9 September - Pirates 1 Rangers 0 - Landmark game. The landmark game.
The craziest part about this game might be that even if it weren't win #82, it would still be one of the best wins of the year.
Young upstart Gerrit Cole out duels AL Cy Young Award contender with the best start of his young career. Byrd and Alvarez hit back to back 2 out doubles in the 7th and give the pen all they would need. Cole strikes out 9.
That right there, alone, is a fantastic game. Edge of your seat, exciting baseball.
And with the winning run at the plate. Mark Melancon induces a soft ground ball to Pittsburgh-native Neil Walker. Ending 20 years of misery.
One of the most poetic wins I have ever witnessed in my entire life.
I don't have a story of long hardship like many Buc fans do. But I do have a story about learning to appreciate baseball. The cruel, cruel game that baseball is, and what it's like to be on the losing end.
I was spoiled as a young baseball fan. As a young Yankee fan, I was disappointed if my team didn't win the world series. In the late 2000s, I started to wonder how long it would take to see the Yankees win another one.
To my mirth, the Yankees won in 2009. The first World Series of my adult life.
There I sat, in my dorm room in Pittsburgh, totally fulfilled. This was what I was waiting for all my teen years.
The next season, I was still a Yankee fan of course. But rooting for them that year didn't have the same appeal to me. I had achieved my goal already in my mind.
Then I looked to the Pirates. My second favorite team, and the team that got me into National League baseball a couple years earlier. Not because they were good. But because they were fun, new, and interesting to me. They were terrible. Nobody liked them. I liked them.
So on opening day 2010, I took my Pirate fandom to the next level. I would be a Bucco fan 1st and a Yankee fan 2nd (don't tell my dad). I started to learn about the farm system, starting with prospect Pedro Alvarez, and I immersed myself in the Pirate lifestyle. I got a pirate team poster that year and hung it over my bed.
Later that month, the Pirates sent me a message: "You've made a huge mistake."
The Pirates lost 20-0 to the Brewers that day. Their record was 7-8.
They would have 105 losses that year.
Even still, the wins I did get to see were sweet. Hard fought, low scoring affairs. Games immersed with intense strategy and late inning heroics. These were the kinds of games that kept me coming back and wanting more.
I also wanted to see the Pirates win a game in person. That happened for the first time in May 2011. A game against the Astros. It was hat day. I went with my friends. We all wore our hats.
2011 gave me hope and then took it away. 2012 gave me more hope, and then took it away harshly.
2013 isn't over yet. But if the Pirates can win 82 games, if the one constant result in all my years of baseball fandom (est. 1995) no longer holds, then anything can happen.
Being a Pirate fan has given me such an interesting perspective on baseball and life, I owe them the world.
And though I don't share the lineage and therefore the elation that many Pirate fans feel tonight, I do feel wistful and happy because of the journey that Pirate fandom has taken me through.
History was made tonight, boys. And the best is yet to come.
I'm so excited for Pirate postseason baseball I think my head might fall off. Being a die-hard baseball fan has done this to me, and it feels amazing.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Monday, September 9, 2013
Pirates get Swept out of St. Louis
I guess they wouldn't be the Pirates if they didn't make us work for #82.
The most depressing series I've had the (dis)pleasure of taking in in a while. I made a special effort to watch all three games in full because I wanted to take in the beauty of the eighty-second win entirely if it was going to happen during the weekend, but it still hasn't happened. And things don't get any easier in Arlington.
A run down of the games:
6 September - Pirates 8 Cardinals 12 - The Pirate starters did not have a good weekend in St. Louie, with the Saturday starter Jeff Locke oddly having the best of the three starts.
On Friday, Burnett got knocked out after 3 innings, being constantly assaulted by doubles. The Cards drew first blood in the 1st on a Carlos Beltran single to center, which caught McCutchen awkwardly in between and bounced past him, allowing two runs to score and Beltran to advance to 2nd.
At the end of the third, the Cards were up 5-0. Kris Johnson quelled the flames a bit with 2 fine scoreless innings (he should have been left in longer, for sure).
A 5th inning Alvarez single made it 5-1, but then a ridiculous parade of crooked numbers followed starting in the 7th.
Jared Hughes continued his 2nd inning of relief but gave up a double, a bunt single, and an RBI double before leaving in favor of Bryan Morris. Morris gave up a single, double, single, then a homer. He was removed before recording an out. Mazzaro was brought in to stop the profusive bleeding; he gave up two more singles before the first out of the inning was recorded, a fly out by Daniel Descalso.
Nine consecutive hits for the Cardinals.
The score was now 12-1.
I turned the game off before the inning finished, and when I looked at the final score later that night, I was immensely surprised to see the Bucs made it to within 4. Granted, the Bucs' big innings were off the now ineffective John Axford and the now innefective Jake Westbrook. But still, it's something, a bit nice to see that it wasn't a blowout, though it wasn't exactly comforting.
