Wow, over the course of one week the Pirates went from a fringe curiosity of at team to national attention. Wouldn't be the first time, but is this time different?
25 June - Pirates 9 Mariners 4 - So this game was kinda special because I was there! And the Pirates won! In my 5ish years of Pirate fandom I have seen a handful of losses in person but only a couple wins, so to see them win on the road was pretty sweet.
You really only need to know a couple things about this game:
1. The Pirates had an offensive outburst (which is becoming more common of late - nice to see) in the 2nd inning where they scored 5 runs on 3 HRs. Solo shots by Martin and Marte, and a 3-run jack by Brandon Inge (??!!!?!?!!). Those balls were destroyed off of Joe Saunders, who fooled no one and was chased early. Those were all the runs we needed right there.
Marte himself had quite a night. Leading off the ballgame with a triple, and he would hit 2 HRs before the day was done.
2. Jeff Locke did that thing he does. 7 innings for Locke, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 Ks. Hurdle let him throw 104 pitches, which was a tad surprising. Not because Locke couldn't handle it but because Hurdle's seemed quite averse to stretching out his starters who are not named Burnett or Liriano.
It was a fun night to watch in person. I got to hang with a friend for a while, look around at the surprising amount of gold in the stands, listen to some dad next to me explain to his son that "baseball is a game of inches." SafeCo Field is pretty great too. Retractible roof was useful as the temperature was fine but it rained steadily in the evening.
26 June - Pirates 4 Mariners 2 - So you figure going up against Felix Hernandez that you have a good chance of losing, which wouldn't have been disheartening or anything but you would love to see the Pirates sweep this whole 5-game West Coast trip, right?
Well you got your wish. The Pirates managed to stay ahead or tied the whole game, turning a battle against King Felix into a battle of the bullpens (shark tanks? Apparently, when Mark Melancon was in Seattle he purchased a sign that says "Do Not Feed the Sharks"). Walker poked a 2-run HR. Mercer knocked in Pedro in the 9th to take the lead, and Melancon refused to relinquish it with a solid 9th, giving up only a pair of soft singles.
The Pirates have won 6 games in a row and are tied for the best record in baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals.
As I was heading to the game Tuesday night, a man saw my Pirates hat and walked up to me to say "You know you guys are never gonna catch the Cardinals, right?" To be friendly I said, "Yeah, but I can always hope for a wild card spot, right?" He laughed. Good guy. I hope he gets crushed to death or something.
On a serious note though the Pirates are playing really well. They're beating teams they should beat and they have a nice stretch coming up against subpar clubs. They could really put together a run going into the All-Star break. Now, I'm not saying they're gonna play even half as good as this for the rest of the year, but if they can continue to make hay against some of bottom of the barrel teams and can hang in there with the tough ones, they're gonna be a team that's tough to catch. And you never know, it could be the Cards looking up at the Bucs for a while this year.
The thing is, the Pirates are not gonna keep this up all year, they're getting just about all the breaks right now if you look at their pitching BABIP (lowest in the MLB). Let's just hope they can mitigate the upcoming regressions. The Cardinals are a better team at the moment than the Bucs, and the Bucs will probably end up closer to 85 than 95 wins. But there's always hope. Hope that the regression delays a little while, hope that Pirates are hitting their stride at just the right time. Cause you know, and inch makes all the difference in baseball.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Sweepin' the Angels in Anaheim
Gotta love a good ol' sweep. Brings back memories of all the other interleague road sweeps the Pirates have had over the last 17 years since interleague play began. (There have been none.)
Let's get down to it!
21 June - Pirates 5 Angels 2 - This was Cole's 3rd career start. His first two, while both wins, were slightly shaky affairs. In his first 12 IP in the big leagues he gave up 14 hits, and only struck out 3. His BABIP (small sample size warning!) was somewhere around 0.290, which on the surface was heartening, showing that he's not just gotten lucky on balls in play, but at the same time his reliance on the fastball and middling control were big points of concern. His most positive showing was honestly that he walked no one in his first couple starts. Also he didn't give up a HR. Pretty unusual for a young fireballer.
