretty clearly injured, hit a game tying homer.
The Rox won it in the 15th on a triple, and a weirdish play at the plate where Molina couldn't come up with a throw from the outfield that beat DJ LeMahieu by a mile. LeMahieu didn't even touch the plate on his way by! But he quickly tapped the corner of the plate before the Cards (who looked almost comatose on that play, who could blame them) reacted.
The Pirates had the easier draw. I'd rather play the Pads at home than the Rox in Coors. But the Cards went 2-2 and we only snagged 1. Just the kind of result you didn't want to see, since it only gets tougher from here.
But as Thursday's game will show you, anything is possible in a small enough sample size. Even a seemingly non-existent offense getting 10 runs. So why not a team making up a game in the last 9 games when the schedules are stacked against them?
The Pirates have worked hard to get to this point. They're a good team, and when you get this far and the division leads get this close, the tiniest thing can make the difference. The Pirates might not win the division, indeed, the odds are against them doing it, but they're within striking distance. And who knows what's in store for us these last 3 series.
The Bucs are a game back in the standings, a game up on the Reds. And now I think we can finally say it. Here comes the BIGGEST SERIES IN PNC PARK HISTORY. Seriously, though. This one's pretty damn important.
Let's do this. Bring on the Redlegs.
These valleys of offense would always seem to crop up at terrible times too. Like when the Bucs faced a division rival. I remember the Pirates going through this against the Reds way back in late May.
And here it is again. Not against a division rival, but these games are pretty damn meaningful and this is not the time you want your offense to go south. Honestly, the bats had been floundering for a few games now, but we didn't really start complaining about it until the L's showed up. At this point in the season, it's all about results.
16 September - Padres 2 Pirates 0 - Now the bats were struggling, I get that. But sometimes you just run up against a pitcher who's just on his game for whatever reason. It's tough to tell how much is them being awesome and you sucking, but there are some clues.
On Monday, Andrew Cashner was on his game. Over the course of 9 innings he 1-hit the Bucs. He threw 97 pitches. He struck out 7.
The Pirates only saving grace was Tabata's single to lead off the 7th which broke up the perfect game.
A.J. Burnett bounced back from 2 straight rough starts and had a good start of his own, but his 2 run 6 2/3 IP was nothing compared to Cashner.
At this point I am getting very worried about the Pirates' bats, but I'm willing to grant them one game to get their act together offensively. This is their 5th straight game scoring 4 runs or fewer, but with regard to tonight I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just Cashner just had a great game.
At least we avoided a Homer Bailey type situation.
The Cards lost to the Rockies so the division is still tied.
17 September - Padres 5 Pirates 2 - After returning to the rotation after his rest/hiatus/minor league time, Jeff Locke had one serviceable start followed by a phenomenal one. Unfortunately his third start was a step backward from both of those.
Jeff gave up 4 runs in 5 innings. He walked 3 and gave up 7 hits. He struggled with command, and his curve was getting swatted all over the place, very reminiscent of his struggles in July and August.
As I've mentioned before, Locke needs all his pitches working for him to be effective. His fastball looked not great but okay, his change was very good (as usual), but his curve was not good. It's hard to tell what's the cause and effect here. It seemed to me that he was falling behind when he couldn't get swings and misses on his curve, and he would either lay his fastball in there to get hit, or his curve for an even worse result. Was his fastball command off, making him try to get more done with his curve than he could manage? Or was his fastball okay, just that he couldn't get guys out with his curve? In most cases I would say the former, since Locke was falling behind a lot, and guy who fall behind don't have trouble finishing batters off because they aren't even getting to two strikes! Yet I'm not sure I can say that since the Pirate catchers, I've noticed, often have Locke "pitch backwards", establishing his off-speed early in the at-bat. This is reasonable, since you don't want to lay in Locke's average fastball to get hammered on the first pitch, but it makes analyzing which pitch is screwing him up all the tougher.
One thing I can say for sure is that Locke has an awesome changeup. Even on days he's not going well he gets swings and misses on that. I've done in depth looks at Locke in the past, but maybe in the off season I'll have the time to do a pitch type kind of analysis on him. Could be interesting. He's a very interesting pitcher and probably my second favorite Pirate starter to watch after Cole. Liriano's great too, he's just not quite as intriguing to me as Locke is, in a geekery sort of way.
Anyway, let's come off that tangent.
The big blow to Locke was a 3-run home run he allowed to Jedd Gyorko. And from that the Pirates could never recover, why?
Because their offense was gone. Again.
The only guys who had decent nights were McCutchen - 2 hits, Gaby Sanchez - 2 hits (facing a lefty, so no surprise there), and Locke, actually, who was 1 for 1.
Marte, who started for the first time since his hand injury, got a hit, and so did Marlon Byrd (a 2 RBI double that really should've been caught, but right fielder Kyle Blanks tripped and fell), that was it. 7 scattered hits, one was a complete gift. Lots of 0fers.
Locke's start was troubling, and I'm a bit worried for him some his next start against the Reds, but I think he stands a good chance of bouncing back.
However, the real issue continues to be the offense. Getting nothing but 2 gift runs off of Eric Stults is not acceptable. There is too much on the line.
The Cards slaughtered the Rockies 11-4 and took a one game lead in the Central. The Reds beat up on the Astros too, can't be surprised about that, and they continue to inch up in the standings.
18 September - Padres 3 Pirates 2 - One of the more heartbreaking games in recent memory. After the game was over I was hearing the announcers say it was the worst loss of the year. I guess people have really short memories because there were quite a few losses earlier in the season that were way worse than this one. I know this is a little different since it's the last two weeks and the Bucs are fighting for playoff positioning, but the thing is that closers sometimes blow saves, even Melancon, and that's just the way it goes sometimes. Melancon has earned our respect 10-fold and the Bucs don't sniff 87 wins without him. I also get that the Pirates clawed their way from underneath a 1-0 deficit when their offense looked like a pile of bones, but honestly, while a 2-1 win would've been great, and it was a huge missed opportunity to win it, it wouldn't have been an Earth-shattering thing to beat the Pads by a run.
Andrew McCutchen came up in the 7th and hit a 2 run homer to put the Bucs up 2-1. Melancon gave up a bunch of dinky hits to right field, none of them hit hard, and gave up 2 runs to relinquish the lead.
Morton was fantastic. It was tough to see his great start go to waste. 8 IP 1 ER 2 H 3 BB 9 K's.
The Cards and Reds won again, so now the Bucs are 2 games back of the Cards and only a half-game above the Reds for 2nd. The bats are still in the freezer. These 3 games have almost entirely sapped the Pirates chances for the division. Not that a 2 game deficit is impossible to come back from in 10 games, but the Pirates are playing 6 games against the Reds while the Cards over the next week and a half, while the Cards play the Brewers and the Nats. Both teams have a 3 game series against the Cubs. I know for a fact that Reds + Reds >>>> Brewers + Nats. Although, the Nats have been turning it on lately, I still don't think they're as good as the Reds.
(Aside: On this day I wrote this Reddit post trying to explain why the Pirates have been more of an average team in the 2nd half vs. the 1st half)
Signs are starting to point to the dreaded Wild Card game. This is not the time to give up though.
19 September - Padres 1 Pirates 10 - If you would've told me Cole would have an electric start and win the game, I would've believed you. If you had told me the Pirates would score 10 runs and obliterate Ian Kennedy, I wouldn't have.
Both of those happened. And it was glorious.
It's hard for me to celebrate this win, since I mostly look at it as a salvaging of the series. You hear people talk about it as a "momentum shift", but of course momentum doesn't exist in baseball.
But that was a very fun game to watch. Cole was lights-out. 12 K's in 6 frames. He got pulled because of his pitch count and the Bucs were up 6-1 at the time.
The big outburst happened in the 4th, when Pedro Alvarez turned a 1-1 tie (the Pirates got their first run in some not so impressive fashion like a fielder's choice that I don't care enough about to look up) into a lead with a blast to center. Ian Kennedy, who the Pirates battled hard in the early innings (Morneau had a 12 or 13 pitch at-bat against him early), couldn't recover and when the Pirates put runners on 2nd and 3rd he struck out Cole (Cole has a cool moment when he gave a nod to Jay Bell I believe after he gave him a tip to take the next pitch cause it was gonna be a curve, and it was), but gave up a 2-run double to Jose Tabata, who earned my complete respect with that clutch 2-out hit.
Walker also had a two run homer later that inning, and Kennedy was done.
In the 6th Cole continued to cruise despite his pitch count getting up there. The was a funny moment where Tony Sanchez tried to catch a ball that bounced off the limestone but sort of fell over and Cole smiled from the mound, which you almost never see.
Cole struck out the final batter of the 6th for his 12 K and was pumped.
Hurdle's been good lately, but there was a questionable call by him to have Tony Watson relieve Cole for the 7th in a 6-1 game. I would've much rather seen Kris Johnson or Bryan Morris there and saved Watson, since he's really our #2 reliever at this point. Oh well, a minor complaint I suppose.
Tony Sanchez made the highlight reels with a daring catch where he grabbed a foul pop before tumbling hard into the Padres' dugout. It was scary for a moment, as it looked like he might have hurt his head, but he was okay. Love to see a player playing hard, even if it was a 9-1 game. Love the intensity there.
Watson, Grill, and Pimentel were all fine in relief. The Bucs win #88.
The best news of the day though came out of Denver, where the Rockies defeated the Cards after 15 tough innings. The Cards blew the lead in the 9th when Todd Helton, who is retiring at the end of the year, and also is pretty clearly injured, hit a game tying homer.
The Rox won it in the 15th on a triple, and a weirdish play at the plate where Molina couldn't come up with a throw from the outfield that beat DJ LeMahieu by a mile. LeMahieu didn't even touch the plate on his way by! But he quickly tapped the corner of the plate before the Cards (who looked almost comatose on that play, who could blame them) reacted.
The Pirates had the easier draw. I'd rather play the Pads at home than the Rox in Coors. But the Cards went 2-2 and we only snagged 1. Just the kind of result you didn't want to see, since it only gets tougher from here.
But as Thursday's game will show you, anything is possible in a small enough sample size. Even a seemingly non-existent offense getting 10 runs. So why not a team making up a game in the last 9 games when the schedules are stacked against them?
The Pirates have worked hard to get to this point. They're a good team, and when you get this far and the division leads get this close, the tiniest thing can make the difference. The Pirates might not win the division, indeed, the odds are against them doing it, but they're within striking distance. And who knows what's in store for us these last 3 series.
The Bucs are a game back in the standings, a game up on the Reds. And now I think we can finally say it. Here comes the BIGGEST SERIES IN PNC PARK HISTORY. Seriously, though. This one's pretty damn important.
Let's do this. Bring on the Redlegs.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Taking 3 of 4 against the Cubs
Great starting pitching. Great bullpen. Great defense. Just enough offense to make it work.
It was the formula that worked for the Pirates earlier this year. And though it is not the ideal recipe for sustained success (would it kill a team to get a few insurance runs, now and then) over the course of an entire season due to fluctuations of a tremendous number of variables, it could do wonders for a team down the stretch, and *ahem* in the post-season.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, these are the Cubs we're talking about. But the road to the postseason goes through the Cubs 7 times, and if you don't take advantage, your post-season stay may be painfully short.
Here are the first 4 of those 7 games, and the first 4 games of an 11 day homestand. The last homestand for the Pirates in 2013.
12 September - Cubs 1 Pirates 3 - Would you have believed me if I told you this would be the most comfortable win the Pirates would have all series?
What if I also told you the Pirates would win the series?
Jeff Locke came into this game looking to improve on his last start in St. Louis, a serviceable appearance and a decent return to the rotation against a solid lineup. Now he'd be facing the Cubs, a team with a medium-to-not good offense (21st in OPS).
Jeff turned some heads tonight. He had all of his pitches working, the change and the curve looked especially good, both in placement and movement, and his fastball was enough to get him by. This was really the first time we saw pre-all star break Locke since, well, the all star break. Honestly. He looked really really solid. The Cubs are no juggernauts offensively, but they're not pushovers either, and Locke dominated. 7 IP 1 ER 3 H 1 BB 5 Ks. 61% strike to ball ratio (which is about league average). Really heartening to see just 1 walk, control seemed to be getting away from him for a while. Also only 3 hits is fantastic, the Cubs just were off-balance all night, which is what Locke needs to do against the lineups he faces.
This was more than a serviceable start. He might not be this good each time out of course, but if he can stay within the boundaries of his last start and this one the rest of the way, he'll be giving the Bucs a chance to win each time out, and more. Great to see.
Byrd, Alvarez, and Mercer provided the RBIs in this one. Mercer knocked in Barmes after Clint singled in the eighth, nice little bit of SS offensive attack there. Mercer also made a fantastic play deep in the hole at short to get Jeff Locke out of the 6th inning. Nice scoop by Morneau too on that play, nice having him at 1st defensively so far.
Melancon closed it out for the save. Win #85.
13 September - Cubs 5 Pirates 4 - Too bad this ended in a loss, because the 4th inning was insane.
Score is 3-0 in favor of the Cubs.
Pedro Alvarez (who's starting to heat up a bit lately, at just the right time let's hope!) hit a ball deep to right-center, which took a weird bounce off the top of the wall. The Running of the Bull began, and Pedro steamed around the bases for an inside the park home run. Replays later showed that the ball bounced off a fan's hands, but no fan interference was called and the Cubs didn't even argue.
Almost immediately after, Martin pulled a ball deep into the left field seats.
And then, Garrett Jones, given a spot start in right field, launched a HR to center. 3 straight homers to tie the game. Absolutely crazy.
The Bucs took the lead in the 6th on an error. It was 4-3 after 6.
Morton was decent, coming off his abysmal start against the Cards. He made it through 5 innings and gave up 3. You'd like more length, but he kept the Pirates in it.
Wilson did his job in the 6th, but Grilli couldn't make it out of the 7th. He struck the first two guys out, but walked Valbuena on an at-bat that included a borderline pitch called a ball that could've ended the inning.