7 September - Pirates 0 Cardinals 5 - Pretty sad to say this but this was the most enjoyable game to watch of the series. Yes, the Pirates got shut out. But it was against Wainwright, so offensive struggles were expected. What made it (a bit) fun to watch was to see how Jeff Locke would do. And though his final line wasn't stellar, 5 IP 3 R 2 ER 3 H 4 BB 4 Ks, it was a return to serviceability for him against a great lineup, and I also think he pitched better than his results showed.
For one thing, he navigated around a nasty error by the normally sure-handed Clint Barmes, and another, he was getting squeezed a lot all night, mostly on the right side of the plate. Locke was trying to place his fastball on the inside corner to righties, but Larry Vanover was just not giving him that strike.
This led to some talking back by Russell Martin (a bit of turning of the head, some words) and also Neil Walker when he came up to the plate in the bottom half (he got called for a strike on a borderline call that he felt Locke wasn’t getting).
Overall, a step in the right direction for Jeff Locke. The rest did him at least some good, and I'm hoping that he has some quality starts left in his bag for the year.
In the 4th inning the Bucs got “in business” with a double and a walk, but Marlon Byrd promptly grounded into a double play and with Cutch at third now Alvarez struck out swinging on Wainright’s tough curve. That was pretty much it for the offense that night. Pretty disappointing.
8 September - Pirates 2 Cardinals 9 - Morton got rocked as he has before against the Cardinals. Stolmy Pimentel was sub-par in relief. The offense could do nothing against Michael Wacha. That's pretty much all there is to know about this one.
A very disappointing and depressing series. It was a key one, since now the Cards are off to feast against sub .500 teams and we're gonna be battling the Rangers and Reds along with a couple favorable matchups of our own. There was also the fact that the Pirates looked totally lost, making very few threats at all that was particularly disheartening. I'm willing to chalk it up as a bad weekend against a good opponent, but the thing is at this point in the season you can't afford those kind of weekends. The Pirates are now just a couple bad games away from having their division hopes hang by a thread. They've completely eaten up their lead, and more.
The division race is of course still far from over, but now 1.5 games back of 1st and only a half-game up on the Reds, the Pirates have made it way harder on themselves to win the NL Central.
Ain't no rest for the wicked. On to Arlington.
The most depressing series I've had the (dis)pleasure of taking in in a while. I made a special effort to watch all three games in full because I wanted to take in the beauty of the eighty-second win entirely if it was going to happen during the weekend, but it still hasn't happened. And things don't get any easier in Arlington.
A run down of the games:
6 September - Pirates 8 Cardinals 12 - The Pirate starters did not have a good weekend in St. Louie, with the Saturday starter Jeff Locke oddly having the best of the three starts.
On Friday, Burnett got knocked out after 3 innings, being constantly assaulted by doubles. The Cards drew first blood in the 1st on a Carlos Beltran single to center, which caught McCutchen awkwardly in between and bounced past him, allowing two runs to score and Beltran to advance to 2nd.
At the end of the third, the Cards were up 5-0. Kris Johnson quelled the flames a bit with 2 fine scoreless innings (he should have been left in longer, for sure).
A 5th inning Alvarez single made it 5-1, but then a ridiculous parade of crooked numbers followed starting in the 7th.
Jared Hughes continued his 2nd inning of relief but gave up a double, a bunt single, and an RBI double before leaving in favor of Bryan Morris. Morris gave up a single, double, single, then a homer. He was removed before recording an out. Mazzaro was brought in to stop the profusive bleeding; he gave up two more singles before the first out of the inning was recorded, a fly out by Daniel Descalso.
Nine consecutive hits for the Cardinals.
The score was now 12-1.
I turned the game off before the inning finished, and when I looked at the final score later that night, I was immensely surprised to see the Bucs made it to within 4. Granted, the Bucs' big innings were off the now ineffective John Axford and the now innefective Jake Westbrook. But still, it's something, a bit nice to see that it wasn't a blowout, though it wasn't exactly comforting.
7 September - Pirates 0 Cardinals 5 - Pretty sad to say this but this was the most enjoyable game to watch of the series. Yes, the Pirates got shut out. But it was against Wainwright, so offensive struggles were expected. What made it (a bit) fun to watch was to see how Jeff Locke would do. And though his final line wasn't stellar, 5 IP 3 R 2 ER 3 H 4 BB 4 Ks, it was a return to serviceability for him against a great lineup, and I also think he pitched better than his results showed.
For one thing, he navigated around a nasty error by the normally sure-handed Clint Barmes, and another, he was getting squeezed a lot all night, mostly on the right side of the plate. Locke was trying to place his fastball on the inside corner to righties, but Larry Vanover was just not giving him that strike.
This led to some talking back by Russell Martin (a bit of turning of the head, some words) and also Neil Walker when he came up to the plate in the bottom half (he got called for a strike on a borderline call that he felt Locke wasn’t getting).