The Angels have hardly been tearing it up this year, but even still their Team OPS is 6th in the MLB, so they're no offensive cupcake. It was an interesting test for the youngster, especially seeing as it was set not too far from his hometown. Cue: Grandma Cole interviews! I wonder what my grandmother would say on TV about me if I was starting a major league ballgame. Probably something embarrassing. Love you grandma!
Now, Cole was a flamethrower as soon as he came up, hanging around 97 routinely and occasionally dialing it up to 98 or 99. But the speed he was displaying in Anaheim was insane. He topped 100 eight times. http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=28244817&c_id=mlb&topic_id=vtp_top_50 Including a pitch at 102! What.
He did walk a batter. He did give up a HR. But this was his best start so far. At 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K. Cole dominated, save a couple singles in the 3rd and being unable to get out of the 7th, he was actually perfect. Of course, you can't actually ignore those innings, but it did give us the best glimpse so far of what a dominating Cole would look like. Those 1-2-3 innings were beautiful.
In non-Cole news, Pedro launched another HR (17 on the year), Mercer went deep (production from SS is such a bonus for the Bucs, even if it comes at the expense of some defense), Marte hit a 3B, and Cutch went 2 of 5 with an insurance run RBI 2B in the 9th. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that Cutch still really hasn't broken out so far this year. In one sense that is kinda insane to say because he's 3rd in WAR so far this year among all NL OFs. But at the same time his production so far this year has been nowhere near last year levels yet. A big part of that is that his 0.375 BABIP from 2012 is nigh-unreproducable. (He's around 0.320 so far this year, which is high for most people, but might be about what we should expect from a guy who hits the ball as hard as McCutchen) It's a good thing that the Bucs have shown they can win with "just" an All-Star in CF. Because if they needed the superhero they saw last year, they'd be in for a harsh awakening.
After Cole exited in the 7th. Mazzaro cleaned up his mess and then bridged the gap all the way to Grilli, who closed it out in the 9th without allowing a baserunner. Quality win.
22 June - Pirates 6 Angels 1 - If you're into the ESPN Game Score thingy for pitchers, it's worth looking at that in Liriano's last start, a loss to the Reds, he had a Game Score of 58. On this night in Anaheim his Game Score was 59. Instead of giving up 2 runs, he gave up 1, and he gave up a few more hits this time around, but all in all is was a start of the same general quality as last time. Good enough to give the Bucs a good chance to win. This time they pulled it off. Behind Pedro's HR, a Mercer RBI single, a Martin RBI BB, a Snider RBI single, and two more HRs, one from Cutch and one from Gaby Sanchez. It was nice to see the Pirates offense take it to a struggling pitcher like Jerome Williams.
Morris and Wilson closed out the deal in the pen. Another win in the bag.
23 June - Pirates 10 Angels 9 F/10 - Landmark game here! Seriously though. What the fuck was this game.
I didn't watch this game from beginning to end, I confess, but I did see the majority of the big moments live, and wow, what a crazy game. It all started with some nice offense, Pedro Alvarez's HR, his 4th in as many days. And a weirdo ground rule double from Tony Sanchez in his first MLB AB, that got wedged in the Angels right field wall scoreboard somehow and ended up costing the Bucs a run, as ground rule doubles often do.
Charlie Morton seemed to pitch okay, but he was nickled and dimed around in the 2nd as the Angels tagged him for 5 runs on the back of some infield hits, errors, and seeing-eye singles. Ah, the plight of the sinkerballer.
It was nice to see him bounce back though, he only gave up one more run in the outing, and somehow made it through 5 2/3 innings, giving the Pirates some nice depth on an unlucky day.
Things got weird in the top of the 9th. Down 6-3, the Pirates rallied back from the dead against Ernesto Frieri, including RBI 2Bs and 1Bs when they were down to their final strike by Martin and Marte respectively (Martin originally had the day off in favor of Michael McKenry, and pinch hitting Martin in that spot meant that Hurdle had used all his catchers in the game - Martin, McKenry, and T. Sanchez).