Then Grilli served up a 2 run shot to Anthony Rizzo. 5-4 Cubs.
Grilli has not looked amazing since his return, he hasn't seemed to be able to finish off innings. However he hasn't looked awful either, despite his decreased velocity. In his 3 IP since returning from the DL, he's racked up 4 strikeouts and walked 2. I think he's just been tiring faster, and as a result can't get out of an inning without giving up a couple hits unless it goes perfectly.
Grilli is a key piece to the bullpen, and I would love to see him settle into a role where he can be used in high-leverage situations. Unfortunately, he isn't there yet even though we thought he might be, and in this instance it came back to bite the Bucs.
The Pirates put a runner on first in each of the last three innings, but couldn't do anything else. Tough loss.
14 September - Cubs 1 Pirates 2 - What would Gerrit Cole do after the best start of his career thus far, the one that nabbed 82?
Cole was great again. Racking up another bushel of Ks, 7 in total. Cole gave up a first inning RBI double, that would've been a 2 RBI double if not for a stellar wall to plate relay by the Bucs. Cole settled down quickly after that, only allowing 3 runners to reach in the 2nd through 6th innings. He also struck out the side in the 3rd.
With the Pirates knotted in a 1-1 tie, Cole allowed the first two runners to reach in the 7th, and after a sacrifice the situation was 2nd and 3rd with one out. Cole got pinch hitter Dioner Navarro to strike out on a 96 mph fastball middle-in, and then induced a ground ball from Starlin Castro to the shortstop, also on the fastball, to get out of the inning unscathed. Cole was pumped, screaming and pounding his glove, he is so fun to watch.
Cole is just toxic when he has his slider working and is comfortable with it. He's been getting more comfortable with it recently, which is why his K% has skyrocketed, very cool to see. Cole still relies on his fastball the most though, which is why you see him go to it in higher pressure situations like the on in the 7th. However, as he's been using his breaking balls more, his fastball has gotten more potent, as the batters can't just sit on his fastball anymore. He pitches way better when he has his slider working next to a 96mph fastball than when he's not using his slider next to an 100mph fastball. The drastically high speeds and the movement differences really throw hitters off. The crazy part is he's still improving. Love it.
I also want to note a stellar play that Pedro made at third, where he knocked down Darwin Barney's line drive, picked it up on one bounce, and fired the ball to first with his momentum carrying him into foul territory. Pedro has had many errors this year, but he's still very good defensively over at third, because he can make crazy plays like that thanks to his great arm.
Tabata hit a HR in the 6th to tie the ballgame (Tabata's done a great job in the absence of Starling Marte), and Byrd hit an opposite field go-ahead homer in the 7th.
Watson got a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th. Melancon allowed a runner on a wild pitch strikeout (Melancon has just been filthy this year), but erased him on a double play to end the game and get Cole the victory.
Win #86.
15 September - Cubs 2 Pirates 3 - Liriano was great again. He actually had a no-no going for a while (into the 7th) but you could tell he was running out of steam even before then. He then allowed a homer to Castillo which tied the game at 2. Tough ending to a great start, but still a very good start overall.
Bryan Morris came into a tie game to relieve Liriano with an inherited runner on 1st, terrifying me briefly, but Morris actually retired the next 3 batters in a row. Also a good sign from a guy who's been struggling. I'm still very wary of him coming into high-leverage situations, but a few more appearances like the one today would do wonders for my opinion of him and the state of the bullpen as a whole. I'm not counting on anything from Morris personally, but anything good would obviously be a huge plus.
Justin Morneau knocked in the lead-taking run in the eighth, driving in McCutchen (who was hit by a pitch, then advanced to second on a single by Byrd) for his first Bucco RBI.
I love seeing different guys step up every game. It's obviously some guys more than others, but it says a lot about the Pirates this year that they can look to anybody on the team and say he has gotten a big hit for them when it counts, it shows that it's a dynamic team with contributors up and down the lineup, way different than we've seen in years past when it's been McCutchen and 6 or 7 no shows.
Also wow, that Byrd guy, huh. Man, what's gotten into that guy?
Farnsworth (look at me, saying I didn't want this guy pitching in high leverage situations near the end of a game) pitched a fine 8th, only walking a batter. And then Melancon came in. By then it was already over. 1-2-3 inning. Win #87. Bucs take the series.
Recap: Overall, great starting pitching (Locke, Cole, Liriano). Great bullpen (Watson, Wilson, Farnsworth, Melancon). Great defense (only one error, and a bevy of fantastic plays).
3 of 4. A successful weekend no doubt.
The Cards kept pace thanks to their 2 of 3 series win over the hapless Seattle Mariners (the Cards won a game in 10 innings over the weekend on a passed ball, yeesh) and the division is still tied at the top. The Bucs now host the Padres for 4 while the Cards head to Colorado for 4. Slightly easier matchup for the Bucs, but not by much. It's gonna be awfully tough to keep pace with the Cards when the Reds series start up. Gotta keep flooring the accelerator.
It was the formula that worked for the Pirates earlier this year. And though it is not the ideal recipe for sustained success (would it kill a team to get a few insurance runs, now and then) over the course of an entire season due to fluctuations of a tremendous number of variables, it could do wonders for a team down the stretch, and *ahem* in the post-season.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, these are the Cubs we're talking about. But the road to the postseason goes through the Cubs 7 times, and if you don't take advantage, your post-season stay may be painfully short.
Here are the first 4 of those 7 games, and the first 4 games of an 11 day homestand. The last homestand for the Pirates in 2013.
12 September - Cubs 1 Pirates 3 - Would you have believed me if I told you this would be the most comfortable win the Pirates would have all series?
What if I also told you the Pirates would win the series?
Jeff Locke came into this game looking to improve on his last start in St. Louis, a serviceable appearance and a decent return to the rotation against a solid lineup. Now he'd be facing the Cubs, a team with a medium-to-not good offense (21st in OPS).
Jeff turned some heads tonight. He had all of his pitches working, the change and the curve looked especially good, both in placement and movement, and his fastball was enough to get him by. This was really the first time we saw pre-all star break Locke since, well, the all star break. Honestly. He looked really really solid. The Cubs are no juggernauts offensively, but they're not pushovers either, and Locke dominated. 7 IP 1 ER 3 H 1 BB 5 Ks. 61% strike to ball ratio (which is about league average). Really heartening to see just 1 walk, control seemed to be getting away from him for a while. Also only 3 hits is fantastic, the Cubs just were off-balance all night, which is what Locke needs to do against the lineups he faces.
This was more than a serviceable start. He might not be this good each time out of course, but if he can stay within the boundaries of his last start and this one the rest of the way, he'll be giving the Bucs a chance to win each time out, and more. Great to see.
Byrd, Alvarez, and Mercer provided the RBIs in this one. Mercer knocked in Barmes after Clint singled in the eighth, nice little bit of SS offensive attack there. Mercer also made a fantastic play deep in the hole at short to get Jeff Locke out of the 6th inning. Nice scoop by Morneau too on that play, nice having him at 1st defensively so far.
Melancon closed it out for the save. Win #85.
13 September - Cubs 5 Pirates 4 - Too bad this ended in a loss, because the 4th inning was insane.
Score is 3-0 in favor of the Cubs.
Pedro Alvarez (who's starting to heat up a bit lately, at just the right time let's hope!) hit a ball deep to right-center, which took a weird bounce off the top of the wall. The Running of the Bull began, and Pedro steamed around the bases for an inside the park home run. Replays later showed that the ball bounced off a fan's hands, but no fan interference was called and the Cubs didn't even argue.
Almost immediately after, Martin pulled a ball deep into the left field seats.
And then, Garrett Jones, given a spot start in right field, launched a HR to center. 3 straight homers to tie the game. Absolutely crazy.
The Bucs took the lead in the 6th on an error. It was 4-3 after 6.
Morton was decent, coming off his abysmal start against the Cards. He made it through 5 innings and gave up 3. You'd like more length, but he kept the Pirates in it.
Wilson did his job in the 6th, but Grilli couldn't make it out of the 7th. He struck the first two guys out, but walked Valbuena on an at-bat that included a borderline pitch called a ball that could've ended the inning.
Then Grilli served up a 2 run shot to Anthony Rizzo. 5-4 Cubs.
Grilli has not looked amazing since his return, he hasn't seemed to be able to finish off innings. However he hasn't looked awful either, despite his decreased velocity. In his 3 IP since returning from the DL, he's racked up 4 strikeouts and walked 2. I think he's just been tiring faster, and as a result can't get out of an inning without giving up a couple hits unless it goes perfectly.
Grilli is a key piece to the bullpen, and I would love to see him settle into a role where he can be used in high-leverage situations. Unfortunately, he isn't there yet even though we thought he might be, and in this instance it came back to bite the Bucs.
The Pirates put a runner on first in each of the last three innings, but couldn't do anything else. Tough loss.
14 September - Cubs 1 Pirates 2 - What would Gerrit Cole do after the best start of his career thus far, the one that nabbed 82?
Cole was great again. Racking up another bushel of Ks, 7 in total. Cole gave up a first inning RBI double, that would've been a 2 RBI double if not for a stellar wall to plate relay by the Bucs. Cole settled down quickly after that, only allowing 3 runners to reach in the 2nd through 6th innings. He also struck out the side in the 3rd.
With the Pirates knotted in a 1-1 tie, Cole allowed the first two runners to reach in the 7th, and after a sacrifice the situation was 2nd and 3rd with one out. Cole got pinch hitter Dioner Navarro to strike out on a 96 mph fastball middle-in, and then induced a ground ball from Starlin Castro to the shortstop, also on the fastball, to get out of the inning unscathed. Cole was pumped, screaming and pounding his glove, he is so fun to watch.
Cole is just toxic when he has his slider working and is comfortable with it. He's been getting more comfortable with it recently, which is why his K% has skyrocketed, very cool to see. Cole still relies on his fastball the most though, which is why you see him go to it in higher pressure situations like the on in the 7th. However, as he's been using his breaking balls more, his fastball has gotten more potent, as the batters can't just sit on his fastball anymore. He pitches way better when he has his slider working next to a 96mph fastball than when he's not using his slider next to an 100mph fastball. The drastically high speeds and the movement differences really throw hitters off. The crazy part is he's still improving. Love it.
I also want to note a stellar play that Pedro made at third, where he knocked down Darwin Barney's line drive, picked it up on one bounce, and fired the ball to first with his momentum carrying him into foul territory. Pedro has had many errors this year, but he's still very good defensively over at third, because he can make crazy plays like that thanks to his great arm.
Tabata hit a HR in the 6th to tie the ballgame (Tabata's done a great job in the absence of Starling Marte), and Byrd hit an opposite field go-ahead homer in the 7th.
Watson got a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th. Melancon allowed a runner on a wild pitch strikeout (Melancon has just been filthy this year), but erased him on a double play to end the game and get Cole the victory.
Win #86.
15 September - Cubs 2 Pirates 3 - Liriano was great again. He actually had a no-no going for a while (into the 7th) but you could tell he was running out of steam even before then. He then allowed a homer to Castillo which tied the game at 2. Tough ending to a great start, but still a very good start overall.
Bryan Morris came into a tie game to relieve Liriano with an inherited runner on 1st, terrifying me briefly, but Morris actually retired the next 3 batters in a row. Also a good sign from a guy who's been struggling. I'm still very wary of him coming into high-leverage situations, but a few more appearances like the one today would do wonders for my opinion of him and the state of the bullpen as a whole. I'm not counting on anything from Morris personally, but anything good would obviously be a huge plus.
Justin Morneau knocked in the lead-taking run in the eighth, driving in McCutchen (who was hit by a pitch, then advanced to second on a single by Byrd) for his first Bucco RBI.
I love seeing different guys step up every game. It's obviously some guys more than others, but it says a lot about the Pirates this year that they can look to anybody on the team and say he has gotten a big hit for them when it counts, it shows that it's a dynamic team with contributors up and down the lineup, way different than we've seen in years past when it's been McCutchen and 6 or 7 no shows.
Also wow, that Byrd guy, huh. Man, what's gotten into that guy?
Farnsworth (look at me, saying I didn't want this guy pitching in high leverage situations near the end of a game) pitched a fine 8th, only walking a batter. And then Melancon came in. By then it was already over. 1-2-3 inning. Win #87. Bucs take the series.
Recap: Overall, great starting pitching (Locke, Cole, Liriano). Great bullpen (Watson, Wilson, Farnsworth, Melancon). Great defense (only one error, and a bevy of fantastic plays).
3 of 4. A successful weekend no doubt.
The Cards kept pace thanks to their 2 of 3 series win over the hapless Seattle Mariners (the Cards won a game in 10 innings over the weekend on a passed ball, yeesh) and the division is still tied at the top. The Bucs now host the Padres for 4 while the Cards head to Colorado for 4. Slightly easier matchup for the Bucs, but not by much. It's gonna be awfully tough to keep pace with the Cards when the Reds series start up. Gotta keep flooring the accelerator.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Sweeping the Rangers in Texas
Whew. Well suffice to say I did not see this coming following the Cards series. And it doesn't quite make up for the Cards series either. But it sure as hell was a step forward for the Pirates.
The Monday game I blogged about in the last post. What a game. One thing I wanted to mention about it though: I was listening to Buster Olney's Baseball Tonight podcast and they mentioned something about Monday's game I hadn't thought of. When Pedro Alvarez was facing Yu Darvish in the 7th inning of a scoreless game with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd, it was a matchup of the pitcher with the most strikeouts in the majors with one of, if not the most, strikeout prone hitters in the majors.
The count was driven to 2 strikes. And then Pedro hit his double.
On to Tuesday:
10 September - Pirates 5 Rangers 4
Tuesday was the Andrew McCutchen show. 3 hits. An RBI on each one. His third hit in the 9th drove in the Pirates' 5th run, an insurance run that turned out to be completely necessary. Francisco Liriano pitched well, bouncing back from geting rocked in Milwaukee.
