First the games. The great thing about this series was that each of these games was very different, they all had there own little feel to them. In fact I gave them all names!
1. Statement Game
2. Classic Game
3. Dominance Game
4. Regression Game
5. What Game?
29 July - Cardinals 2 Pirates 9 - "Statement Game." The Pirates returned back from their long road trip to host an even longer homestand (their first homestand since the All-Star Break) to face the team they were looking up at in the division. The question remained, how would the Bucs hold up against one of the best teams in the majors? Would they be struggling to hang on? I mean, they just dropped a series to the Marlins. Or would they stand tall at home? How would their offense fare against an extremely talented pitching staff?
This was the statement game because, while it obviously didn't decide anything, it was a signal that these Pirates damn well could hold their own against the best of the best. It was a big series, a big opponent, and a big spot, and the Pirates came through with flying colors. Also, for the Pirates to jump out ahead to a 4 run lead in the 1st the way they did, on an Alvarez 3 run bomb, that was cool. And it mirrored the 4 run lead they lost in the rain out against the Cards earlier this season that caused this to become a 5 game series, which was a neat coincidence.
Liriano was brilliant. Which is becoming the norm for him. He's only had a tiny hiccup or two and overall he's been excellent this year, far surpassing all expectations I had for him. Tonight his line was 7 IP 1 ER 4 H 2 BB 8 Ks.
And just when it looked like the Cards might start to creep back into it, the Cards run in the 6th was blown out of the water by a 5 run Bucco 7th. And they did it with all the things they were struggling with in recent months! There was a sacrifice fly (the broadcasts loved to mention how we haven't had a SF since June or whatever, and apparently that SF was to an infielder in foul ground, so they liked to mention that the last SF to an outfielder was in late May - sure a sacrifice fly is a fine way to score a run, but it did not need to be mentioned as often as it was - so thank you Gaby Sanchez for ending that), there were hits with runners in scoring position and 2 outs (another stat that gets quoted a bit too much for my liking - I mean, I don't mind it as a general fact being mentioned, but it was used to imply that the Pirates were a weak hitting offense in the "clutch", when a much more reasonable conclusion from that fact is that the Pirates bats would probably regress up in those situations).
It was great to see because all this stuff that was talked about so much never happening for the Bucs suddenly happened all at once.
Victor Black came in in the 9th to finish the job. He gave up a run but sealed the deal. Being a young pitcher on the mound in that atmosphere - the game really felt like a playoff game the way the fans and the players were in to it - must have been pretty cool for Vic.
And that was just game 1. There's a double header tomorrow, don't cha know?
30 July Game 1 - Cardinals 1 Pirates 2 - "Classic Game." Of the 4 Bucco wins this series I have to say this one was my favorite. It was a classic old fashioned pitcher's duel between A.J. Burnett and Lance Lynn, and later, the bullpens. In my 5 years of Pirates fandom this is how I've gotten accustomed to Pirate wins. Tough, grind-it-out, low scoring affairs that are decided late. That's why this is the classic game. This is the game that most represents my favorite memories watching the Pirates.
Burnett pitched great, 7 IP 1 ER 3 H 3 BB 9 Ks. Lynn pitched similarly great, 6 IP 1 ER 3 H 2 BB 7 Ks. There were a couple weird things in here that made this a bit of an unusual and special duel.
First things first. In the 1st inning, McCutchen decided to be superman. With 2 outs Burnett was trying to work out of a 1st and 2nd base jam, Carlos Beltran tatooed a ball to center-right-center. McCutchen had to fly to get to this ball, and pulled off a great diving catch, followed by the astute awareness to get up and throw the ball to first base, doubling up Matt Holliday.
In the bottom half, Cutch stepped up with 2 out and no one on and hit a hard double to left. Alvarez came up next and promptly hit a double to right. A quick 1-0 lead, in big part thanks to our best player.
The Pirates would not score for ten more innings.
The top of the 3rd got a little weird with St. Louis's worst hitting position player doubling to lead off the inning. Lynn was up, and everyone knew to expect a bunt. Lynn bunted it firmly to the third base side of the mound. It was clearly with in Burnett's reach, but he took an odd route around it, almost as if he expected Alvarez to charge in and get it. But Pedro wasn't there, as he was covering 3rd. So now instead of a runner on 3rd and 1 out, we were facing a runners on the corners no out situation.
Matt Carpenter, who is having an exceptional year, walked to load the bases. Then Burnett managed a strike out, a ground out scoring a run, and then a line out to retire Beltran ending the inning. Pretty tough stuff there.