Tied 6-6, the Bucs piled on in the 10th for 4 more against Kevin Jepsen, with help from a J.B. Shuck error.
So, we're done here right? No, no, no.
They say bringing in closers in non-save situations can backfire on occasion, as the closer doesn't have the "intensity" they would otherwise have in a save situation. Now, I'm not gonna get into how I feel about the MLB-wide strategy to base their bullpen around a made-up stat called saves, which wasn't recorded officially until 1969. But I was perfectly 100% behind the idea to bring in Grilli in that spot.
Grilli was terrible. The worst he's been all year. He allowed 3 runs, and the tying run was standing at 3rd when Grilli struck out Mike Trout to end the game. Wow. Not how I saw that game ending that's for sure.
That's four wins in a row. That's four games of Pedro HRs in a row. The Bucs are 46-30. They are 2nd in the NL Central. 2nd in the MLB. 1st in our hearts.
Next stop, Seattle for a quick 2-game set in this weirdo year full of 2-game sets.
I'll be in the seats at Safeco on Tuesday, likely the only time I'll be able to see them in person this year. You can bet I sprung a bit extra for some nice seats. Would love to see a win. Let's go Bucs!
Let's get down to it!
21 June - Pirates 5 Angels 2 - This was Cole's 3rd career start. His first two, while both wins, were slightly shaky affairs. In his first 12 IP in the big leagues he gave up 14 hits, and only struck out 3. His BABIP (small sample size warning!) was somewhere around 0.290, which on the surface was heartening, showing that he's not just gotten lucky on balls in play, but at the same time his reliance on the fastball and middling control were big points of concern. His most positive showing was honestly that he walked no one in his first couple starts. Also he didn't give up a HR. Pretty unusual for a young fireballer.
The Angels have hardly been tearing it up this year, but even still their Team OPS is 6th in the MLB, so they're no offensive cupcake. It was an interesting test for the youngster, especially seeing as it was set not too far from his hometown. Cue: Grandma Cole interviews! I wonder what my grandmother would say on TV about me if I was starting a major league ballgame. Probably something embarrassing. Love you grandma!
Now, Cole was a flamethrower as soon as he came up, hanging around 97 routinely and occasionally dialing it up to 98 or 99. But the speed he was displaying in Anaheim was insane. He topped 100 eight times. http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=28244817&c_id=mlb&topic_id=vtp_top_50 Including a pitch at 102! What.
He did walk a batter. He did give up a HR. But this was his best start so far. At 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K. Cole dominated, save a couple singles in the 3rd and being unable to get out of the 7th, he was actually perfect. Of course, you can't actually ignore those innings, but it did give us the best glimpse so far of what a dominating Cole would look like. Those 1-2-3 innings were beautiful.
In non-Cole news, Pedro launched another HR (17 on the year), Mercer went deep (production from SS is such a bonus for the Bucs, even if it comes at the expense of some defense), Marte hit a 3B, and Cutch went 2 of 5 with an insurance run RBI 2B in the 9th. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that Cutch still really hasn't broken out so far this year. In one sense that is kinda insane to say because he's 3rd in WAR so far this year among all NL OFs. But at the same time his production so far this year has been nowhere near last year levels yet. A big part of that is that his 0.375 BABIP from 2012 is nigh-unreproducable. (He's around 0.320 so far this year, which is high for most people, but might be about what we should expect from a guy who hits the ball as hard as McCutchen) It's a good thing that the Bucs have shown they can win with "just" an All-Star in CF. Because if they needed the superhero they saw last year, they'd be in for a harsh awakening.
After Cole exited in the 7th. Mazzaro cleaned up his mess and then bridged the gap all the way to Grilli, who closed it out in the 9th without allowing a baserunner. Quality win.