The bullpen was very shaky. Grilli gave up a run in 2/3 of an inning and then Mark Melancon came in to save a 5-2 ballgame, that ended up 5-4 with the tying run on 3rd when it was all said and done. Very un-Mark Melancon-like, but he's be so utterly dominant that there's no reason to worry about one lackluster outing, especially when he converted the save.
There was a great moment when the game ended. Tony Sanchez delivered an emphatic fist pump after catching the last strike and out of the game, a third pitch strikeout of Adrian Beltre.
Melancon then gave a tiny fish pump of his own. It was the most animated you'd ever seen him, and he almost did nothing at all. You know it was a close call when Melancon has any reaction whatsoever.
11 September - Pirates 7 Rangers 5
Clint Barmes was the star in this one. He had a bases-loaded walk to put the Bucs up 2-0 in the 4th, and then a solo HR in the 8th, providing the insuring 7th run. Which was super helpful considering Melancon was out of commission for the day due to pitching in the two previous games. As a result, Hurdle had to call on Gomez and Morris (gulp) in key spots.
The 6th, 7th, and 8th innings were seesaw rollercoasters where the Bucs would jump ahead, and the Rangers would slash there way back to within striking distance. The 6th and 7th were the fault of A.J. Burnett, who started off the game brilliantly (getting 14 of the first 15 out, the perfecto being broken in the 5th) but just ran out of gas by the 7th. He ended up giving up 5 runs on the night when the bullpen couldn't stop the inherited runners from scoring.
Gomez relived Burnett and was shakey. With the score 6-5 in the 7th, Hurdle called on Morris to get the third out, and Morris gave up a long fly ball that was luckily tracked down in left.
How the Pirates dodged that bullet I'll never understand, Morris should really not have been used in that situation unless Hurdle's hand was forced, but he had other options.
Morris continued his appearance in the 8th and inevitable yielded a couple baserunners. Vin Mazzaro was able to navigate out from that mess. The bottom of the 7th and 8th made my head hurt. And I was dreading the 9th, with no Melancon on the horizon.
After Barmes' HR, making it a 2 run game, Kyle Farnsworth came in. I was bracing for the worst, but to my pleasant surprise he got a 1-2-3 inning. I hope Farnsworth is not a go-to in big situations most of the time, but if he can step up every now and then he could be a valuable asset in a tiring bullpen down the stretch (right now I only have two relievers I really trust, and those are Watson and Melancon).
And that's how the west (Texas is in the west, right?) was swept.
So that's it. Three nailbiters, all in different ways. Three wins. Head back home to for our last homestand of the year. We gotta take advantage of the Cubs and the Pads before the Reds come to town.
The Monday game I blogged about in the last post. What a game. One thing I wanted to mention about it though: I was listening to Buster Olney's Baseball Tonight podcast and they mentioned something about Monday's game I hadn't thought of. When Pedro Alvarez was facing Yu Darvish in the 7th inning of a scoreless game with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd, it was a matchup of the pitcher with the most strikeouts in the majors with one of, if not the most, strikeout prone hitters in the majors.
The count was driven to 2 strikes. And then Pedro hit his double.
On to Tuesday:
10 September - Pirates 5 Rangers 4
Tuesday was the Andrew McCutchen show. 3 hits. An RBI on each one. His third hit in the 9th drove in the Pirates' 5th run, an insurance run that turned out to be completely necessary. Francisco Liriano pitched well, bouncing back from geting rocked in Milwaukee.
The bullpen was very shaky. Grilli gave up a run in 2/3 of an inning and then Mark Melancon came in to save a 5-2 ballgame, that ended up 5-4 with the tying run on 3rd when it was all said and done. Very un-Mark Melancon-like, but he's be so utterly dominant that there's no reason to worry about one lackluster outing, especially when he converted the save.
There was a great moment when the game ended. Tony Sanchez delivered an emphatic fist pump after catching the last strike and out of the game, a third pitch strikeout of Adrian Beltre.
Melancon then gave a tiny fish pump of his own. It was the most animated you'd ever seen him, and he almost did nothing at all. You know it was a close call when Melancon has any reaction whatsoever.
11 September - Pirates 7 Rangers 5
Clint Barmes was the star in this one. He had a bases-loaded walk to put the Bucs up 2-0 in the 4th, and then a solo HR in the 8th, providing the insuring 7th run. Which was super helpful considering Melancon was out of commission for the day due to pitching in the two previous games. As a result, Hurdle had to call on Gomez and Morris (gulp) in key spots.
The 6th, 7th, and 8th innings were seesaw rollercoasters where the Bucs would jump ahead, and the Rangers would slash there way back to within striking distance. The 6th and 7th were the fault of A.J. Burnett, who started off the game brilliantly (getting 14 of the first 15 out, the perfecto being broken in the 5th) but just ran out of gas by the 7th. He ended up giving up 5 runs on the night when the bullpen couldn't stop the inherited runners from scoring.
Gomez relived Burnett and was shakey. With the score 6-5 in the 7th, Hurdle called on Morris to get the third out, and Morris gave up a long fly ball that was luckily tracked down in left.
How the Pirates dodged that bullet I'll never understand, Morris should really not have been used in that situation unless Hurdle's hand was forced, but he had other options.
Morris continued his appearance in the 8th and inevitable yielded a couple baserunners. Vin Mazzaro was able to navigate out from that mess. The bottom of the 7th and 8th made my head hurt. And I was dreading the 9th, with no Melancon on the horizon.
After Barmes' HR, making it a 2 run game, Kyle Farnsworth came in. I was bracing for the worst, but to my pleasant surprise he got a 1-2-3 inning. I hope Farnsworth is not a go-to in big situations most of the time, but if he can step up every now and then he could be a valuable asset in a tiring bullpen down the stretch (right now I only have two relievers I really trust, and those are Watson and Melancon).
And that's how the west (Texas is in the west, right?) was swept.
So that's it. Three nailbiters, all in different ways. Three wins. Head back home to for our last homestand of the year. We gotta take advantage of the Cubs and the Pads before the Reds come to town.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
82
9 September - Pirates 1 Rangers 0 - Landmark game. The landmark game.
The craziest part about this game might be that even if it weren't win #82, it would still be one of the best wins of the year.
Young upstart Gerrit Cole out duels AL Cy Young Award contender with the best start of his young career. Byrd and Alvarez hit back to back 2 out doubles in the 7th and give the pen all they would need. Cole strikes out 9.
That right there, alone, is a fantastic game. Edge of your seat, exciting baseball.
And with the winning run at the plate. Mark Melancon induces a soft ground ball to Pittsburgh-native Neil Walker. Ending 20 years of misery.
One of the most poetic wins I have ever witnessed in my entire life.
I don't have a story of long hardship like many Buc fans do. But I do have a story about learning to appreciate baseball. The cruel, cruel game that baseball is, and what it's like to be on the losing end.
I was spoiled as a young baseball fan. As a young Yankee fan, I was disappointed if my team didn't win the world series. In the late 2000s, I started to wonder how long it would take to see the Yankees win another one.
To my mirth, the Yankees won in 2009. The first World Series of my adult life.
There I sat, in my dorm room in Pittsburgh, totally fulfilled. This was what I was waiting for all my teen years.
The next season, I was still a Yankee fan of course. But rooting for them that year didn't have the same appeal to me. I had achieved my goal already in my mind.
Then I looked to the Pirates. My second favorite team, and the team that got me into National League baseball a couple years earlier. Not because they were good. But because they were fun, new, and interesting to me. They were terrible. Nobody liked them. I liked them.
So on opening day 2010, I took my Pirate fandom to the next level. I would be a Bucco fan 1st and a Yankee fan 2nd (don't tell my dad). I started to learn about the farm system, starting with prospect Pedro Alvarez, and I immersed myself in the Pirate lifestyle. I got a pirate team poster that year and hung it over my bed.
Later that month, the Pirates sent me a message: "You've made a huge mistake."
The Pirates lost 20-0 to the Brewers that day. Their record was 7-8.
They would have 105 losses that year.
Even still, the wins I did get to see were sweet. Hard fought, low scoring affairs. Games immersed with intense strategy and late inning heroics. These were the kinds of games that kept me coming back and wanting more.
I also wanted to see the Pirates win a game in person. That happened for the first time in May 2011. A game against the Astros. It was hat day. I went with my friends. We all wore our hats.
2011 gave me hope and then took it away. 2012 gave me more hope, and then took it away harshly.
2013 isn't over yet. But if the Pirates can win 82 games, if the one constant result in all my years of baseball fandom (est. 1995) no longer holds, then anything can happen.
Being a Pirate fan has given me such an interesting perspective on baseball and life, I owe them the world.
And though I don't share the lineage and therefore the elation that many Pirate fans feel tonight, I do feel wistful and happy because of the journey that Pirate fandom has taken me through.
History was made tonight, boys. And the best is yet to come.
I'm so excited for Pirate postseason baseball I think my head might fall off. Being a die-hard baseball fan has done this to me, and it feels amazing.
The craziest part about this game might be that even if it weren't win #82, it would still be one of the best wins of the year.
Young upstart Gerrit Cole out duels AL Cy Young Award contender with the best start of his young career. Byrd and Alvarez hit back to back 2 out doubles in the 7th and give the pen all they would need. Cole strikes out 9.
That right there, alone, is a fantastic game. Edge of your seat, exciting baseball.
And with the winning run at the plate. Mark Melancon induces a soft ground ball to Pittsburgh-native Neil Walker. Ending 20 years of misery.
One of the most poetic wins I have ever witnessed in my entire life.
I don't have a story of long hardship like many Buc fans do. But I do have a story about learning to appreciate baseball. The cruel, cruel game that baseball is, and what it's like to be on the losing end.
I was spoiled as a young baseball fan. As a young Yankee fan, I was disappointed if my team didn't win the world series. In the late 2000s, I started to wonder how long it would take to see the Yankees win another one.
To my mirth, the Yankees won in 2009. The first World Series of my adult life.
There I sat, in my dorm room in Pittsburgh, totally fulfilled. This was what I was waiting for all my teen years.
The next season, I was still a Yankee fan of course. But rooting for them that year didn't have the same appeal to me. I had achieved my goal already in my mind.
Then I looked to the Pirates. My second favorite team, and the team that got me into National League baseball a couple years earlier. Not because they were good. But because they were fun, new, and interesting to me. They were terrible. Nobody liked them. I liked them.
So on opening day 2010, I took my Pirate fandom to the next level. I would be a Bucco fan 1st and a Yankee fan 2nd (don't tell my dad). I started to learn about the farm system, starting with prospect Pedro Alvarez, and I immersed myself in the Pirate lifestyle. I got a pirate team poster that year and hung it over my bed.
Later that month, the Pirates sent me a message: "You've made a huge mistake."
The Pirates lost 20-0 to the Brewers that day. Their record was 7-8.
They would have 105 losses that year.
Even still, the wins I did get to see were sweet. Hard fought, low scoring affairs. Games immersed with intense strategy and late inning heroics. These were the kinds of games that kept me coming back and wanting more.
I also wanted to see the Pirates win a game in person. That happened for the first time in May 2011. A game against the Astros. It was hat day. I went with my friends. We all wore our hats.
2011 gave me hope and then took it away. 2012 gave me more hope, and then took it away harshly.
2013 isn't over yet. But if the Pirates can win 82 games, if the one constant result in all my years of baseball fandom (est. 1995) no longer holds, then anything can happen.
Being a Pirate fan has given me such an interesting perspective on baseball and life, I owe them the world.
And though I don't share the lineage and therefore the elation that many Pirate fans feel tonight, I do feel wistful and happy because of the journey that Pirate fandom has taken me through.
History was made tonight, boys. And the best is yet to come.
I'm so excited for Pirate postseason baseball I think my head might fall off. Being a die-hard baseball fan has done this to me, and it feels amazing.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Pirates get Swept out of St. Louis
I guess they wouldn't be the Pirates if they didn't make us work for #82.
The most depressing series I've had the (dis)pleasure of taking in in a while. I made a special effort to watch all three games in full because I wanted to take in the beauty of the eighty-second win entirely if it was going to happen during the weekend, but it still hasn't happened. And things don't get any easier in Arlington.
A run down of the games:
6 September - Pirates 8 Cardinals 12 - The Pirate starters did not have a good weekend in St. Louie, with the Saturday starter Jeff Locke oddly having the best of the three starts.
On Friday, Burnett got knocked out after 3 innings, being constantly assaulted by doubles. The Cards drew first blood in the 1st on a Carlos Beltran single to center, which caught McCutchen awkwardly in between and bounced past him, allowing two runs to score and Beltran to advance to 2nd.
At the end of the third, the Cards were up 5-0. Kris Johnson quelled the flames a bit with 2 fine scoreless innings (he should have been left in longer, for sure).
A 5th inning Alvarez single made it 5-1, but then a ridiculous parade of crooked numbers followed starting in the 7th.
Jared Hughes continued his 2nd inning of relief but gave up a double, a bunt single, and an RBI double before leaving in favor of Bryan Morris. Morris gave up a single, double, single, then a homer. He was removed before recording an out. Mazzaro was brought in to stop the profusive bleeding; he gave up two more singles before the first out of the inning was recorded, a fly out by Daniel Descalso.
Nine consecutive hits for the Cardinals.
The score was now 12-1.
I turned the game off before the inning finished, and when I looked at the final score later that night, I was immensely surprised to see the Bucs made it to within 4. Granted, the Bucs' big innings were off the now ineffective John Axford and the now innefective Jake Westbrook. But still, it's something, a bit nice to see that it wasn't a blowout, though it wasn't exactly comforting.
7 September - Pirates 0 Cardinals 5 - Pretty sad to say this but this was the most enjoyable game to watch of the series. Yes, the Pirates got shut out. But it was against Wainwright, so offensive struggles were expected. What made it (a bit) fun to watch was to see how Jeff Locke would do. And though his final line wasn't stellar, 5 IP 3 R 2 ER 3 H 4 BB 4 Ks, it was a return to serviceability for him against a great lineup, and I also think he pitched better than his results showed.
