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.