22 June - Pirates 6 Angels 1 - If you're into the ESPN Game Score thingy for pitchers, it's worth looking at that in Liriano's last start, a loss to the Reds, he had a Game Score of 58. On this night in Anaheim his Game Score was 59. Instead of giving up 2 runs, he gave up 1, and he gave up a few more hits this time around, but all in all is was a start of the same general quality as last time. Good enough to give the Bucs a good chance to win. This time they pulled it off. Behind Pedro's HR, a Mercer RBI single, a Martin RBI BB, a Snider RBI single, and two more HRs, one from Cutch and one from Gaby Sanchez. It was nice to see the Pirates offense take it to a struggling pitcher like Jerome Williams.
Morris and Wilson closed out the deal in the pen. Another win in the bag.
23 June - Pirates 10 Angels 9 F/10 - Landmark game here! Seriously though. What the fuck was this game.
I didn't watch this game from beginning to end, I confess, but I did see the majority of the big moments live, and wow, what a crazy game. It all started with some nice offense, Pedro Alvarez's HR, his 4th in as many days. And a weirdo ground rule double from Tony Sanchez in his first MLB AB, that got wedged in the Angels right field wall scoreboard somehow and ended up costing the Bucs a run, as ground rule doubles often do.
Charlie Morton seemed to pitch okay, but he was nickled and dimed around in the 2nd as the Angels tagged him for 5 runs on the back of some infield hits, errors, and seeing-eye singles. Ah, the plight of the sinkerballer.
It was nice to see him bounce back though, he only gave up one more run in the outing, and somehow made it through 5 2/3 innings, giving the Pirates some nice depth on an unlucky day.
Things got weird in the top of the 9th. Down 6-3, the Pirates rallied back from the dead against Ernesto Frieri, including RBI 2Bs and 1Bs when they were down to their final strike by Martin and Marte respectively (Martin originally had the day off in favor of Michael McKenry, and pinch hitting Martin in that spot meant that Hurdle had used all his catchers in the game - Martin, McKenry, and T. Sanchez).
Tied 6-6, the Bucs piled on in the 10th for 4 more against Kevin Jepsen, with help from a J.B. Shuck error.
So, we're done here right? No, no, no.
They say bringing in closers in non-save situations can backfire on occasion, as the closer doesn't have the "intensity" they would otherwise have in a save situation. Now, I'm not gonna get into how I feel about the MLB-wide strategy to base their bullpen around a made-up stat called saves, which wasn't recorded officially until 1969. But I was perfectly 100% behind the idea to bring in Grilli in that spot.
Grilli was terrible. The worst he's been all year. He allowed 3 runs, and the tying run was standing at 3rd when Grilli struck out Mike Trout to end the game. Wow. Not how I saw that game ending that's for sure.
That's four wins in a row. That's four games of Pedro HRs in a row. The Bucs are 46-30. They are 2nd in the NL Central. 2nd in the MLB. 1st in our hearts.
Next stop, Seattle for a quick 2-game set in this weirdo year full of 2-game sets.
I'll be in the seats at Safeco on Tuesday, likely the only time I'll be able to see them in person this year. You can bet I sprung a bit extra for some nice seats. Would love to see a win. Let's go Bucs!
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Series Split with the Reds
This was a wild series for sure. It ended up being a split, which is partly frustrating because it really seemed like the Pirates could take 3 of 4, but considering that the starting rotation is a mix-and-match parlor trick, a split with the team with the 2nd best record in the majors is nothing to sneeze at.
A big theme throughout this series was the perennial "Where in the world is the Pirates offense?" question. It seems like this question has been hounding the Bucs for 3 years now. Their pitching staff has been giving them miraculous chances over and over again, but because of their anemic offense the Pirates are only able to capitalize on so many of these opportunities. This team has been in the bottom 3rd of team OPS in the majors all year, and they're 43-30?!?! Imagine if they had a MLB average or just a slightly above average OPS. Say they pushed their team OPS from 0.680 to 0.720. Now that would be a team to be reckoned with.
But here we are, still a good team, but an incomplete one, splitting a series with the best of them. Let's take a quick game by game look.