For one thing, he navigated around a nasty error by the normally sure-handed Clint Barmes, and another, he was getting squeezed a lot all night, mostly on the right side of the plate. Locke was trying to place his fastball on the inside corner to righties, but Larry Vanover was just not giving him that strike.
This led to some talking back by Russell Martin (a bit of turning of the head, some words) and also Neil Walker when he came up to the plate in the bottom half (he got called for a strike on a borderline call that he felt Locke wasn’t getting).
Overall, a step in the right direction for Jeff Locke. The rest did him at least some good, and I'm hoping that he has some quality starts left in his bag for the year.
In the 4th inning the Bucs got “in business” with a double and a walk, but Marlon Byrd promptly grounded into a double play and with Cutch at third now Alvarez struck out swinging on Wainright’s tough curve. That was pretty much it for the offense that night. Pretty disappointing.
8 September - Pirates 2 Cardinals 9 - Morton got rocked as he has before against the Cardinals. Stolmy Pimentel was sub-par in relief. The offense could do nothing against Michael Wacha. That's pretty much all there is to know about this one.
A very disappointing and depressing series. It was a key one, since now the Cards are off to feast against sub .500 teams and we're gonna be battling the Rangers and Reds along with a couple favorable matchups of our own. There was also the fact that the Pirates looked totally lost, making very few threats at all that was particularly disheartening. I'm willing to chalk it up as a bad weekend against a good opponent, but the thing is at this point in the season you can't afford those kind of weekends. The Pirates are now just a couple bad games away from having their division hopes hang by a thread. They've completely eaten up their lead, and more.
The division race is of course still far from over, but now 1.5 games back of 1st and only a half-game up on the Reds, the Pirates have made it way harder on themselves to win the NL Central.
Ain't no rest for the wicked. On to Arlington.
The most depressing series I've had the (dis)pleasure of taking in in a while. I made a special effort to watch all three games in full because I wanted to take in the beauty of the eighty-second win entirely if it was going to happen during the weekend, but it still hasn't happened. And things don't get any easier in Arlington.
A run down of the games:
6 September - Pirates 8 Cardinals 12 - The Pirate starters did not have a good weekend in St. Louie, with the Saturday starter Jeff Locke oddly having the best of the three starts.
On Friday, Burnett got knocked out after 3 innings, being constantly assaulted by doubles. The Cards drew first blood in the 1st on a Carlos Beltran single to center, which caught McCutchen awkwardly in between and bounced past him, allowing two runs to score and Beltran to advance to 2nd.
At the end of the third, the Cards were up 5-0. Kris Johnson quelled the flames a bit with 2 fine scoreless innings (he should have been left in longer, for sure).
A 5th inning Alvarez single made it 5-1, but then a ridiculous parade of crooked numbers followed starting in the 7th.
Jared Hughes continued his 2nd inning of relief but gave up a double, a bunt single, and an RBI double before leaving in favor of Bryan Morris. Morris gave up a single, double, single, then a homer. He was removed before recording an out. Mazzaro was brought in to stop the profusive bleeding; he gave up two more singles before the first out of the inning was recorded, a fly out by Daniel Descalso.
Nine consecutive hits for the Cardinals.
The score was now 12-1.
I turned the game off before the inning finished, and when I looked at the final score later that night, I was immensely surprised to see the Bucs made it to within 4. Granted, the Bucs' big innings were off the now ineffective John Axford and the now innefective Jake Westbrook. But still, it's something, a bit nice to see that it wasn't a blowout, though it wasn't exactly comforting.
7 September - Pirates 0 Cardinals 5 - Pretty sad to say this but this was the most enjoyable game to watch of the series. Yes, the Pirates got shut out. But it was against Wainwright, so offensive struggles were expected. What made it (a bit) fun to watch was to see how Jeff Locke would do. And though his final line wasn't stellar, 5 IP 3 R 2 ER 3 H 4 BB 4 Ks, it was a return to serviceability for him against a great lineup, and I also think he pitched better than his results showed.
For one thing, he navigated around a nasty error by the normally sure-handed Clint Barmes, and another, he was getting squeezed a lot all night, mostly on the right side of the plate. Locke was trying to place his fastball on the inside corner to righties, but Larry Vanover was just not giving him that strike.
This led to some talking back by Russell Martin (a bit of turning of the head, some words) and also Neil Walker when he came up to the plate in the bottom half (he got called for a strike on a borderline call that he felt Locke wasn’t getting).
Overall, a step in the right direction for Jeff Locke. The rest did him at least some good, and I'm hoping that he has some quality starts left in his bag for the year.
In the 4th inning the Bucs got “in business” with a double and a walk, but Marlon Byrd promptly grounded into a double play and with Cutch at third now Alvarez struck out swinging on Wainright’s tough curve. That was pretty much it for the offense that night. Pretty disappointing.
8 September - Pirates 2 Cardinals 9 - Morton got rocked as he has before against the Cardinals. Stolmy Pimentel was sub-par in relief. The offense could do nothing against Michael Wacha. That's pretty much all there is to know about this one.
A very disappointing and depressing series. It was a key one, since now the Cards are off to feast against sub .500 teams and we're gonna be battling the Rangers and Reds along with a couple favorable matchups of our own. There was also the fact that the Pirates looked totally lost, making very few threats at all that was particularly disheartening. I'm willing to chalk it up as a bad weekend against a good opponent, but the thing is at this point in the season you can't afford those kind of weekends. The Pirates are now just a couple bad games away from having their division hopes hang by a thread. They've completely eaten up their lead, and more.
The division race is of course still far from over, but now 1.5 games back of 1st and only a half-game up on the Reds, the Pirates have made it way harder on themselves to win the NL Central.
Ain't no rest for the wicked. On to Arlington.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Pirates take 2 of 3 in Miller Park
Lots of firsts this series.
Pirates won more games than they lost in Miller Park this season. First time since 2002.
The Pirates reached 80 wins. The lowest n such that n > max_wins(1993-2012).
The Pirates reached 81 wins, clinching a 0.500 record for the first time since 1992.
I was, as many others were, hoping for the bigger milestone, #82, to come this series, but alas it will have to wait.
Let's get to the games:
2 September - Pirates 5 Brewers 2 - Got some unusual contributions offensively in this one. Clint Barmes went 2 for 4 and scored 2 runs, being knocked in my Jose Tabata (Tabata went 3 for 4) both times. That's how the Pirates made it 2-1 in the 5th.
In the 7th, Neil Walker hit a 3 run bomb with nobody out. His 10th HR of the season.
Charlie Morton, who's unusually good performances are starting to become the usual, pitched a very good 7 innings, only giving up one earned run.
Mark Melancon closed it out for the save on this fine Labor Day afternoon.
Win #80.
3 September - Pirates 4 Brewers 3 - Jason Grilli returned from the DL, a welcome sight, as more quality arms in the pen is always a good thing. Here's to hoping he can regain his midseason form, though he won't be thrust into the closer role right away (a move that I think I agree with, I'm not a huge buyer into the whole closer pattern, but if we're gonna have a closer, I'd stick with Melancon, if it ain't broke don't fix it basically).
Cole had a fine outing. 6 IP 2 ER 5 H 1 BB 5 Ks. He was denied the win when Mazzaro allowed the Crew to tie in Vin's second inning of work.
Andrew McCutchen hit the 100th HR of his career to get the Pirates to a 1-0 1st inning lead. Byrd continued the scoring with a 2 run scoring single in the 3rd and a run scoring double in the 8th, which gave the Bucs a 3-2 lead.
After Vin's aforementioned run. Travis Snider (haven't heard that name in a while, huh?) came up to lead off the 9th, game tied 3-3, and pulled a pitch from Brewer closer Jim Henderson deep into the Milwaukee night (a.k.a., the right field bleachers) for a crazy dramatic run grabbing homer.
Fantastic hit. Clutch hit from a guy who hasn't given us much this year. Earlier in the year I was really up on Snider, but he just faded. I'm thinking a lot of that had to do with his toe injury, but it's hard to know.
Regardless, a big hit, no doubt! Then Shark Melancon came in a closed the door once again.
And that's how the Pirates won game #81. An injured, forgotten, player dusted off the shackles of the bench to play the biggest part in a big win against an opponent who's just beaten us down over the years.
Hows that for a bit of synecdoche for you.
For many long time Bucs fans, this game was a big deal. Not so much for me, since I endured (and I say endure lightly, because the Pirates have never been my only team) but a quarter of the 20 year sentence many fans received.
But even still, let's not lose sight of our goals this year [along with how I feel about each goal]:
1. Get a winning season. (One game left. I prefer this goal to getting 81 because it's a more positive one) [alright, let's do it]
2. Make the playoffs [this would be great, would love to see it]
3. Win the division [I would be fucking ecstatic if the Bucs won the Central for the first time ever]
4. Make a run in the playoffs [I am dying to see the Bucs make some noise in the playoffs, maybe win a series, that would be heaven]
5. Win the World Series [I'm not even gonna consider this, but if I did...]
Basically 1 & 2 are in the bag. 3 is the major one to work on right now, and with some of the recent moves the Bucco management have aligned the team very well to make runs at 4 and 5, although now is not really the time to think about those, both because we're a ways off from October still, and also because the MLB playoffs are a giant crapshoot.
But I digress... great win this night.
4 September - Pirates 3 Brewers 9 - Francisco Liriano did not have a good start against the Brewers today. He struggled with his control and just couldn't stop the bleeding once the hits came.
The thing is, earlier in the year a game like this from their starter would mean the Bucs were solidly out of it from the get go, but with their newly bolstered lineup, they can make a run at a 3, 4, 5+ run deficit. And don't let the final score fool you, because the Bucs had plenty of shots offensively at this one, despite being down by a handful.
The top of the 5th started off 7-2. When McCutchen, who's continuing to feast on whatever HR crack exists in Miller Park, launched a solo shot. Boom 7-3, and the Bucs are starting to smell blood on Brewer starter Wily Peralta.
A weird thing happened next where Peralta plunked Justin Morneau (aside: who switched his number from #36 to #66 today) up and in. It hit him in the forearm, but it was rising up to his chin. Some speculation after the game said that this was due to McCutchen trotting around the bases too slowly during his homer, which would be a pretty weak excuse for hitting Morneau.
The benches cleared as more of a precautionary measure, as everyone wanted to stand behind their teammates as the mood got a little touchy. Nothing happened though. If a Pirate team has ever gotten involved in a brawl, I haven't seen it. (I guess you have to be good for teams to care enough to fight you)
If Peralta did do this on purpose, he couldn't have picked worse time. Because the human dynamo Marlon Byrd jumped on a full count pitch and hammered it to the gap in left. Morneau, who's gotta be one of the slowest guys on the team was inexplicably sent home by Nick Leyva and was thrown out on a decent relay. The throw beat him handily, but the throw was up the first base line, and it looked like maybe Morneau got his toe around Maldonado's glove, but he was called out nonetheless. Replay made me think he was probably safe, but I don't think there was irrefutable evidence, and you're not gonna get that safe call unless it's the 19th inning and Jerry Meals is the home plate umpire. Bitter? What? I'm not still bitter...
The real issue was him being sent in the first place, which was a big mistake considering his speed and the fact that we would've had runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. And even if Morneau had scored we would still be down by three runs! It made no sense.
So the situation became 1 out and runner at 3rd. Alvarez struck out on a quality 3-2 curve by Peralta, and John Buck hit a sharp grounder up the middle right into a shift to end the inning.
Such is life. Such is baseball.
The Pirates had another opportunity to score in the 7th when they got the first two runners on base (Walker and McCutchen). Morneau struck out and Byrd lined out (it's impossible to blame either one of them though, especially Byrd). Pedro was hit to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate, and again John Buck ended the threat, this time he flew out on a decently struck fly to center-right-center.
A few other odds 'n ends:
- Stolmy Pimentel made his ML Debut in the sixth. He had a great 6th, but couldn't navigate around a defensive meltdown by Neil Walker in the 7th. He threw an inning and two thirds and game up 3 hits. 2 Ks.
- Jason Grilli made his first appearance since July 22. His velocity was down around 92 (we're more used to seeing him 94-95, but maybe it was the low pressure situation? That's what Grilli would tell you anyway). He gave up one hit and struck out two for a scoreless 8th inning in the loss.
- While the Pirates were enduring this catastrophe of a baseball game, the Reds and Cardinals were locked in a deep extra inning battle that saw both teams score in the 14th (including a missed batter's interference call that led to a steal that led to the Reds tying the game), a weird botched squeeze play with two outs and Chris Heisey at the plate (this play made no sense to me, whyyy??), and an eventual Cardinals victory in 16 innings. Crazy game, that. The Cards pulled to within 1 game of the Pirates and could pull to a half game back tomorrow on account of the Bucs' off day.
Set sail to St. Louis. Last series with the redbirds this year, and since it's gonna be impossible to stop them from going on a run in the last couple weeks as they take on their lighter opponents, I'd really like to take 2 of 3 from them at Busch Stadium. Hope that's not asking for too much.
Though perhaps a 0.500 season was too much to ask for.
Yet look where we are.
Pirates won more games than they lost in Miller Park this season. First time since 2002.
The Pirates reached 80 wins. The lowest n such that n > max_wins(1993-2012).
The Pirates reached 81 wins, clinching a 0.500 record for the first time since 1992.
I was, as many others were, hoping for the bigger milestone, #82, to come this series, but alas it will have to wait.
Let's get to the games:
2 September - Pirates 5 Brewers 2 - Got some unusual contributions offensively in this one. Clint Barmes went 2 for 4 and scored 2 runs, being knocked in my Jose Tabata (Tabata went 3 for 4) both times. That's how the Pirates made it 2-1 in the 5th.
In the 7th, Neil Walker hit a 3 run bomb with nobody out. His 10th HR of the season.
Charlie Morton, who's unusually good performances are starting to become the usual, pitched a very good 7 innings, only giving up one earned run.
Mark Melancon closed it out for the save on this fine Labor Day afternoon.
Win #80.