The Pirates got a knock here and there and a couple walks but couldn't much more against Lynn. Then the top of the 6th happened.
The wildness that was the top of the 6th in this game will not show up in the box score. Here's what happened. John Jay led off the inning, and with an 0-2 count he swung and missed at a big sweeping curve that ended up bouncing off his back foot. The ball bounced away toward the 3rd base dugout and Jay started running to first.
Now the correct ruling there is a strike and a dead ball since Jay was hit by the pitch he missed. But the umpire, I assume, didn't see the ball bounce off Jay's foot and assumed the ball hit the ground and got away from Martin.
While Jay was trotting to first, Martin started to argue with Home Plate Umpire Eric Cooper even though, according to the umpire anyway, the ball was still in play! Jay alertly turned toward second and made it in easily, beating a late throw by Martin, which was only late because he was Chuck Knoblauching with the umpire.
The call was wrong, but it stood. Runner on 2nd, nobody out. Cards heart of the lineup (2-3-4, Holliday-Beltran-Adams) coming up.
On the very next pitch, a fastball near the low-away corner, Cooper called a ball, and Burnett, frustrated and justifiably so, raised his arms to question to call.
Well, to say Cooper took exception to that would be an understatement, since he immediately got up out of his umpire stance and started pointing and marching toward the mound, yelling. Martin pressed his glove against the umpire to separate the two. Burnett barked back.
Somehow, and I'm not quite sure how, nobody was ejected there.
One of the greatest pleasures as a Pirate fan these last couple years has been to watch Burnett mow people down when he's angry. Burnett just looks mean normally, but when he's actually angry, he's practically frothing. And somehow, he still pitches well like that! It's like he has an angry super power that gets unleashed occasionally.
Super-Bunett appears and he means business. After one more ball, Burnett goes, strike, strike, strike, and Holliday is out.
Beltran flies out. And on an 0-2 pitch Adams hits a bouncer that Burnett knocks down by swinging his left arm back around his body. He throws to first to end the inning.
Crazy, crazy stuff.
Burnett would come out after 7 innings, and the bullpen kept the score even. Again, a classic kind of Pirate game with the bullpen holding it down until maybe, just maybe the Bucs can squeak across a run.
And squeak they did. In the 11th, with young Kevin Siegrist pitching, Alex Presley came up to the plate after 2 straight walks and hit a ball, startlingly similar to the ball Adams hit, into the ground and bouncing off Siegrist's glove. Only instead of dropping down in front of the pitcher like it did with Burnett, it bounded to the 3rd base side, squeaking through the 5.5 hole.
Martin came around to score. Incredible game. I need a nap.
Oh man, there's another game in 30 minutes!
30 July Game 2 - Cardinals 0 Pirates 6 - "Dominance Game." I wasn't able to watch most of this game live, but it was a solid and certain victory. Brandon Cumpton exceeded all expectations by pitching 7 scoreless innings.
This was the dominant game because unlike the statement game where we did all the things we weren't supposed to be doing, here we seemed to beat our chest a bit. Shut out the opponent, and do so confidently and brashly.
For me, watching the hightlights and replays, the moment of this game was McCutchen's 2 run HR to left, which bounded off of Holliday's wrist on its way into the stands. I think the ball was going out anyway, but Holliday missed his chance to grab it, and the crowd was on his back the rest of the night, screaming "HOLL-I-DAY" at him when he batted.
And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention this gif. Besides being hilarious (he didn't even try to go after the ball, he just wanted to out-bro Holliday), it sort of represented how Bucco fans felt then. It was like, look, we are the only team who has never won this division, but that doesn't mean we can't be as cocky as any of you other guys.
Also of note, the 6th run of this night's game was scored on Tony Sanchez's sacrifice fly, extending the Pirates no-sacrifice-flies-by-a-player-not-name-Sanchez streak to a jillion games.
31 July - Cardinals 4 Pirates 5 - "Regression Game." This was the most exhausting game to watch/listen to. It was slow, there were tons of hits.
The Cardinals came into this game with an extremely low BABIP on the series. Locke came into this game with an extremely low BABIP on the season.