17 June - Pirates 1 Reds 4. This was probably the least interesting game of the 4. Liriano pitched fine (2 ER in 6 IP) but did not pitch well enough to win on a night the offense wasn't there. They just could get much going against Leake who pitched 7 IP and gave up a run. They scattered 6 hits against them but couldn't capitalize on any of them. It happens.
18 June - Pirates 4 Reds 0. The story of this game was the 1st inning. Marte hustled a triple, was knocked in, and Pedro knocked in some guys behind him. The Pirates did not let go of their lead as Morton put in a good, if a bit short, start and the bullpen did there magic to seal it.
19 June - Pirates 1 Reds 2 F/13. There you go, another landmark game. This time it was a loss, and one hell of one at that. When you can't score runs you're walking a tightrope when it comes to the bullpen, and lo and behold the untouchable Grilli gave up a 9th inning game-tying solo shot to Jay Bruce. Honestly, something like this was inevitable. Nobody expected Grilli to go the rest of the year without blowing a save, but damn it didn't have to be like this. This game screamed more than any previous one how badly the Pirates need an offensive boost, whether that be from a trade or elsewhere. They wasted a stellar outing by the enigma of the majors Jeff Locke, not because of their bullpen, but because of their offense. You can't count on a 1 run lead over the Reds in Great American Ballpark. In fact that's not a tightrope, that's a line of string covered with slime dangling over a pit of alligators. You just don't expect it to go well most of the time.
The Pirates squandered some golden opportunities in regulation to pad their lead, but the most heartbreaking moment of the whole season occurred in the Top of the 12th with 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd. With the pitcher's spot due up Hurdle called on Brandon Inge, who turned in a horrendous at-bat capped with and inning ending double play. Completely and utterly gut-wrenching this at-bat was, it almost made me hate baseball. It was that bad. God, the Pirates need some hitting.
Inevitably, the game came to an end in the 13th as the Reds scored a run off Vin Mazzaro on some bloops and bleeders that weren't really his fault.
We had this game. We blew it. Where the fuck is our offense.
20 June - Pirates 5 Reds 3. So the 13 inning fiasco the night before turned this getaway day game from a "wouldn't it be nice to win" to a "must-win." Well, at least as must-win as a game in June can get. But the Pirates really didn't want to lose this series to their division foe. And thank god for Pedro Alvarez, because if it weren't for him (and starting pitcher Brandon Cumpton, who was the unsung hero here, especially seeing as he was sent down to AAA the next day) the Pirates would be heading to Anaheim on the tail of a series loss. Pedro went into full beast mode/El Toro mode/Daydro mode and knocked in 5 runs on 3 hits (a solo HR, an RBI single, and a 3 RBI double) and dragged the Pirates kicking and screaming (as Pat Lackey would say) to a victory.
Alvarez's numbers are and will be continuing to be inconsistent due to his very high strikeout rate, but he has the talent to pull games like this out of the bag on a regular basis. And the timing worked out pretty well. Off to Anaheim! The Bucs are 43-30. 3rd in NL Central. 3rd in the MLB. 1st in our hearts.
A big theme throughout this series was the perennial "Where in the world is the Pirates offense?" question. It seems like this question has been hounding the Bucs for 3 years now. Their pitching staff has been giving them miraculous chances over and over again, but because of their anemic offense the Pirates are only able to capitalize on so many of these opportunities. This team has been in the bottom 3rd of team OPS in the majors all year, and they're 43-30?!?! Imagine if they had a MLB average or just a slightly above average OPS. Say they pushed their team OPS from 0.680 to 0.720. Now that would be a team to be reckoned with.
But here we are, still a good team, but an incomplete one, splitting a series with the best of them. Let's take a quick game by game look.
17 June - Pirates 1 Reds 4. This was probably the least interesting game of the 4. Liriano pitched fine (2 ER in 6 IP) but did not pitch well enough to win on a night the offense wasn't there. They just could get much going against Leake who pitched 7 IP and gave up a run. They scattered 6 hits against them but couldn't capitalize on any of them. It happens.
18 June - Pirates 4 Reds 0. The story of this game was the 1st inning. Marte hustled a triple, was knocked in, and Pedro knocked in some guys behind him. The Pirates did not let go of their lead as Morton put in a good, if a bit short, start and the bullpen did there magic to seal it.
