5-gamer at home vs. the Cards (a.k.a. The Biggest Series in Pirates History™)

Wow, what a ride that series was. There's a lot of stuff surrounding this series that I want to talk about, including the games themselves, the trade deadline, and the dreaded month of August.

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!

Man... I'm behind. Quick jump to the present

3 series I haven't properly posted. There were a few interesting games in there, I think I'll just focus on those and give the general feeling as we enter our big series with the Cards.

Lost 2 of 3 in Cincy. Lost the first two games, the second in heart breaking fashion (not just the 9th, but the whole game was heartbreaking). Salvaged the 3rd game thanks to a nice start from Locke coming back from his back injury which kept him from pitching in the All-Star game.

Landmark game: 20 July - Pirates 4 Reds 5

Won 3 of 4 in D.C. Morton pitched OK, we won 6-5 (and Grilli got hurt and eventually went to the DL - good win, but a costly one, hopefully we can manage until he's back - thank god for Mr. Melancon). Next day Cole pitched amazing, we won 5-1. Then Liriano pitched even more amazing, we won 4-2.

Then probably the most topsy-turvy crazy insane game happened. There were errors, ejections, a crazy comeback by the Bucs, but in the end it was an L thanks to a Bryce Harper walk-off HR.

Landmark game: 25 July - Pirates 7 Nationals 9

Lost 2 of 3 in Miami. I know Miami's been playing better of late and by all reasonable measures I should be more mad about the Cincy series but this series really grated. Lost the first game due to a missing offense with no excuses. Won the second. Then lost the third after an offensive outburst followed by offensive silence (which is a bit more excusable than the 1st game because in this one the very talented 20-year old phenom Jose Fernandez started opposite Cole, but still). The only consolation I take from this series is that while the Bucs lost 2 of 3 to the Fish, the Cards were being swept by the Braves, and the Reds lost 3 of 4 to the red hot Dodgers. No harm no foul I guess, but a nice little opportunity missed.

Coming out of the break the Pirates went 5-5 on their 10 game road trip. At that level, absolutely nothing to complain about. The Pirates' job right now is to stay competitive in the division, and playing 0.500 ball on the road is a great step toward that.

Now if the Pirates really want to make some strides toward a division title, well that's gonna take a bit more. Like winning more than they lose against the Cards and Reds the rest of the way.

Welcome to PNC, STL. We're 1.5 games back, and we're waiting for ya.

The horror... the horror - 20 July 2013

Normally I'd wait until the end of the series to post, but damn. I need to get this off my chest.

That was one of the most horrificly terrible endings to a baseball game I've ever heard. Thank god, I was only listening on the radio. If I were watching I'd probably want to gouge my ears and eyes out.

Things were going wrong right and left all night. But never mind that, we can talk about the rest of the game tomorrow. All I want to talk about is the last 3 at bats of the game.

Here's the situation: Top of the 9th. Down by 1 run. Runners at 1st and 3rd. None out.

Russell Martin is up. He's been struggling mightily lately, but there's almost nothing he could do to fail to get the run in from 3rd. The Reds had their middle infield playing back. So pretty much any ground ball scores a run, even if it were a double play. Just have to avoid a strike out or popup.

1-1 pitch. Pop out to the second baseman. Grrr. That's frustrating. Would've loved to see him draw a deeper count in that situation too. But we still have two more cracks at this baby. Runner on 3rd and 1 out is still very good.

Here's the problem though. Jones is up. Jones has not been great for us this year. And he's facing a fellow lefty, Chapman. Harrison (ugh) and Snider (erm) both alrerady entered the game off the bench. This leaves us with three choices:

1) Leave in Jones.

2) Sub in McKenry.

3) Sub in Inge.

Jones has been miserable in his few at bats against lefties this year. 17 plate appearances. 1 hit. 9 strikeouts.

McKenry has been bad against lefties too even though he's a righty. I guess that's the price you pay as a backup catcher, fewer at bats to get in a groove, and as a result many fewer opportunities against lefties.
27 plate appearances. 4 hits (including a double). 6 strikeouts. 1 walk. 0.377 OPS (you read that right, that's his OPS against lefties this year).

