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.
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