19 June - Pirates 1 Reds 2 F/13. There you go, another landmark game. This time it was a loss, and one hell of one at that. When you can't score runs you're walking a tightrope when it comes to the bullpen, and lo and behold the untouchable Grilli gave up a 9th inning game-tying solo shot to Jay Bruce. Honestly, something like this was inevitable. Nobody expected Grilli to go the rest of the year without blowing a save, but damn it didn't have to be like this. This game screamed more than any previous one how badly the Pirates need an offensive boost, whether that be from a trade or elsewhere. They wasted a stellar outing by the enigma of the majors Jeff Locke, not because of their bullpen, but because of their offense. You can't count on a 1 run lead over the Reds in Great American Ballpark. In fact that's not a tightrope, that's a line of string covered with slime dangling over a pit of alligators. You just don't expect it to go well most of the time.
The Pirates squandered some golden opportunities in regulation to pad their lead, but the most heartbreaking moment of the whole season occurred in the Top of the 12th with 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd. With the pitcher's spot due up Hurdle called on Brandon Inge, who turned in a horrendous at-bat capped with and inning ending double play. Completely and utterly gut-wrenching this at-bat was, it almost made me hate baseball. It was that bad. God, the Pirates need some hitting.
Inevitably, the game came to an end in the 13th as the Reds scored a run off Vin Mazzaro on some bloops and bleeders that weren't really his fault.
We had this game. We blew it. Where the fuck is our offense.
20 June - Pirates 5 Reds 3. So the 13 inning fiasco the night before turned this getaway day game from a "wouldn't it be nice to win" to a "must-win." Well, at least as must-win as a game in June can get. But the Pirates really didn't want to lose this series to their division foe. And thank god for Pedro Alvarez, because if it weren't for him (and starting pitcher Brandon Cumpton, who was the unsung hero here, especially seeing as he was sent down to AAA the next day) the Pirates would be heading to Anaheim on the tail of a series loss. Pedro went into full beast mode/El Toro mode/Daydro mode and knocked in 5 runs on 3 hits (a solo HR, an RBI single, and a 3 RBI double) and dragged the Pirates kicking and screaming (as Pat Lackey would say) to a victory.
Alvarez's numbers are and will be continuing to be inconsistent due to his very high strikeout rate, but he has the talent to pull games like this out of the bag on a regular basis. And the timing worked out pretty well. Off to Anaheim! The Bucs are 43-30. 3rd in NL Central. 3rd in the MLB. 1st in our hearts.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
The season so far
The Pirates season so far is pretty much impossible to sum up. So many tiny little things have happened that I'll never be able to summarize them all in one post.
Instead, I'm just gonna include a short list of what I felt were "landmark games." All that means is a game that was really exciting, unlikely, or insightful about the Pirates season at that point.
From here on in though, I'll be looking at the season series-by-series basis, so there will be more in depth "analysis" (or whatever excuse for analysis I can provide)
14 April - Reds 7 Pirates 10 - Take it to the Reds - This was the last game of a 3 game home series which the Pirates ended up sweeping over the vaunted Reds. Up to this point, the Bucs had not scored more than 6 runs in a game, so going into the bottom of the 7th down 5-0 looked pretty hopeless. But on the back of two ridiculous innings, a 4-run 7th (which included a McKenry HR), and an insane 6 run 8th (which included another McKenry HR to tie and Marte HR that squeaked around the left field foul pole to lake the lead) the Pirates won. This brought the Bucs record to .500 at 6-6, and to do it over the Reds was pretty sweet.
28 April - Pirates 9 Cardinals 0 - Locke is for real? - Up to this point, Jeff Locke just seemed like a stop-gap. He started the season with a few rough outings, but righted the ship in his 4th start which happened to be in Philly. This start, going up against Cards phenom Shelby Miller, seemed like it would put Locke back in his place. But no, Jeff went a fantastic 7 innings giving up no runs, 3 hits and 2 walks. The Bucs took the series in Busch stadium on the back of that start and an offensive outbreak. This put the Bucs record at 15-10. The Pirates would go to the house of horrors (Miller Park) and lose the next two games, rounding out their April at a respectable 15-12.