Inge. Oh god Inge. Inge is not the guy you want up in this situation. But his numbers are actually the best (?!) of your options against lefties. This year: 36 plate appearances. 6 hits (including a double and a home run). 12 strikeouts. 0.457 OPS.

Not a lot to work with there as a manager.

Hurdle opts for McKenry, which is... fine. Given the other options, I don't know if it matters.

McKenry falls behind 1-2. Fouls off a pitch. Then he strikes out.

This makes everyone very unhappy.

Now our odds of winning this game have dropped dramatically. Needing a hit (or an error, or a couple walks, or something even more unlikely) to tie the game.

Mercer, who's had a good night, and an okay but not so great past couple weeks, is up.

Mercer strikes out. Chapman gets the save. The Reds win.

Chapman's a good pitcher. The Reds are a good team. This is in Cincy. This is only one game of 162. I get all that.

But what just transpired can't happen. I'm leaving the analysis for another time.

Taking 2 of 3 from the Mets

And just like that we're heading into the All-Star Break. Representing the Bucs are 2 hitters: Pedro Alvarez and Andrew McCutchen and 3 pitchers: Jeff Lock, Mark Melancon, and Jason Grilli.

Mets 2 Pirates 3 F/11 - There was some trepidation about Morton starting this game. He was shaky his last time out against a bad Cubs team. I credited that mostly due to bad luck and thought he might do better next time around. I mean the Mets are not powerhouses either, right?

Morton went 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 K's. Good enough to keep the Pirates in the game for sure. Melancon, Grilli, Watson, Morris, and Mazzaro combined for 4 innings of shutout ball to keep the game tied at 2 through the 11th.

After two walks, one intentional, one unintentional, Mercer singled in Cutch to win the game. One of the more exciting games of the past couple weeks for sure.

One more thing, Pedro homered. Kinda nice retribution for not being picked by David Wright dontchthink?

Mets 2 Pirates 4 -  Burnett didn't pitch great, giving up 11 combined Hs and BBs. But he did record 8 Ks and kept the Bucs in the game, which is all you can ask for really.

Cutch was the offensive star of this one, which is great to see, because although he has been very good this year, we haven't seen "Cutch levels" of production thus far, and thus when nights like this become more frequent, you gotta be thinking that he's gonna explode sometime soon.

I don't believe in "momentum" when it comes to players and teams. However I do believe in the streakiness of hitting (or any other kind of probability - if you flip a coin that has a 3 in 10 chance of coming up heads, flip it long enough you're gonna get a significant streak of heads) and also in the psychology behind "seeing the ball well" and "feeling good" as a hitter. Sometimes things are just clicking as a hitter for whatever reason (could be that you're totally healthy, that the sun is in just the right place, that you've gotten a nice new pair of batting gloves, whatever, it doesn't matter).

The point is production tends to bunch up, and it's exciting to see if this is when it actually begins.

Cutch went 2-4, including a HR and an RBI single which gave the Bucs a 3-2 lead in the 7th.

Grilli held on and closed the door for the save.

Mets 4 Pirates 2 -  Too bad we didn't sweep this one, would've been nice going into the break and a bit of a make up for the recent shortcomings. But with this loss the Bucs enter the break having lost 6 of their last 10. The Pirates are 1 game back of the Cards in the Central.

About the game: Cole gave up 3 runs in the 1st but settled down enough to make it through 5 innings. Cole showed improvement last start but this was a step back. Nice to see him show that poise and hang in there though.

Cole took the first loss of his career as the Bucs weren't able to mount much offensively again. This time being held to a run by the likes of starter Dillon Gee.

The Pirates are 56-37. That's over 60%. This is pretty much the best case scenario for our record at the break if you asked me at the beginning of the year.

Keep it up Bucs.

At Cubs and Vs A's - Losing 4 of 6 (and 4 straight)

Damn. Rough couple of series there. Anytime the Bucs lose a few in a row the tension among Bucco nations builds quite a bit. I suppose it won't stop being that way until they actually make the playoffs.

5 July - Pirates 6 Cubs 2 - You know that high ceiling that we all talked about when Liriano was acquired. Well, this wasn't quite it, but this was pretty damn close.

Liriano threw the first Pirate CG of the year. 9 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 7 K's. Liriano threw 111 pitches in this one, and man is it nice to have a pitcher like this in your rotation.