3 September - Pirates 4 Brewers 3 - Jason Grilli returned from the DL, a welcome sight, as more quality arms in the pen is always a good thing. Here's to hoping he can regain his midseason form, though he won't be thrust into the closer role right away (a move that I think I agree with, I'm not a huge buyer into the whole closer pattern, but if we're gonna have a closer, I'd stick with Melancon, if it ain't broke don't fix it basically).
Cole had a fine outing. 6 IP 2 ER 5 H 1 BB 5 Ks. He was denied the win when Mazzaro allowed the Crew to tie in Vin's second inning of work.
Andrew McCutchen hit the 100th HR of his career to get the Pirates to a 1-0 1st inning lead. Byrd continued the scoring with a 2 run scoring single in the 3rd and a run scoring double in the 8th, which gave the Bucs a 3-2 lead.
After Vin's aforementioned run. Travis Snider (haven't heard that name in a while, huh?) came up to lead off the 9th, game tied 3-3, and pulled a pitch from Brewer closer Jim Henderson deep into the Milwaukee night (a.k.a., the right field bleachers) for a crazy dramatic run grabbing homer.
Fantastic hit. Clutch hit from a guy who hasn't given us much this year. Earlier in the year I was really up on Snider, but he just faded. I'm thinking a lot of that had to do with his toe injury, but it's hard to know.
Regardless, a big hit, no doubt! Then Shark Melancon came in a closed the door once again.
And that's how the Pirates won game #81. An injured, forgotten, player dusted off the shackles of the bench to play the biggest part in a big win against an opponent who's just beaten us down over the years.
Hows that for a bit of synecdoche for you.
For many long time Bucs fans, this game was a big deal. Not so much for me, since I endured (and I say endure lightly, because the Pirates have never been my only team) but a quarter of the 20 year sentence many fans received.
But even still, let's not lose sight of our goals this year [along with how I feel about each goal]:
1. Get a winning season. (One game left. I prefer this goal to getting 81 because it's a more positive one) [alright, let's do it]
2. Make the playoffs [this would be great, would love to see it]
3. Win the division [I would be fucking ecstatic if the Bucs won the Central for the first time ever]
4. Make a run in the playoffs [I am dying to see the Bucs make some noise in the playoffs, maybe win a series, that would be heaven]
5. Win the World Series [I'm not even gonna consider this, but if I did...]
Basically 1 & 2 are in the bag. 3 is the major one to work on right now, and with some of the recent moves the Bucco management have aligned the team very well to make runs at 4 and 5, although now is not really the time to think about those, both because we're a ways off from October still, and also because the MLB playoffs are a giant crapshoot.
But I digress... great win this night.
4 September - Pirates 3 Brewers 9 - Francisco Liriano did not have a good start against the Brewers today. He struggled with his control and just couldn't stop the bleeding once the hits came.
The thing is, earlier in the year a game like this from their starter would mean the Bucs were solidly out of it from the get go, but with their newly bolstered lineup, they can make a run at a 3, 4, 5+ run deficit. And don't let the final score fool you, because the Bucs had plenty of shots offensively at this one, despite being down by a handful.
The top of the 5th started off 7-2. When McCutchen, who's continuing to feast on whatever HR crack exists in Miller Park, launched a solo shot. Boom 7-3, and the Bucs are starting to smell blood on Brewer starter Wily Peralta.
A weird thing happened next where Peralta plunked Justin Morneau (aside: who switched his number from #36 to #66 today) up and in. It hit him in the forearm, but it was rising up to his chin. Some speculation after the game said that this was due to McCutchen trotting around the bases too slowly during his homer, which would be a pretty weak excuse for hitting Morneau.
The benches cleared as more of a precautionary measure, as everyone wanted to stand behind their teammates as the mood got a little touchy. Nothing happened though. If a Pirate team has ever gotten involved in a brawl, I haven't seen it. (I guess you have to be good for teams to care enough to fight you)
If Peralta did do this on purpose, he couldn't have picked worse time. Because the human dynamo Marlon Byrd jumped on a full count pitch and hammered it to the gap in left. Morneau, who's gotta be one of the slowest guys on the team was inexplicably sent home by Nick Leyva and was thrown out on a decent relay. The throw beat him handily, but the throw was up the first base line, and it looked like maybe Morneau got his toe around Maldonado's glove, but he was called out nonetheless. Replay made me think he was probably safe, but I don't think there was irrefutable evidence, and you're not gonna get that safe call unless it's the 19th inning and Jerry Meals is the home plate umpire. Bitter? What? I'm not still bitter...
The real issue was him being sent in the first place, which was a big mistake considering his speed and the fact that we would've had runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. And even if Morneau had scored we would still be down by three runs! It made no sense.
So the situation became 1 out and runner at 3rd. Alvarez struck out on a quality 3-2 curve by Peralta, and John Buck hit a sharp grounder up the middle right into a shift to end the inning.
Such is life. Such is baseball.
The Pirates had another opportunity to score in the 7th when they got the first two runners on base (Walker and McCutchen). Morneau struck out and Byrd lined out (it's impossible to blame either one of them though, especially Byrd). Pedro was hit to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate, and again John Buck ended the threat, this time he flew out on a decently struck fly to center-right-center.
A few other odds 'n ends:
- Stolmy Pimentel made his ML Debut in the sixth. He had a great 6th, but couldn't navigate around a defensive meltdown by Neil Walker in the 7th. He threw an inning and two thirds and game up 3 hits. 2 Ks.
- Jason Grilli made his first appearance since July 22. His velocity was down around 92 (we're more used to seeing him 94-95, but maybe it was the low pressure situation? That's what Grilli would tell you anyway). He gave up one hit and struck out two for a scoreless 8th inning in the loss.
- While the Pirates were enduring this catastrophe of a baseball game, the Reds and Cardinals were locked in a deep extra inning battle that saw both teams score in the 14th (including a missed batter's interference call that led to a steal that led to the Reds tying the game), a weird botched squeeze play with two outs and Chris Heisey at the plate (this play made no sense to me, whyyy??), and an eventual Cardinals victory in 16 innings. Crazy game, that. The Cards pulled to within 1 game of the Pirates and could pull to a half game back tomorrow on account of the Bucs' off day.
Set sail to St. Louis. Last series with the redbirds this year, and since it's gonna be impossible to stop them from going on a run in the last couple weeks as they take on their lighter opponents, I'd really like to take 2 of 3 from them at Busch Stadium. Hope that's not asking for too much.
Though perhaps a 0.500 season was too much to ask for.
Yet look where we are.
Monday, September 2, 2013
A quick note about August
My first kiss was on an August night, I remember that. A fond memory, to say the least.
In French, they call August "août" which I always thought was sorta cool, if a bit difficult to pronounce.
...but that's about all I have to say that's positive about August. It's hot and muggy (even in Seattle, go figure) and the days get significantly shorter reminding you both of the impending winter (Winter is Coming) and of your own impending demise (I'm a cheerful one aren't I?).
But no August in my lifetime has been worse than August 2012. That month ripped my little Pirate heart out. 2011 was a pipe dream that faded away early, and we all had a feeling it was coming. But August 2012 hurt. Bad. We thought it might come, but we didn't think it would happen so suddenly.
And we didn't even finish over 0.500. It really was one of the most spectacular collapses in baseball history, especially if you consider the team and the context.
And then August 2013 happened. I was bracing for it. You saw my post at the end of the 5-game Cards series.
These Pirates, they didn't fold. They bent, but they did not break. And I give them all the credit in the world for that.
Obviously, the fight isn't over. We still haven't even glimpsed the insanity that is to come (I don't think so, anyway).
But I'm proud of this team for hanging in there through the "Dog Days." Possibly prouder than I ought to be.
The Pirates went 14-14 in August.
And what did that mean? Well, meaningful September baseball arrived in Pittsburgh on the 1st.
In French, they call August "août" which I always thought was sorta cool, if a bit difficult to pronounce.
...but that's about all I have to say that's positive about August. It's hot and muggy (even in Seattle, go figure) and the days get significantly shorter reminding you both of the impending winter (Winter is Coming) and of your own impending demise (I'm a cheerful one aren't I?).
But no August in my lifetime has been worse than August 2012. That month ripped my little Pirate heart out. 2011 was a pipe dream that faded away early, and we all had a feeling it was coming. But August 2012 hurt. Bad. We thought it might come, but we didn't think it would happen so suddenly.
And we didn't even finish over 0.500. It really was one of the most spectacular collapses in baseball history, especially if you consider the team and the context.
And then August 2013 happened. I was bracing for it. You saw my post at the end of the 5-game Cards series.
These Pirates, they didn't fold. They bent, but they did not break. And I give them all the credit in the world for that.
Obviously, the fight isn't over. We still haven't even glimpsed the insanity that is to come (I don't think so, anyway).
But I'm proud of this team for hanging in there through the "Dog Days." Possibly prouder than I ought to be.
The Pirates went 14-14 in August.
And what did that mean? Well, meaningful September baseball arrived in Pittsburgh on the 1st.
3-3 homestand against the Brewers and the 1st place Cards
vs Brewers (1-2)
vs Cardinals (2-1)
A very interesting homestand this week. The Pirates started the week tied for 1st place with the Cards in the Central, coming back from their west coast swing that while it didn't go terribly, was still underwhelming considering the opponents and the preceding series (honestly, the Bucs haven't had an impressive series since Aug 6-8 when they swept the Marlins). The Cardinals on the other hand came into this week on a nice 7-3 run. And to boot they would go 2-1 against the Reds before meeting the Bucs on the weekend.
So that's the context: Cards - good, Bucs - okay. Yet tied for 1st. Here come the Brewers:
27 August - Brewers 7 Pirates 6 - So after losing the last two games of the road trip in less-than-impressive fashion, the Bucs came home and put the pitcher who is struggling most right now on the mound - Jeff Locke. The Pirates put enough runs on the board to win, for sure, but the underwhelming efforts of Locke, Morris, and Wilson (who's recent struggles are the most surprising) did them in. Here's my analysis of Locke's performance: Reddit Post
I considered making this a landmark game because it exemplified Locke's struggles to a T, but I have a feeling most of his other starts were more of the same. Slight control issues revealing that his peripherals (don't have to look much beyond K/BB and FIP) aren't quite good enough at this point in his career.
Of special note is the fantastic night Pedro had: Single, Single, Double, Homer, Walk.
Even after all their pitching woes the Pirates were in it until the end, and threatened in the 9th, putting runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out. But a Martin fly out and a G. Sanchez fisted ground out ended their hopes. Third loss in a row. The Cards won, and so the Pirates were now a game back. The panic started to set in: would the Pirates completely blow it these next couple weeks and get inevitably relegated to a wild card spot? Do they really have the talent to contend for the division down the stretch.
And with that the reinforcements started to come.
28 August - Brewers 1 Pirates 7 - Landmark game. This will be known as the "Byrd Game" by Bucco fans in the future. Especially if the Pirates go on a bit of a run in the upcoming weeks.
He only went 1 for 4, but his imprint on the game was indelible.
In the 1st inning, the Pirates got their 1st three men on base, with Cutch knocking in Harrison to score the 1st run of the game. Byrd, batting cleanup, came up to bat, and on the second pitch he lined the ball sharply back at Tom Gorzelanny, who recoiled his arms in self defense, and somehow managed to pin the ball to his own body making the catch. McCutchen was easily doubled off.
It wasn't the result you wanted. But you had to be thinking, man, if we have a guy who can hit the ball that hard routinely, then we're gonna be in much better shape.
Charlie Morton was pitching well and kept the Brewers in check, so the next run happened in the 4th. Cutch singled, then Byrd came up to the plate again and delivered one of the greatest at bats you will ever see... a 14 pitch strike out. Sprinkled in between those 14 pitches were 6 pickoff attempts, and the whole at bat took 10 minutes and 10 seconds to complete. It was unbelievable. I was actually listening to the game on the radio at the time, and the at bat went on so long that I forgot what was happening (what did Byrd do? I don't remember the result of his at bat... who's batting now? What? He's still batting?)
Here's how it went down: Ball, Strike (foul), Strike (swinging), Foul, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Strike (swinging), M Byrd struck out swinging.
Gorzelanny was hosed after that, and the floodgates soon opened. McCutchen got to third on a steal/groundout play, and Gaby Sanchez singled him in. 2-0.
The next inning a Harrison RBI single and a Mercer double made it 4-0. Morton was cruising, and gave up his only run (and a unearned one at that) in the 7th on Russell Martin's throwing error.
After striking out in his 3rd at bat, Byrd came up to the plate for the fourth time, this in the 7th inning, score 4-1, runners on 1st and 3rd and 1 out, and swatted a Burke Badenhop pitch 415ft away into the Pittsburgh night - well into the bushes in center field. Everyone went nuts. The new guy helped out in a big way, giving the Bucs a luxury they hardly ever had - run insurance.
Vin Mazzaro relieved Morton in the 7th, tap danced around some trouble for a scoreless 8th, and then Jared Hughes finished the game with a 1-2-3 9th. The losing streak was thus ended at 3 games.
29 August - Brewers 4 Pirates 0 - There wasn't really much to takeaway this night. The Pirates could never really string together hits against Yovani Gallardo (who's been not good this year, especially for him, according to his 3.92 FIP he should be a bit better than his 4.39 ERA indicates, but even still his strikeout numbers are way down for him compared to years past) even with their new batters Byrd and Buck (the latter of whom went 3-3 in his first Bucco start) in the lineup.
Gerrit Cole had a somewhat interesting start. He started off shaky, giving up a run each in the 1st and 2nd innings, but righted the ship well enough and worked efficiently through the majority of the game. He made it into the 8th this time (first time he's thrown a pitch in the 8th inning in his career), but after 7 1/3 IP the hit floodgates opened again and he was done. The ride has not been the smoothest for Cole, and who would expect it to be, but Cole's progress this year has been slow and steady. If we've gone from him pitching effectively until the 6th to pitching effectively until the 8th then that's nothing to sneeze at. And also throw in the fact that his velocity never seems to waver from the high 90s, mixed in with his upper 80s breaking stuff, Cole definitely has the tools to be something really special. I mean, we knew that already, but it's fun to see the development in action.