Of note, is that the next two series are where the pirates hit their first rough patch, dropping back to back series @Milwaukee and vs. Washington, going 2-4.
11 May - Pirates 11 Mets 2 - Liriano is here - Liriano was a wild card. He hurt himself over the offseason, he hadn't really shown up the past few seasons, but he certainly had the tools. While this start didn't confirm anything long term, it at least showed that Liriano still had the ability to be a force in the Pirates rotation. Plus the offensive showing was nice to see.
14 May - Brewers 3 Pirates 4 - We're not afraid, we have an army - A walk-off homer by your star in the 12th inning was amazing on its own. But this game really showcased the incredible bullpen the Bucs were working with, and that was really the only reason the Pirates came away with the win here. Anytime you get 6 shutout innings (Morris (2 IP), Grilli (IP), Melancon (IP), Mazzaro (2 IP)) you're thrilled, but Clint Hurdle had previously stated that he would only use Melancon and Grilli in SV opps, and to see him adjust to the situation here and pull out a W has particularly heartening.
17 May - Astros 4 Pirates 5 - You're gonna miss us - The Astros gift-wrapped a victory for the Bucs on a dropped popup. The end result wasn't as amazing as how it happened. Just a jaw-dropping ending to a game.
22 May - Cubs 0 Pirates 1 - Liriano is actually here - The Pirates offense had never been a powerhouse, but they we're struggling pretty bad here. To pull out a win over Pirate-killer Jeff Simardzija on the back of a stellar Liriano start was a great thing to see.
28 May & 30 May - Pirates 1 Tigers 0 F/11 - Bullpen strikes again... twice - a pair of unbelieveble 1-0 victories over a very good Tigers team leads the Pirates to a series victory. These games we're startlingly similar, as the bullpen did some ridiculously heavy lifting to turn what could've easily been a series loss into a series win.
2 June - Reds 4 Pirates 5 - Treading water - The Pirates offense was hitting its nadir here, and I remember listening to the end of this game waiting in the airport, and thinking that the Bucs would be swept. But on the back of a dramatic hit by Travis Snider, they pulled it out.
4 June - Pirates 4 Braves 5 F/10 - Melancon is human - Melancon was nearly perfect going into this game, but showed his humanity by giving up the game winning run in the bottom of the 10th. The Pirates would get swept during this series in Atlanta, and this would've been a golden opportunity to strike against another formidable oppenent.
11 June - Giants 2 Pirates 8 - Welcome to the show, Gerrit Cole - This game kind of signalled that the Pirates we're here in 2013. Gerrit Cole made an electric start in his MLB Debut in front of a packed crowd. And his 2 RBI single to take the lead was a mind-melting cherry on top of the whole thing (seriously, I fell out of my chair). Seeing him light up the gun and take it to the defending WS champs was crazy fun, and, if you're into narratives, said that, you know what, these Pirates are different, and they're here now.
Instead, I'm just gonna include a short list of what I felt were "landmark games." All that means is a game that was really exciting, unlikely, or insightful about the Pirates season at that point.
From here on in though, I'll be looking at the season series-by-series basis, so there will be more in depth "analysis" (or whatever excuse for analysis I can provide)
14 April - Reds 7 Pirates 10 - Take it to the Reds - This was the last game of a 3 game home series which the Pirates ended up sweeping over the vaunted Reds. Up to this point, the Bucs had not scored more than 6 runs in a game, so going into the bottom of the 7th down 5-0 looked pretty hopeless. But on the back of two ridiculous innings, a 4-run 7th (which included a McKenry HR), and an insane 6 run 8th (which included another McKenry HR to tie and Marte HR that squeaked around the left field foul pole to lake the lead) the Pirates won. This brought the Bucs record to .500 at 6-6, and to do it over the Reds was pretty sweet.