Regression bit hard in this one. The Cards tagged Locke for 10 hits and a walk and knocked him out after only 4 innings. He gave up 4 runs. Though he did K 6 batters. Honestly, I don't think Locke was particularly bad, a bit worse than usual, but I'd say the vast majority of this start was due to the fact that none of the batted balls were turning into outs for Locke - the error in there certainly didn't help and the balls were leaking through. Sometimes you just have one of those nights. Locke's been rolling dice all season, and I think he's good enough to bias toward 5's and 6's, but tonight he just got slammed with a bunch of snake eyes. It happens.
On the other side, the Pirates were nickeling and diming Adam Wainwright all night. A run here, a run there. Waino managed to escape the 7th having given up 4 runs. The teams were trading 1-spots all night. But it was great to see the Bucs claw their way back from a 4-2 deficit to tie it at 4.
Hard throwing Trevor Rosenthal was brought in to pitch the bottom of the 8th. Walker led off with a single. Cutch flew out.
Then with 1 out Pedro hit a deep fly ball to left. Holliday faded back to make the catch, but the ball was so deep that Walker was able to tag up and advance to 2nd base.
On a 0-1 pitch, Russell Martin hit a sharp grounder to the left of 2nd base. Walker skipped past the ball and dashed home to score the fifth Pirate run.
In the 9th, Mark Melancon did that Melancon thing he does when he pitches a 1-2-3 inning. I like when he does that.
Fuck you, regression. 4 straight wins.
1 August - Cardinals 13 Pirates 0 - "What Game?" I don't remember what happened in this game. I don't think anyone does.
It was a bad night obviously, but who cares if we lost 1-0, 13-0, or 26-0. A loss is a loss. We took 4 of 5 from highest-esteemed team in the National League. That's something to write home about.
I know this post is already the War and Peace of GOXN blog posts, but I want to say a few things about the trade deadline and the upcoming month.
The 31st of July was the trade deadline. Now, the Pirates could still get an addition through waivers after that day, but it's not the easiest thing to do. I would've really liked to have seen the Pirates add a bat. I would've been very happy with a Hunter Pence or a Nate Schierholtz. I wasn't as high on Alex Rios, who was spoken about a lot and never ended up going anywhere, but I admit he would've probably been a fine addition as well.
This Pirates team is in a fantastic position, it would've been fantastic to cement one of our most glaring weaknesses, the fact that we don't have a reliable bat in right field (or at first base, really).
I feel like this is a missed opportunity. I know Neal Huntington and the Pirates tried to make some moves, they definitely inquired about Giancarlo Stanton (who would've rightfully required a king's ransom to get - and apparently Jeffrey Loria wouldn't even take that, since he turned down every offer) and Mark Trumbo (another great bat, but would've been expensive as well).
My personal feelings are that the Bucs tried to make the big Blockbuster deal, but the other teams wanted too much, and all the deals fell through. I feel they could've gone after some good bats without breaking the bank, and still come out with a decent upgrade. And I'm not talking Derrick Lee/Ryan Ludwick marginal upgrade like they've done in the past (although, to be fair, those players did actually perform okay once they joined the Bucs, but they weren't really that different than the players we had at the time), I'm talking like 4 or 5 WAR/season difference between what we're getting at a certain position and what we could be getting. Schierholtz in RF would've done that. Oh well.
I obviously don't know what the trade talks were like - I wasn't there. As a bystander though, I came out of the deadline disappointed.
Finally, a word about August.
Here is an artists depiction of what the Pirate's record looked like last August:
Basically the Pirates were struggling a long, losing a few games here and there and nothing crazy for the first week or two. Then they won a marathon 19-inning game (not to be confused with the Jerry Meals disaster in Atlanta from 2011 that also ended in 19 inning), and followed it up by losing pretty much everything afterward. Some of it was regression, some of it was fatigue. A lot of it was terrible, terrible luck.
Why mention this? Well a couple reasons: 1) It's August now. The season is approximately 2/3 done. This may be a better team than last year and this team may be in a better position than last year at the same time. But it's not over. I've seen collapses of teams I love, and the team that collapsed didn't look all that different than the one right now. I'm not saying this 2013 Pirate team will collapse. What I am saying is that being in first place and winning game after game in late July/early August like you're the '27 Yankees is no guarantee of a playoff spot or a 0.500 record.
So when you hear commentators or sports anchors say, the Pirates are definitely making the playoffs. Don't believe them. Cause they might be right, but they're not definitely right.
Stay strong Buccos. The hardest part is not yet over. It's along season. And we're gonna have to make it through August to make this season famous instead of infamous.
Your 1st place Pirates, ladies and gentleman. Cherish it, but don't take anything for granted.
Let's go Bucs!
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