So the Pirates continue to limp along through August (thank god this month is almost over!) just barely keeping their heads above water. And along come the big bad Cardinals, standing tall with their 1 game division lead.
30 August - Cardinals 0 Pirates 5 - The stars of this game were Francisco Liriano (surprise, surprise) and Garrett Jones (surprise, sur-... wait, really?)
Seriously, it seems like it's been forever since Jones has played a large part in a Pirate victory. In the years past Jones has played the part of RBI-man. It crazy to think about actually, but for the vast majority of my Pirate fandom (est. 2008) Garrett Jones has been the main guy I look too as the catalyst for the offense.
This year, he's been anything but that. His Ks have skyrocketed and his OPS has decreased. All year he has been visibly struggling to find his way, and you root for him, but with only a month left in the season it's hard to hope for much.
That's why this night was such a treat. After riding the bench for a few games, Jones started at 1B and batted 6th against young righty Shelby Miller. Jones went 3 for 4 with a 2 RBI double, a solo homer, and an RBI single. The fifth Pirate run was scored on Russell Martin's solo home run.
Liriano did what we hoped (and almost expected) he would do. 8 IP 0 R 2 H 2 BB 6 Ks. Brilliant start against a great offense.
And just like that the Pirates knotted up the division again.
31 August - Cardinals 1 Pirates 7 - The day after Garrett Jones' big night he had some company. Justin Morneau didn't play, but he did arrive in Pittsburgh and put on a nice looking black Pirate uniform, the 3rd and final big new player acquired for the Pirates this year. Morneau will inevitably take some of Jones' playing time, and this is a good thing for several reasons. Morneau is a better player than Jones right now, though not by much. Both players are having years that are less than average for them, but Morneau is a slightly higher tier of 1st baseman these days. However it's more of a depth move than anything, since it gives Clint Hurdle both a lefty (Jones) and a righty (Sanchez) to choose to pinch hit in late-inning matchup type situations. This is a huge boon, especially in late season time when each game, and yes, each at-bat, is magnified.
Though on this night, the Bucs didn't need Morneau, the Pirate lineup manhandled Lance Lynn, jumping to a 7-1 lead by the end of the 3rd inning. An A.J. Burnett RBI single just inside the 1st base bag, a Marlon Byrd RBI single to center, and an opposite field Russell Martin 3-run HR were the big highlight in this one.
Lynn was chased after 4 innings.
Burnett pitched great, 7 IP 1 ER 4 H 1 BB 6 Ks. And Mazzaro handled the last 2 innings nicely.
Another note: John Axford was acquired by the Cards from the Brewers (allowing us to see him in 3 of 4 consecutive series) and pitched a scoreless 7th inning for the Redbirds.
The Pirates jump into the division lead with their 79th win of the season.
1 September - Cardinals 7 Pirates 2 - Jeff Locke was sent down to AA Altoona (along with Tony Sanchez) to get some rest and recover. I'm not too confident that his issues that he's displayed this half of the season are gonna be fixed by waiting 10 days between starts, but I'd much rather see this than see him get tossed into the Sunday fire. The rest will certainly do him some good. Will the rest turn him back into an All-Star? No way. Will it return him to serviceability? Could be, we'll have to wait and see.
Kris Johnson, the poor soul who made his MLB debut in the limbo that was the 16 inning game against the DBacks earlier this month (oh wait! last month! It's fucking September now?!?!!!?) was once again placed into a very suboptimal rookie-getting-acquainted-with-the-majors-situation and his nerves showed. Though he was able to command a tired out DBacks squad for a while, he couldn't do the same against the Cards, as they tagged him for 5 runs in 2+ IP.
Who can blame the kid, honestly. Second time up in the majors in the middle of a pennant race against the National League's best offense? Almost unfair. Johnson shows promise, but I think this was a result of the Pirates hand being forced a bit. There was some talk about maybe calling Jameson Taillon or Stolmy Pimentel, but then we get into weird arbitration-y conversations that I don't want or know enough to talk about.
The offense, as if to match, wasn't too great either. Poor John Buck has seen a few great games but both the one's he's started have been clunkers.
Justin Morneau saw his first Pirate action (and his first non-Twin action for that matter) and went 1 for 3. Morneau's hit was a ball pulled down the 1st base line that glanced off of Allen Craig's glove putting runners at 1st and 2nd with 2 outs in the the 6th inning of a 7-1 game. Just as the tiny gleam of a comeback started to rear its head John Buck hit a long foul to right that was caught by Shane Robinson.
The Cards salvaged the series and knotted the division back up. Remember the dogfight for the division I was talking about? This is it. And it's only gonna get more interesting from here.
The Cardinals' next week involves the Reds and the Bucs, the last time the Redbirds will be playing either of those teams all season. The Bucs on the other hand, along with the 3 Redbird St. Louis games, have 6 Reds games to look forward too, all in the last week and a half of the season. Fun (I mean that both sincerely and sarcastically, if that's possible).
For the immediate future though, the Bucs head to the House of Horrors. Let's see if the Bucs can continue to eradicate the ghosts there and hang tough 'til they meet the Cards again.
vs Cardinals (2-1)
A very interesting homestand this week. The Pirates started the week tied for 1st place with the Cards in the Central, coming back from their west coast swing that while it didn't go terribly, was still underwhelming considering the opponents and the preceding series (honestly, the Bucs haven't had an impressive series since Aug 6-8 when they swept the Marlins). The Cardinals on the other hand came into this week on a nice 7-3 run. And to boot they would go 2-1 against the Reds before meeting the Bucs on the weekend.
So that's the context: Cards - good, Bucs - okay. Yet tied for 1st. Here come the Brewers:
27 August - Brewers 7 Pirates 6 - So after losing the last two games of the road trip in less-than-impressive fashion, the Bucs came home and put the pitcher who is struggling most right now on the mound - Jeff Locke. The Pirates put enough runs on the board to win, for sure, but the underwhelming efforts of Locke, Morris, and Wilson (who's recent struggles are the most surprising) did them in. Here's my analysis of Locke's performance: Reddit Post
I considered making this a landmark game because it exemplified Locke's struggles to a T, but I have a feeling most of his other starts were more of the same. Slight control issues revealing that his peripherals (don't have to look much beyond K/BB and FIP) aren't quite good enough at this point in his career.
Of special note is the fantastic night Pedro had: Single, Single, Double, Homer, Walk.
Even after all their pitching woes the Pirates were in it until the end, and threatened in the 9th, putting runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out. But a Martin fly out and a G. Sanchez fisted ground out ended their hopes. Third loss in a row. The Cards won, and so the Pirates were now a game back. The panic started to set in: would the Pirates completely blow it these next couple weeks and get inevitably relegated to a wild card spot? Do they really have the talent to contend for the division down the stretch.
And with that the reinforcements started to come.
28 August - Brewers 1 Pirates 7 - Landmark game. This will be known as the "Byrd Game" by Bucco fans in the future. Especially if the Pirates go on a bit of a run in the upcoming weeks.
He only went 1 for 4, but his imprint on the game was indelible.
In the 1st inning, the Pirates got their 1st three men on base, with Cutch knocking in Harrison to score the 1st run of the game. Byrd, batting cleanup, came up to bat, and on the second pitch he lined the ball sharply back at Tom Gorzelanny, who recoiled his arms in self defense, and somehow managed to pin the ball to his own body making the catch. McCutchen was easily doubled off.
It wasn't the result you wanted. But you had to be thinking, man, if we have a guy who can hit the ball that hard routinely, then we're gonna be in much better shape.
Charlie Morton was pitching well and kept the Brewers in check, so the next run happened in the 4th. Cutch singled, then Byrd came up to the plate again and delivered one of the greatest at bats you will ever see... a 14 pitch strike out. Sprinkled in between those 14 pitches were 6 pickoff attempts, and the whole at bat took 10 minutes and 10 seconds to complete. It was unbelievable. I was actually listening to the game on the radio at the time, and the at bat went on so long that I forgot what was happening (what did Byrd do? I don't remember the result of his at bat... who's batting now? What? He's still batting?)
Here's how it went down: Ball, Strike (foul), Strike (swinging), Foul, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Strike (swinging), M Byrd struck out swinging.
Gorzelanny was hosed after that, and the floodgates soon opened. McCutchen got to third on a steal/groundout play, and Gaby Sanchez singled him in. 2-0.
The next inning a Harrison RBI single and a Mercer double made it 4-0. Morton was cruising, and gave up his only run (and a unearned one at that) in the 7th on Russell Martin's throwing error.
After striking out in his 3rd at bat, Byrd came up to the plate for the fourth time, this in the 7th inning, score 4-1, runners on 1st and 3rd and 1 out, and swatted a Burke Badenhop pitch 415ft away into the Pittsburgh night - well into the bushes in center field. Everyone went nuts. The new guy helped out in a big way, giving the Bucs a luxury they hardly ever had - run insurance.
Vin Mazzaro relieved Morton in the 7th, tap danced around some trouble for a scoreless 8th, and then Jared Hughes finished the game with a 1-2-3 9th. The losing streak was thus ended at 3 games.
29 August - Brewers 4 Pirates 0 - There wasn't really much to takeaway this night. The Pirates could never really string together hits against Yovani Gallardo (who's been not good this year, especially for him, according to his 3.92 FIP he should be a bit better than his 4.39 ERA indicates, but even still his strikeout numbers are way down for him compared to years past) even with their new batters Byrd and Buck (the latter of whom went 3-3 in his first Bucco start) in the lineup.
Gerrit Cole had a somewhat interesting start. He started off shaky, giving up a run each in the 1st and 2nd innings, but righted the ship well enough and worked efficiently through the majority of the game. He made it into the 8th this time (first time he's thrown a pitch in the 8th inning in his career), but after 7 1/3 IP the hit floodgates opened again and he was done. The ride has not been the smoothest for Cole, and who would expect it to be, but Cole's progress this year has been slow and steady. If we've gone from him pitching effectively until the 6th to pitching effectively until the 8th then that's nothing to sneeze at. And also throw in the fact that his velocity never seems to waver from the high 90s, mixed in with his upper 80s breaking stuff, Cole definitely has the tools to be something really special. I mean, we knew that already, but it's fun to see the development in action.
So the Pirates continue to limp along through August (thank god this month is almost over!) just barely keeping their heads above water. And along come the big bad Cardinals, standing tall with their 1 game division lead.
30 August - Cardinals 0 Pirates 5 - The stars of this game were Francisco Liriano (surprise, surprise) and Garrett Jones (surprise, sur-... wait, really?)
Seriously, it seems like it's been forever since Jones has played a large part in a Pirate victory. In the years past Jones has played the part of RBI-man. It crazy to think about actually, but for the vast majority of my Pirate fandom (est. 2008) Garrett Jones has been the main guy I look too as the catalyst for the offense.
This year, he's been anything but that. His Ks have skyrocketed and his OPS has decreased. All year he has been visibly struggling to find his way, and you root for him, but with only a month left in the season it's hard to hope for much.
That's why this night was such a treat. After riding the bench for a few games, Jones started at 1B and batted 6th against young righty Shelby Miller. Jones went 3 for 4 with a 2 RBI double, a solo homer, and an RBI single. The fifth Pirate run was scored on Russell Martin's solo home run.
Liriano did what we hoped (and almost expected) he would do. 8 IP 0 R 2 H 2 BB 6 Ks. Brilliant start against a great offense.
And just like that the Pirates knotted up the division again.
31 August - Cardinals 1 Pirates 7 - The day after Garrett Jones' big night he had some company. Justin Morneau didn't play, but he did arrive in Pittsburgh and put on a nice looking black Pirate uniform, the 3rd and final big new player acquired for the Pirates this year. Morneau will inevitably take some of Jones' playing time, and this is a good thing for several reasons. Morneau is a better player than Jones right now, though not by much. Both players are having years that are less than average for them, but Morneau is a slightly higher tier of 1st baseman these days. However it's more of a depth move than anything, since it gives Clint Hurdle both a lefty (Jones) and a righty (Sanchez) to choose to pinch hit in late-inning matchup type situations. This is a huge boon, especially in late season time when each game, and yes, each at-bat, is magnified.
Though on this night, the Bucs didn't need Morneau, the Pirate lineup manhandled Lance Lynn, jumping to a 7-1 lead by the end of the 3rd inning. An A.J. Burnett RBI single just inside the 1st base bag, a Marlon Byrd RBI single to center, and an opposite field Russell Martin 3-run HR were the big highlight in this one.
Lynn was chased after 4 innings.
Burnett pitched great, 7 IP 1 ER 4 H 1 BB 6 Ks. And Mazzaro handled the last 2 innings nicely.
Another note: John Axford was acquired by the Cards from the Brewers (allowing us to see him in 3 of 4 consecutive series) and pitched a scoreless 7th inning for the Redbirds.
The Pirates jump into the division lead with their 79th win of the season.
1 September - Cardinals 7 Pirates 2 - Jeff Locke was sent down to AA Altoona (along with Tony Sanchez) to get some rest and recover. I'm not too confident that his issues that he's displayed this half of the season are gonna be fixed by waiting 10 days between starts, but I'd much rather see this than see him get tossed into the Sunday fire. The rest will certainly do him some good. Will the rest turn him back into an All-Star? No way. Will it return him to serviceability? Could be, we'll have to wait and see.
Kris Johnson, the poor soul who made his MLB debut in the limbo that was the 16 inning game against the DBacks earlier this month (oh wait! last month! It's fucking September now?!?!!!?) was once again placed into a very suboptimal rookie-getting-acquainted-with-the-majors-situation and his nerves showed. Though he was able to command a tired out DBacks squad for a while, he couldn't do the same against the Cards, as they tagged him for 5 runs in 2+ IP.
Who can blame the kid, honestly. Second time up in the majors in the middle of a pennant race against the National League's best offense? Almost unfair. Johnson shows promise, but I think this was a result of the Pirates hand being forced a bit. There was some talk about maybe calling Jameson Taillon or Stolmy Pimentel, but then we get into weird arbitration-y conversations that I don't want or know enough to talk about.