Jeff Samardzija doesn't seem to scare the Pirates (or more accurately, the Pirate fans) anymore, he was touched up for 5 runs in in 6 IP in what I believe is his 3rd start of the year against the Pirates (and we'll probably see him at least once more before the season is out).

6 July - Pirates 1 Cubs 4 - Man, this game was a frustrating one. Facing Edwin Jackson who, though he does have the ability to throw the occasional gem now and then, has been pretty bad this year.

The Pirates just could not get to him. Missed opportunity after missed opportunity. As we will see, ineptitude with runners in scoring position will become a theme.

Right off the bat in the top of the 1st, Marte singled, stole a base, then advanced on a wild pitch to make it to 2rd base with one out. McCutchen and Jones, 2 of our 3 main RBI guys, were unable to get him home.

I went back and counted and the Pirates had a runner in scoring position in 5 different innings this game and failed to get that runner in all 5 times.

Morton didn't pitch great. He gave up two two-run HRs to Alfonso Soriano that pretty much sealed the deal given the Pirates offensive woes. I think he got a tad unlucky in this one but overall it was just one of those games where nothing much went right.

7 July - Pirates 3 Cubs 4 F/11 - God damnit I really wanted this game. I started watching in the 10th, after Marte's 9th inning solo HR to tie the game.

This was A.J. Burnett's first start coming back from the DL, and the Pirates were quite happy to have him back. I mean, Cumpton was fine but Burnett is better. Way better. It would've been great to get a win in his return but it was not to be.

The Pirates could not get anything going offensively in extras, as they only were able to get one baserunner when Jones reached on Darwin Barney's error which led off the 10th.

This game was a heartbreaker because you really wanted to see the Pirates com back and take a series against a not-so-great Cubs team after dropping a tough series to the Phillies at home. Oh well.

8 July - Athletics 2 Pirates 1 - The Pirates coughed up another loss here, wasting a very good outing from Jeff Locke, who turned in a solid 7 Innings: 2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 4 K's. I almost never pay attention to Pitcher Wins and Losses (and this is hard to do considering these stats are shown everywhere), but this was Locke's first loss in 17 starts. His only other loss this season game in his first start of the year during that unfortunate away sweep at the Dodgers. If nothing else, this is a testament to Locke's unbelievable consistency so far this year.

I've been a little tough on Locke, not from a personal standpoint though since I fucking love the guy - I rooted my head off for him this year when he started in Seattle against the M's. But from a statistical standpoint I've been very skeptical of him and his exceedingly low BABIP allowed.

Both he and Jeanmar Gomez have been great surprises this year, and I've heretofore posited that the vast majority of their success has been due to some fortunate aberrations in their favor on balls in play.

Basically, I've been thinking they're lucky.

Here's the thing about Locke though, the more I've watched him, the more I've been thinking that he has knack for inducing weak contact, which would explain how he's able to keep him BABIP down for longer that you'd originally think. He uses his Fastball-Curve-Change very intelligently (which may be a nod to the Pirates' catchers' nice pitch calling) and hitters just can't seem to hit the ball well off him.

Now this so far has been anecdotal evidence and a quick glance at his peripheral numbers still do not paint a pretty picture. 3.82 FIP, 4.26 xFIP, 4.56 SIERA (this number is especially scary). I still think he will regress substantially, but what he has shown me over this incredible run of his is that there is quite a bit of real skill backing up his current numbers. I've seen it with my own eyes, both in person and on TV. He just does not give hitters much to work with.

How much of that will change when the coin flips start biasing more against him? That remains to be seen. But my prediction is that while he will regress quite a bit, I think his skill will prevent him from crashing and burning like the advanced metrics predict. I see him ending the year with an ERA around 2.90 - which is still fantastic.

I would like to avoid prophecizing (is that a word?) further at this time, and I think I want to so a more in depth analysis of his performance another time. Maybe I'll find some time to do some research during the All-Star break. By the way, Locke will join his fellow Pirates Grilli, Alvarez, and McCutchen at Shea Stadium Citi Field for the 2013 All-Star game. Pretty special, seeing as he was a complete unknown coming into this year.