28 April - Pirates 9 Cardinals 0 - Locke is for real? - Up to this point, Jeff Locke just seemed like a stop-gap. He started the season with a few rough outings, but righted the ship in his 4th start which happened to be in Philly. This start, going up against Cards phenom Shelby Miller, seemed like it would put Locke back in his place. But no, Jeff went a fantastic 7 innings giving up no runs, 3 hits and 2 walks. The Bucs took the series in Busch stadium on the back of that start and an offensive outbreak. This put the Bucs record at 15-10. The Pirates would go to the house of horrors (Miller Park) and lose the next two games, rounding out their April at a respectable 15-12.
Of note, is that the next two series are where the pirates hit their first rough patch, dropping back to back series @Milwaukee and vs. Washington, going 2-4.
11 May - Pirates 11 Mets 2 - Liriano is here - Liriano was a wild card. He hurt himself over the offseason, he hadn't really shown up the past few seasons, but he certainly had the tools. While this start didn't confirm anything long term, it at least showed that Liriano still had the ability to be a force in the Pirates rotation. Plus the offensive showing was nice to see.
14 May - Brewers 3 Pirates 4 - We're not afraid, we have an army - A walk-off homer by your star in the 12th inning was amazing on its own. But this game really showcased the incredible bullpen the Bucs were working with, and that was really the only reason the Pirates came away with the win here. Anytime you get 6 shutout innings (Morris (2 IP), Grilli (IP), Melancon (IP), Mazzaro (2 IP)) you're thrilled, but Clint Hurdle had previously stated that he would only use Melancon and Grilli in SV opps, and to see him adjust to the situation here and pull out a W has particularly heartening.
17 May - Astros 4 Pirates 5 - You're gonna miss us - The Astros gift-wrapped a victory for the Bucs on a dropped popup. The end result wasn't as amazing as how it happened. Just a jaw-dropping ending to a game.
22 May - Cubs 0 Pirates 1 - Liriano is actually here - The Pirates offense had never been a powerhouse, but they we're struggling pretty bad here. To pull out a win over Pirate-killer Jeff Simardzija on the back of a stellar Liriano start was a great thing to see.
28 May & 30 May - Pirates 1 Tigers 0 F/11 - Bullpen strikes again... twice - a pair of unbelieveble 1-0 victories over a very good Tigers team leads the Pirates to a series victory. These games we're startlingly similar, as the bullpen did some ridiculously heavy lifting to turn what could've easily been a series loss into a series win.
2 June - Reds 4 Pirates 5 - Treading water - The Pirates offense was hitting its nadir here, and I remember listening to the end of this game waiting in the airport, and thinking that the Bucs would be swept. But on the back of a dramatic hit by Travis Snider, they pulled it out.
4 June - Pirates 4 Braves 5 F/10 - Melancon is human - Melancon was nearly perfect going into this game, but showed his humanity by giving up the game winning run in the bottom of the 10th. The Pirates would get swept during this series in Atlanta, and this would've been a golden opportunity to strike against another formidable oppenent.
11 June - Giants 2 Pirates 8 - Welcome to the show, Gerrit Cole - This game kind of signalled that the Pirates we're here in 2013. Gerrit Cole made an electric start in his MLB Debut in front of a packed crowd. And his 2 RBI single to take the lead was a mind-melting cherry on top of the whole thing (seriously, I fell out of my chair). Seeing him light up the gun and take it to the defending WS champs was crazy fun, and, if you're into narratives, said that, you know what, these Pirates are different, and they're here now.
Who are you? Where am I?
Better late than never, right?
The purpose of this blog is to catalogue my thoughts on how the Pirates are doing. I'm gonna add a little blurb at the end of each series for the rest of the season. I have a feeling this'll be a special year for the bucs (cross your fingers!), and I want to be able to look back a bit.
The purpose of this blog is to catalogue my thoughts on how the Pirates are doing. I'm gonna add a little blurb at the end of each series for the rest of the season. I have a feeling this'll be a special year for the bucs (cross your fingers!), and I want to be able to look back a bit.
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