The offense, as if to match, wasn't too great either. Poor John Buck has seen a few great games but both the one's he's started have been clunkers.
Justin Morneau saw his first Pirate action (and his first non-Twin action for that matter) and went 1 for 3. Morneau's hit was a ball pulled down the 1st base line that glanced off of Allen Craig's glove putting runners at 1st and 2nd with 2 outs in the the 6th inning of a 7-1 game. Just as the tiny gleam of a comeback started to rear its head John Buck hit a long foul to right that was caught by Shane Robinson.
The Cards salvaged the series and knotted the division back up. Remember the dogfight for the division I was talking about? This is it. And it's only gonna get more interesting from here.
The Cardinals' next week involves the Reds and the Bucs, the last time the Redbirds will be playing either of those teams all season. The Bucs on the other hand, along with the 3 Redbird St. Louis games, have 6 Reds games to look forward too, all in the last week and a half of the season. Fun (I mean that both sincerely and sarcastically, if that's possible).
For the immediate future though, the Bucs head to the House of Horrors. Let's see if the Bucs can continue to eradicate the ghosts there and hang tough 'til they meet the Cards again.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Pirates go 4-3 on their final West Coast trip
@ Padres (2-1)
@ Giants (2-2)
I was hoping for a bit of a winning streak against some lighter opponents, but this'll do. As the Pirates limped into Petco Park, and the fans gritted their teeth with memories of last year's San Disaster in their minds, Liriano took the mound in game 1 and shut the Pads down. He threw 7 scoreless and struck out 13. There's been some debate on whether or not Liriano is an "ace" but that's one of the things an ace would do, for sure. Pirates win 3-1.
The Pirates blew out the Padres the next night behind a great start by A.J. Burnett and a 5-run 7th inning. Also, weirdly the Pirates hit 3 triples that night, one each by Pedro Alvarez (!), Andrew McCutchen, and Josh Harrison. The last two occurring in that 7th inning. Burnett's only failing was giving up a solo shot to Jedd Gyorko. Pirates win 8-1.
The Pirates couldn't get the sweep though as Cole had another of his shaky-holding-it-together-bend-but-don't-break type starts, giving up 2 runs on 10 hits (9 singles and a double) over 6 innings, walking none and striking out 5. The score was 2-1. The offense couldn't get anything going against Ian Kennedy which was disappointing, because it was certainly a winnable game given the pitching performance. Most of us were fine with the loss though and were happy to sail up the coast to SF on the back of a series win.
I didn't have the opportunity to watch too much of the Giants series because, ironically, I was on a trip to San Francisco. I did get to see the second game of the series though with some of my old college friends which was a treat! Both to hang out with them and take in my 2nd Bucco game of the year (after the one in Seattle in June). Plus AT&T Park is beautiful.
The Bucs won game 1 10-5 on the back of an offensive explosion, which was due in part to Matt Cain being hit on his pitching arm by a line drive and getting knocked out early (Cain would head to the DL, though I from my understanding that has more to do with the Giants being precautionary with one of their best pitchers while they are out of contention than Cain being really seriously hurt). This outburst helped erase another poor start from Jeff Locke who only made it through 4 innings. Again, he gave up many hits and walks and isn't showing many signs of improving. I continue to hold my opinion last I espoused it, which is that he needs some extended rest and has the ability to be a quality mid rotation guy.
Game 2 was the game I went to, and it was a fun, if a bit understated game. The moment of the game was no doubt Barmes 3 run home run to left that just made it over the wall. On replays you see that Barmes managed to somehow dig out a tough down and in slider from Madison Bumgarner and pop it over the fence. It wasn't quite as crazy as the Inge HR I saw in Seattle in terms of insanity in a vacuum, but the timing could not have been better. Morton pitched very well in this game, scattering 7 hits and a walk to give up just one run over 7 2/3 innings. The Pirates won 3-1.
In game 3 Liriano had an uncharacteristically bad start, throwing just 4 innings, his first bad start since that awful game in Coors Field. The Pirates put up a bit of a fight to get back in it but couldn't make up the difference against Tim Lincecum and the Giant bullpen, as the Bucs fell 6-3. The Cardinals also caught up to the Pirates to gain a share of 1st in the Central on this night.
Game 4 saw the Pirates get shutout by Ryan Vogelsong over 8 innings, who's been awful this year. They lost 4-0. Andrew Lambo (who's been underwhelming, it's too early to pass any word on him in terms of ML stats, but so far he's been a disappointment), Andrew McCutchen, and Felix Pie (really?) got the only hits of the afternoon. Burnett was fine through 7 innings, but the Giants got to him in the 8th to put the game out of reach of the Bucs' impotent offense.
Series split. A middle of the road road performance, could've gone better of course, but while Marte is on the DL and Grilli is working his way back, the Pirates job is to "avoid the Grand Canyon", and as I've said before, playing 0.500 ball on the road is fine. It's not giving you any cushion of course, but it's fine. Let's head back to da Burgh to host our good buddies the Brewers.
A couple other notes. On Tuesday before the Brewers series started the Bucs made a move trading one of their young middle infield prospects Dilson Herrera and a PTBNL to acquire Marlon Byrd from the Mets after they claimed him off waivers (which was surprising in its own right, you'd think someone like the Reds would've blocked the Bucs). The Pirates also got John Buck to bolster their catching depth, freeing up Tony Sanchez for some pinch hit appearances.
This is a good trade in my mind. Byrd is having a spectacular year at age 36 (due in part to his 0.350 BABIP, counteracting his 26% K rate), though that's not why I like it. At this point just having another quality player is a good thing, as the depth will really help the Bucs. And that's not to mention that Byrd's a great right handed bats against lefties, and the Pirates have sorely been needing more firepower against LHP. Hererra's a good prospect but he's very young and the Pirates have fantastic depth in the minors. This is the kind of trade that needed to happen, because if there's a chance Byrd can help the big league club now while the Bucs are knocking on the playoff door, it's worth the probability that Hererra will pan out to give yourself that opportunity. In some ways this is like what a Nate Schierholtz-y deadline trade could have been, just a bit lower stakes (later in the season, with lower leverage players being involved).
The Pirates don't play a team that is not the Brewers or Cardinals until September 9th, when they head to Arlington for their last interleague matchup of the year.
Bring on the Crew. We're a 1/2 game out of the lead but that could easily change tonight. The Cardinals are facing the Reds after winning the first game of their set in St. Louis last night.
@ Giants (2-2)
I was hoping for a bit of a winning streak against some lighter opponents, but this'll do. As the Pirates limped into Petco Park, and the fans gritted their teeth with memories of last year's San Disaster in their minds, Liriano took the mound in game 1 and shut the Pads down. He threw 7 scoreless and struck out 13. There's been some debate on whether or not Liriano is an "ace" but that's one of the things an ace would do, for sure. Pirates win 3-1.
The Pirates blew out the Padres the next night behind a great start by A.J. Burnett and a 5-run 7th inning. Also, weirdly the Pirates hit 3 triples that night, one each by Pedro Alvarez (!), Andrew McCutchen, and Josh Harrison. The last two occurring in that 7th inning. Burnett's only failing was giving up a solo shot to Jedd Gyorko. Pirates win 8-1.
The Pirates couldn't get the sweep though as Cole had another of his shaky-holding-it-together-bend-but-don't-break type starts, giving up 2 runs on 10 hits (9 singles and a double) over 6 innings, walking none and striking out 5. The score was 2-1. The offense couldn't get anything going against Ian Kennedy which was disappointing, because it was certainly a winnable game given the pitching performance. Most of us were fine with the loss though and were happy to sail up the coast to SF on the back of a series win.
I didn't have the opportunity to watch too much of the Giants series because, ironically, I was on a trip to San Francisco. I did get to see the second game of the series though with some of my old college friends which was a treat! Both to hang out with them and take in my 2nd Bucco game of the year (after the one in Seattle in June). Plus AT&T Park is beautiful.
The Bucs won game 1 10-5 on the back of an offensive explosion, which was due in part to Matt Cain being hit on his pitching arm by a line drive and getting knocked out early (Cain would head to the DL, though I from my understanding that has more to do with the Giants being precautionary with one of their best pitchers while they are out of contention than Cain being really seriously hurt). This outburst helped erase another poor start from Jeff Locke who only made it through 4 innings. Again, he gave up many hits and walks and isn't showing many signs of improving. I continue to hold my opinion last I espoused it, which is that he needs some extended rest and has the ability to be a quality mid rotation guy.
Game 2 was the game I went to, and it was a fun, if a bit understated game. The moment of the game was no doubt Barmes 3 run home run to left that just made it over the wall. On replays you see that Barmes managed to somehow dig out a tough down and in slider from Madison Bumgarner and pop it over the fence. It wasn't quite as crazy as the Inge HR I saw in Seattle in terms of insanity in a vacuum, but the timing could not have been better. Morton pitched very well in this game, scattering 7 hits and a walk to give up just one run over 7 2/3 innings. The Pirates won 3-1.
In game 3 Liriano had an uncharacteristically bad start, throwing just 4 innings, his first bad start since that awful game in Coors Field. The Pirates put up a bit of a fight to get back in it but couldn't make up the difference against Tim Lincecum and the Giant bullpen, as the Bucs fell 6-3. The Cardinals also caught up to the Pirates to gain a share of 1st in the Central on this night.
Game 4 saw the Pirates get shutout by Ryan Vogelsong over 8 innings, who's been awful this year. They lost 4-0. Andrew Lambo (who's been underwhelming, it's too early to pass any word on him in terms of ML stats, but so far he's been a disappointment), Andrew McCutchen, and Felix Pie (really?) got the only hits of the afternoon. Burnett was fine through 7 innings, but the Giants got to him in the 8th to put the game out of reach of the Bucs' impotent offense.
Series split. A middle of the road road performance, could've gone better of course, but while Marte is on the DL and Grilli is working his way back, the Pirates job is to "avoid the Grand Canyon", and as I've said before, playing 0.500 ball on the road is fine. It's not giving you any cushion of course, but it's fine. Let's head back to da Burgh to host our good buddies the Brewers.
A couple other notes. On Tuesday before the Brewers series started the Bucs made a move trading one of their young middle infield prospects Dilson Herrera and a PTBNL to acquire Marlon Byrd from the Mets after they claimed him off waivers (which was surprising in its own right, you'd think someone like the Reds would've blocked the Bucs). The Pirates also got John Buck to bolster their catching depth, freeing up Tony Sanchez for some pinch hit appearances.
This is a good trade in my mind. Byrd is having a spectacular year at age 36 (due in part to his 0.350 BABIP, counteracting his 26% K rate), though that's not why I like it. At this point just having another quality player is a good thing, as the depth will really help the Bucs. And that's not to mention that Byrd's a great right handed bats against lefties, and the Pirates have sorely been needing more firepower against LHP. Hererra's a good prospect but he's very young and the Pirates have fantastic depth in the minors. This is the kind of trade that needed to happen, because if there's a chance Byrd can help the big league club now while the Bucs are knocking on the playoff door, it's worth the probability that Hererra will pan out to give yourself that opportunity. In some ways this is like what a Nate Schierholtz-y deadline trade could have been, just a bit lower stakes (later in the season, with lower leverage players being involved).
The Pirates don't play a team that is not the Brewers or Cardinals until September 9th, when they head to Arlington for their last interleague matchup of the year.
Bring on the Crew. We're a 1/2 game out of the lead but that could easily change tonight. The Cardinals are facing the Reds after winning the first game of their set in St. Louis last night.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Pirates drop 2 of 3 to the DBacks, now heading to the west coast
Being a Pirates fan is like having a girlfriend who hates you. You have certainly had some good times but your relationship is colored by sadness and heartbreak.
Wait, this isn't the most constructive line of reasoning. Let's try this again...
Being a major league baseball player has got to be exhausting. I get tired when I have to walk back home from the diner up the street after a late dinner. But to be city hopping, playing/practicing an athletic sport for hours and then do more city hopping. Yeesh, I can't imagine how draining that must be.
This is a relevant point in a few ways. First, the Pirates last off day was this past Monday the 12th. Their next one isn't until a week from this Monday, Monday the 26th. In that time span the Pirates will play in 4 different cities! And these cities aren't exactly near one another either: St. Louis, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco. People like to talk about bullpen usage, and during extended stretches without off days how the bullpen is often in grave danger of being overworked, especially in close games like those that the Pirates tend to play in. However, it also applies to every single player on the damn team (maybe with a couple of rare exceptions like Gerrit Cole who has exceeded his innings from last year and is having his starts spaced out - there's also a good chance he goes to the bullpen in September). The point is that this can take a huge toll on a team, especially at this point in the season, and the win-loss record has a significant chance of suffering as a result.
Second point: the Pirates have now played 3 extra inning games in the past week: 14 inning loss to the Cards, 12 inning loss to the Cards, and a 16 inning loss to the Diamondbacks. That's some extra wear and tear that the Pirates absolutely do not need at this point. The fact that they were all losses hurts, but is honestly beside the point at hand. As I've said before I don't believe in "momentum"
Third: This is scarily similar to the set up of last year's collapse, where the 19 inning victory over the Cards set up a series loss in San Diego against a terrible Padres team, which at the time I had a feeling was in large part due to fatigue. If I recall correctly, those San Diego games were pretty close and heartbreaking as well. Not many fond memories in Petco Park for me (although, I have to say I think it is one of the most beautiful stadiums in the game). This year we have a 16 inning loss preceding a trip to San Diego. I hope we can reverse this fate and pull off a couple of series wins.
About the specific games in this series:
16 August - Diamondbacks 4 Pirates 6 - The Pirates gave Gerrit Cole a 2-0 lead which he immediately relinquished to make it 2-2. But when the Pirates jumped to 4-2, Cole made that one stick. He pitched good but not great in his first start in 8 days: 6 IP 2 ER 5 H 2 BB 5 K's.