Oh yeah, I was talking about a game, right? Sorry.

Long story short the Pirates couldn't do much against Bartolo Colon and took another loss.

9 July - Athletics 2 Pirates 1 - A similar storyline to yesterday and another 2-1 loss. This makes 3 straight one-run losses and 4 straight losses total. You could feel the panic during this game.

Crazily enough, Cole pitched well. In fact, this could have been Cole's best start of his young career. 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 K's. The only runs he gave up were on a Brandon Moss 2-run HR in the 4th. It was the first time Cole made it through 7 innings, and the most heartening thing about this game was that Cole bucked an unfortunate trend where he would pitch pretty well for most of the game, but then lose a bit of gas at the end and get taken out with a few runners on base. Instead, he induced a fly out-fly out-ground out 3 up 3 down top of the 7th to round out his night. This Oakland team is 12th in OPS in the MLB so far this year at .721, so certainly a formidable opponent. All in all, a good night for Cole.

And he took the loss (I told you W-L doesn't mean anything!). Straily pitched 6 1/3 innings and only gave up one run, a solo HR to Pedro Alvarez.

This sucks.

One run games are like coin flips in some ways, which is a big reason why a lot of people thought the Orioles' crazy run last year was all luck. Well, you're seeing what regressions look like here, folks. Those 1-0 and 2-1 victories that the Pirates were riding to the top of the MLB a week or two ago? Yeah, it's just as easy to lose those games.

Man, we need some offense, quick.

10 July - Athletics 0 Pirates 5 - Now the main reason this is a two series post instead of the usual one series post is that I was just too busy to do the write-up after the Cubs series. I made sure to keep track of my thoughts through these games though to keep these write-ups more of an immediate reaction rather than a delayed retrospective. This post probably has a bit more retrospective than most, but I believe that failing is vindicated a bit, as I get to bookend this post with dominant Liriano starts.

Fuck, you know I've been talking about luck quite a bit. But this is a different kind of luck, that Liriano was able to grasp some of that vintage Liriano magic just as he joined the Pirates.

7 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 6 K's. 90 pitches. Wow.

The other great thing to see was the offense showing back up, as it has been known to do, after going AWOL for a handful of games. The 3 run 3rd inning was awesome. Alvarez went 2-4, McCutchen went 2-3, and Tabata, who's been a nice surprise since he returned from the DL, went 2-5.

We needed that.

Next up are the Mets. Last series before the All-Star break. Pedro Alvarez, who was not originally selected by captain David Wright has joined the NL HR Derby lineup in place of the injured Carlos Gonzalez. Good thing for Wright, because a Pedro-less Derby would mean he was going to get roasted by the Bucco faithful over the weekend.

Besides, Pedro deserves it.

Let's Go Bucs!

Losing 2 of 3 to the Phils at home

This will be a short-ish post. I only caught bits and pieces of this series as I was spending time with my father for the holiday week.

2 July - Phillies 3 Pirates 1 - Cumpton and company were not enough to keep the streak going. It seemed at the start of this series that the streak could continue for at least a few games against a sub .500 team in the Phillies, but injuries have really put a hamper on the Bucs pitching of late, so that brings the probabilities down a bit.

The Pirates had a bases loaded opportunity in the 8th, erased when Mercer struck out against Phils reliever Justin De Fratus.

3 July - Phillies 5 Pirates 6 - Jeff Locke. Jeff Locke. Jeff Locke. Man do I love Jeff Locke. Locke didn't pitch his best this night, giving up 7 hits and 3 walks, and he was unable to get out of the 6th after a couple of singles, but he gave the Bucs a chance by only giving up 3 runs (2 earned).

Pedro hit a 3 run bomb which proved entirely necessary, as Grilli gave up a 2 run shot to Domonic Brown to cut the lead to 1. He recovered from that and finished off the save. Win #52.

4 July - Phillies 6 Pirates 4 - Sucks that the Pirates had to follow up a 9 game streak with a series loss but it happens.

Cole pitched about the same as he has been since he was called up. In fact he gave up the same number of hits and runs as last time, only he gave up 2 fewer walks and got 2 fewer outs.

Cole Hamels was the better Cole today, holding the Pirates to 2 runs over 7 IP.

The Pirates missed their big chance, again in the 8th, this time with Cutch up, runners at the corners and 1 out, down by 3. Cutch grounded into a double play, which halted the rally in its tracks. Earlier in that at-bat Cutch missed a ball middle in and up that he hammers when he's going right. Oh well.

Pirates head to Wrigley hoping to make up for this slight misstep. Here's hoping for at least 2 out of 3 there.

Sweep of the Brewers to end the 1st half

WHAT.

You know, I was thinking in the back of my head coming into this series, "the Bucs are playing pretty well, and the Brewers are lousy right now, they could sweep and get to 9 straight wins." But that would've been crazy, so I refused to indulge myself in that train of thought further.

So much for that.

28 June - Brewers 3 Pirates 10 - So the Pirates bats were on fire throughout most of their west coast swing. That fire was doused a bit by Felix Hernandez, but the Bucs went straight back to smashing mode their next opportunity.

Gerrit Cole started off the game with and extremely rocky top of the first, which included, but was not limited to:

1. A four pitch walk to start the game
2. A hit batter with the bases loaded
3. Four singles

A double play helped him eventually eke his way out, but the whole time you just sat there thinking Oh God, What If Something Is Wrong With Cole.

But Cole pulled himself together, and despite some control issues he managed to navigate through the sixth without allowing anymore runs. Thank god for that.

The other half of the story was the offensplosion that happened in the bottom of the second inning. The Pirates were relentless that inning, put balls into play everywhere, and took advantage of a costly Jean Segura error to plate 7 runs. Man, it musta been nice for Cole to emerge from the dugout in the third up 4 instead of down 3.

Also, poor Johnny Hellweg making his MLB debut there. Talk about getting thrown into the fire. A start on the road against the hottest team in the majors by far, and then to get shoddy defense on top of that. Just unfair.

Ryan Reid closed out the game with 3 scoreless frames to earn an "old school" save. W7

29 June - Brewers 1 Pirates 2 - The Pirates couldn't muster much this game against 27 year old starter Donovan Hand, but the two solo shots by Pedro and Garrett (Pedro's was a monster shot, bounced off a tree into the Allegheny) stood up.

Liriano turned in another Game Score 59 start (why am I only keeping track of this for him??), a respectable mark of consistency from a pitcher who's been anything but consistent for the bulk of his career.

Watson-Melancon-Grilli trio turned in a combined perfect 3 innings to end the game and get the Bucs the victory. W8

29 June - Brewers 1 Pirates 2 F/14 -  Unfortunately, I did not have the pleasure of watching this game, as I was at SafeCo field with my dad, taking in a 7-6 loss by the Mariners to the Cubs (It was 7-1, but the M's made it exciting!). However, due to the fact that the game was delayed and then inhumanely extended to the 14th, I was able to follow the game on my phone as I walked with my dad back home from the ballpark.

Morton was shelved after 2 IP due to the weather, and then the Vin Bizzaro ride continued as he put in FIVE PERFECT RELIEF INNINGS to get the game to the 7th.

The Pirates turned a 1-0 deficit in the 8th into a tie ballgame on a McCutchen single (what was I talking about with the offense outbursts earlier? I'm dumb. There's no such thing as being on "fire." I guess you just can't sustain that kind of hitting, even against the Brewers).

And so the score remained until the 14th (even through a bottom of the 13th 1 out situation in which Pedro GIDPed to the end the inning, much to my smartphone watching chagrin) until Russell Martin (who seems to have this knack for picking good spots to add some offense) hit a grounder up the middle scoring Gaby Sanchez.

It's impossible not to praise the bullpen here. But what is there to say about them that hasn't been said. The Shark Tank is dangerous and there's no two ways about it.

W9

51-30. That's 81 games. Halfway there. As an astute poster on bucsdugout said earlier: "51x2 = ??? No that can't be right. 51+51=??? No that's not right either."

At the moment I'm not troubling myself too much with what the Pirates will be like in September. Some forward thinking is good, but for the most part, as a fan, it's time to enjoy this ride and see how far it can take us.

All I know for sure is that the Pirates have 51 wins by the end of June. And for now that's enough. More than enough.

Welcome to PNC Park, Phillies. Good Luck.