Great relief efforts by Jeanmar Gomez and Mark Melancon sealed the deal. Marte, McCutchen, Tabata, and Alvarez all had fine days offensively.
17 August - Diamondbacks 15 Pirates 5 - Yikes. The DBacks just started hitting Jeff Locke and would not stop, including a horrifying 7 straight 2 out hits in the 3rd inning which knocked Locke out of the game. As far as I could tell on my crappy feed (fuck you FOX/MLB for not letting me watch the game in HD using the service that I payed for and also not giving me the option to watch this game in any manner whatsoever) Locke's curveball was just not working for him. It was flat and just hung in the middle of the zone. He threw it in many 2 strike counts and each time it would inevitably wind up a base hit (and in the Prado case, a HR). Locke is a fastball-change-curve finesse pitcher who needs all his pitches to be working for him to be effective. And one of his pitches being that bad meant that he had no hope at all. I also think Hurdle left him in a couple batters too many, he was just getting more and more tired and he was not about to find things. He should have been removed before the deficit reached 8 runs.
The Pirates made a valiant attempt at a comeback, closing to within 4 when a 3rd inning Pedro Alvarez 3 run HR made the score 8-4. In the 6th they made it 8-5.
The Pirates didn't have enough fire power to continue the assault however despite threating a couple more times, and the DBacks made it a laugher in some late inning garbage time.
Another word about Locke. Things have not looked good for the kid since the All-Star Break. A big part of this was regression at work. Locke's peripheral numbers were not matching up with his results. However I posited earlier in the year that Locke had a knack for keeping his BABIP below league average due to changing speeds and having good location. That is a very difficult thing to keep going, especially for a young pitcher, but I still believe that to be the case. I think Locke is a fine pitcher, and totally has the ability to be a mid-rotation guy. He just has to get his control and his pitches working on a more consistent basis, and fend off the fatigue fairies that always plague the Bucs. I still have a lot of confidence in him, but maybe he could use a week off?
18 August - Diamondbacks 4 Pirates 2 F/16 - Blrglrglrglrglrgl. How does this keep happening.
This game was actually pretty different than the last two marathon games. The extra innings kinda flew by as very little offense was on display by both sides in this game.
Charlie Morton pitched one of his better games of the year, too many hits and walks but the 7 inning 2 run outing was certainly appreciated. Morton was touched up in the 6th but managed to escape without giving the DBacks the lead.
Morton also danced a tightrope in the 7th but managed to get out unscathed. He also lucked out a bit on a line drive straight to Pedro with the bases loaded to make the 2nd out, and got the benefit of some close calls en route to a strikeout of the dangerous Paul Goldschmidt.
The Pirate offense was anemic again despite a good early showing against the formidable Wade Miley. Martin double in the 1st and a Mercer double in the 3rd accounted for the runs batted in for the Bucs.
In the 8th, Starling Marte reached on a bunt single. He was sacrificed to 2nd by Jordy Mercer as Clint Hurdle once again decided he wanted to take the bat out of the hands of his best hitter when McCutchen was intentionally walked. Hurdle is a decent manager, and he doesn't manage all that differently from many managers in the league, but this is the most unforgivable thing he does routinely. Your offense is struggling mightily you just cannot repeatedly deny your far-and-away best hitter to swing the bat!
The subsequent situation was runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out with your cleanup hitter Russell Martin at the plate. Martin worked the count to 2-2, but struck out on the next pitch. On that pitch Marte ran to third and was thrown out easily. Inning over. One of our best chances to score in this game and we really only gave one batter a chance to drive in runs. Just plain terrible.
Tony Watson (who's turned into Superman in relief lately, it's crazy) turned in 2 scoreless innings. Melancon was brought in to the game to pitch the 10th and was also very effective, as usual.
In the top of the 11th, Hurdle called on rookie Kris Johnson to make his MLB debut in a tied extra inning game in the middle of a pennant race. No sweat. Johnson was utterly amazing. Inning after inning flew by as Johnson used his fastball and slider (I think it was a slider? It was mid/low 80s and he threw it low and got a lot of strikes) extremely effectively. By the end of it he had pitched 6 innings, his final line: 6 IP 2 ER 5 H 2 BB 5 K's (holy shit I just realized this is the exact same as Cole's start from Friday, crazy). If it were just about any other team Johnson was pitching for, he would have gotten an extra inning W before he would have had a chance to give up his 2 runs in the 16th.
Also of note was that Marte made a great sliding catch in one of the extra innings, a bit of redemption for him, though it sadly did not matter.
The Pirates offense was still terrible in extras. Besides a good opportunity in the 12th, when Martin popped out with the bases loaded to end the inning (Cutch was intentionally walked in this inning as well, not because of a sac bunt though, still he didn't have a chance to score the winning run for us).
The Pirates lost when rookie Adam Eaton doubled in 2 runs on a sinking liner that dove in front of McCutchen (he had a chance to catch it but it would have been a fantastic play). They made a small effort to tie the game in the bottom of the 16th but with runners at 1st and 2nd and the pitcher Kris Johnson's spot up, Hurdle had no one to put in (of note, Tony Sanchez was used in the 9th to bat for Tony Watson and just took 3 straight strikes from Heath Bell, a frustrating at bat to watch). Maybe it would have been worth a shot to give Cole an at bat there?
Johnson put in a valiant effort (better than T. Sanchez at least) and worked the count to 2-2 before striking out by swinging at a high pitch to end the game.
The Pirates are 3-7 in their last 10 and their NL Central lead has shrunk to 1 game ahead of the Cardinals (who just took 2 of 3 from the poor Cubs). The Reds also hang a disconcerting 2.5 games back. This division has a good chance of being a dogfight well into September. I'm getting a bit nervous (tensions are rising as we get later in the season, and the shrinking division lead is not easing fears - damn it, I really want this division title!), but I realize there still is a lot in store for us come these final 39 games. The Pirates are playing better than their recent record indicates, and I think they have a good chance of turning things around. A little win streak would help a lot, more than words ever could.
Wait, this isn't the most constructive line of reasoning. Let's try this again...
Being a major league baseball player has got to be exhausting. I get tired when I have to walk back home from the diner up the street after a late dinner. But to be city hopping, playing/practicing an athletic sport for hours and then do more city hopping. Yeesh, I can't imagine how draining that must be.
This is a relevant point in a few ways. First, the Pirates last off day was this past Monday the 12th. Their next one isn't until a week from this Monday, Monday the 26th. In that time span the Pirates will play in 4 different cities! And these cities aren't exactly near one another either: St. Louis, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco. People like to talk about bullpen usage, and during extended stretches without off days how the bullpen is often in grave danger of being overworked, especially in close games like those that the Pirates tend to play in. However, it also applies to every single player on the damn team (maybe with a couple of rare exceptions like Gerrit Cole who has exceeded his innings from last year and is having his starts spaced out - there's also a good chance he goes to the bullpen in September). The point is that this can take a huge toll on a team, especially at this point in the season, and the win-loss record has a significant chance of suffering as a result.
Second point: the Pirates have now played 3 extra inning games in the past week: 14 inning loss to the Cards, 12 inning loss to the Cards, and a 16 inning loss to the Diamondbacks. That's some extra wear and tear that the Pirates absolutely do not need at this point. The fact that they were all losses hurts, but is honestly beside the point at hand. As I've said before I don't believe in "momentum"
Third: This is scarily similar to the set up of last year's collapse, where the 19 inning victory over the Cards set up a series loss in San Diego against a terrible Padres team, which at the time I had a feeling was in large part due to fatigue. If I recall correctly, those San Diego games were pretty close and heartbreaking as well. Not many fond memories in Petco Park for me (although, I have to say I think it is one of the most beautiful stadiums in the game). This year we have a 16 inning loss preceding a trip to San Diego. I hope we can reverse this fate and pull off a couple of series wins.
About the specific games in this series:
16 August - Diamondbacks 4 Pirates 6 - The Pirates gave Gerrit Cole a 2-0 lead which he immediately relinquished to make it 2-2. But when the Pirates jumped to 4-2, Cole made that one stick. He pitched good but not great in his first start in 8 days: 6 IP 2 ER 5 H 2 BB 5 K's.
Great relief efforts by Jeanmar Gomez and Mark Melancon sealed the deal. Marte, McCutchen, Tabata, and Alvarez all had fine days offensively.
17 August - Diamondbacks 15 Pirates 5 - Yikes. The DBacks just started hitting Jeff Locke and would not stop, including a horrifying 7 straight 2 out hits in the 3rd inning which knocked Locke out of the game. As far as I could tell on my crappy feed (fuck you FOX/MLB for not letting me watch the game in HD using the service that I payed for and also not giving me the option to watch this game in any manner whatsoever) Locke's curveball was just not working for him. It was flat and just hung in the middle of the zone. He threw it in many 2 strike counts and each time it would inevitably wind up a base hit (and in the Prado case, a HR). Locke is a fastball-change-curve finesse pitcher who needs all his pitches to be working for him to be effective. And one of his pitches being that bad meant that he had no hope at all. I also think Hurdle left him in a couple batters too many, he was just getting more and more tired and he was not about to find things. He should have been removed before the deficit reached 8 runs.
The Pirates made a valiant attempt at a comeback, closing to within 4 when a 3rd inning Pedro Alvarez 3 run HR made the score 8-4. In the 6th they made it 8-5.
The Pirates didn't have enough fire power to continue the assault however despite threating a couple more times, and the DBacks made it a laugher in some late inning garbage time.
Another word about Locke. Things have not looked good for the kid since the All-Star Break. A big part of this was regression at work. Locke's peripheral numbers were not matching up with his results. However I posited earlier in the year that Locke had a knack for keeping his BABIP below league average due to changing speeds and having good location. That is a very difficult thing to keep going, especially for a young pitcher, but I still believe that to be the case. I think Locke is a fine pitcher, and totally has the ability to be a mid-rotation guy. He just has to get his control and his pitches working on a more consistent basis, and fend off the fatigue fairies that always plague the Bucs. I still have a lot of confidence in him, but maybe he could use a week off?
18 August - Diamondbacks 4 Pirates 2 F/16 - Blrglrglrglrglrgl. How does this keep happening.
This game was actually pretty different than the last two marathon games. The extra innings kinda flew by as very little offense was on display by both sides in this game.
Charlie Morton pitched one of his better games of the year, too many hits and walks but the 7 inning 2 run outing was certainly appreciated. Morton was touched up in the 6th but managed to escape without giving the DBacks the lead.
Morton also danced a tightrope in the 7th but managed to get out unscathed. He also lucked out a bit on a line drive straight to Pedro with the bases loaded to make the 2nd out, and got the benefit of some close calls en route to a strikeout of the dangerous Paul Goldschmidt.
The Pirate offense was anemic again despite a good early showing against the formidable Wade Miley. Martin double in the 1st and a Mercer double in the 3rd accounted for the runs batted in for the Bucs.
In the 8th, Starling Marte reached on a bunt single. He was sacrificed to 2nd by Jordy Mercer as Clint Hurdle once again decided he wanted to take the bat out of the hands of his best hitter when McCutchen was intentionally walked. Hurdle is a decent manager, and he doesn't manage all that differently from many managers in the league, but this is the most unforgivable thing he does routinely. Your offense is struggling mightily you just cannot repeatedly deny your far-and-away best hitter to swing the bat!
The subsequent situation was runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out with your cleanup hitter Russell Martin at the plate. Martin worked the count to 2-2, but struck out on the next pitch. On that pitch Marte ran to third and was thrown out easily. Inning over. One of our best chances to score in this game and we really only gave one batter a chance to drive in runs. Just plain terrible.
Tony Watson (who's turned into Superman in relief lately, it's crazy) turned in 2 scoreless innings. Melancon was brought in to the game to pitch the 10th and was also very effective, as usual.
In the top of the 11th, Hurdle called on rookie Kris Johnson to make his MLB debut in a tied extra inning game in the middle of a pennant race. No sweat. Johnson was utterly amazing. Inning after inning flew by as Johnson used his fastball and slider (I think it was a slider? It was mid/low 80s and he threw it low and got a lot of strikes) extremely effectively. By the end of it he had pitched 6 innings, his final line: 6 IP 2 ER 5 H 2 BB 5 K's (holy shit I just realized this is the exact same as Cole's start from Friday, crazy). If it were just about any other team Johnson was pitching for, he would have gotten an extra inning W before he would have had a chance to give up his 2 runs in the 16th.
Also of note was that Marte made a great sliding catch in one of the extra innings, a bit of redemption for him, though it sadly did not matter.
The Pirates offense was still terrible in extras. Besides a good opportunity in the 12th, when Martin popped out with the bases loaded to end the inning (Cutch was intentionally walked in this inning as well, not because of a sac bunt though, still he didn't have a chance to score the winning run for us).
The Pirates lost when rookie Adam Eaton doubled in 2 runs on a sinking liner that dove in front of McCutchen (he had a chance to catch it but it would have been a fantastic play). They made a small effort to tie the game in the bottom of the 16th but with runners at 1st and 2nd and the pitcher Kris Johnson's spot up, Hurdle had no one to put in (of note, Tony Sanchez was used in the 9th to bat for Tony Watson and just took 3 straight strikes from Heath Bell, a frustrating at bat to watch). Maybe it would have been worth a shot to give Cole an at bat there?
Johnson put in a valiant effort (better than T. Sanchez at least) and worked the count to 2-2 before striking out by swinging at a high pitch to end the game.
The Pirates are 3-7 in their last 10 and their NL Central lead has shrunk to 1 game ahead of the Cardinals (who just took 2 of 3 from the poor Cubs). The Reds also hang a disconcerting 2.5 games back. This division has a good chance of being a dogfight well into September. I'm getting a bit nervous (tensions are rising as we get later in the season, and the shrinking division lead is not easing fears - damn it, I really want this division title!), but I realize there still is a lot in store for us come these final 39 games. The Pirates are playing better than their recent record indicates, and I think they have a good chance of turning things around. A little win streak would help a lot, more than words ever could.
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