Overall, a step in the right direction for Jeff Locke. The rest did him at least some good, and I'm hoping that he has some quality starts left in his bag for the year.
In the 4th inning the Bucs got “in business” with a double and a walk, but Marlon Byrd promptly grounded into a double play and with Cutch at third now Alvarez struck out swinging on Wainright’s tough curve. That was pretty much it for the offense that night. Pretty disappointing.
8 September - Pirates 2 Cardinals 9 - Morton got rocked as he has before against the Cardinals. Stolmy Pimentel was sub-par in relief. The offense could do nothing against Michael Wacha. That's pretty much all there is to know about this one.
A very disappointing and depressing series. It was a key one, since now the Cards are off to feast against sub .500 teams and we're gonna be battling the Rangers and Reds along with a couple favorable matchups of our own. There was also the fact that the Pirates looked totally lost, making very few threats at all that was particularly disheartening. I'm willing to chalk it up as a bad weekend against a good opponent, but the thing is at this point in the season you can't afford those kind of weekends. The Pirates are now just a couple bad games away from having their division hopes hang by a thread. They've completely eaten up their lead, and more.
The division race is of course still far from over, but now 1.5 games back of 1st and only a half-game up on the Reds, the Pirates have made it way harder on themselves to win the NL Central.
Ain't no rest for the wicked. On to Arlington.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Pirates take 2 of 3 in Miller Park
Lots of firsts this series.
Pirates won more games than they lost in Miller Park this season. First time since 2002.
The Pirates reached 80 wins. The lowest n such that n > max_wins(1993-2012).
The Pirates reached 81 wins, clinching a 0.500 record for the first time since 1992.
I was, as many others were, hoping for the bigger milestone, #82, to come this series, but alas it will have to wait.
Let's get to the games:
2 September - Pirates 5 Brewers 2 - Got some unusual contributions offensively in this one. Clint Barmes went 2 for 4 and scored 2 runs, being knocked in my Jose Tabata (Tabata went 3 for 4) both times. That's how the Pirates made it 2-1 in the 5th.
In the 7th, Neil Walker hit a 3 run bomb with nobody out. His 10th HR of the season.
Charlie Morton, who's unusually good performances are starting to become the usual, pitched a very good 7 innings, only giving up one earned run.
Mark Melancon closed it out for the save on this fine Labor Day afternoon.
Win #80.
3 September - Pirates 4 Brewers 3 - Jason Grilli returned from the DL, a welcome sight, as more quality arms in the pen is always a good thing. Here's to hoping he can regain his midseason form, though he won't be thrust into the closer role right away (a move that I think I agree with, I'm not a huge buyer into the whole closer pattern, but if we're gonna have a closer, I'd stick with Melancon, if it ain't broke don't fix it basically).
Cole had a fine outing. 6 IP 2 ER 5 H 1 BB 5 Ks. He was denied the win when Mazzaro allowed the Crew to tie in Vin's second inning of work.
Andrew McCutchen hit the 100th HR of his career to get the Pirates to a 1-0 1st inning lead. Byrd continued the scoring with a 2 run scoring single in the 3rd and a run scoring double in the 8th, which gave the Bucs a 3-2 lead.
After Vin's aforementioned run. Travis Snider (haven't heard that name in a while, huh?) came up to lead off the 9th, game tied 3-3, and pulled a pitch from Brewer closer Jim Henderson deep into the Milwaukee night (a.k.a., the right field bleachers) for a crazy dramatic run grabbing homer.
Fantastic hit. Clutch hit from a guy who hasn't given us much this year. Earlier in the year I was really up on Snider, but he just faded. I'm thinking a lot of that had to do with his toe injury, but it's hard to know.
Regardless, a big hit, no doubt! Then Shark Melancon came in a closed the door once again.
And that's how the Pirates won game #81. An injured, forgotten, player dusted off the shackles of the bench to play the biggest part in a big win against an opponent who's just beaten us down over the years.
Hows that for a bit of synecdoche for you.
For many long time Bucs fans, this game was a big deal. Not so much for me, since I endured (and I say endure lightly, because the Pirates have never been my only team) but a quarter of the 20 year sentence many fans received.
But even still, let's not lose sight of our goals this year [along with how I feel about each goal]:
1. Get a winning season. (One game left. I prefer this goal to getting 81 because it's a more positive one) [alright, let's do it]
2. Make the playoffs [this would be great, would love to see it]
3. Win the division [I would be fucking ecstatic if the Bucs won the Central for the first time ever]
4. Make a run in the playoffs [I am dying to see the Bucs make some noise in the playoffs, maybe win a series, that would be heaven]
5. Win the World Series [I'm not even gonna consider this, but if I did...]
Basically 1 & 2 are in the bag. 3 is the major one to work on right now, and with some of the recent moves the Bucco management have aligned the team very well to make runs at 4 and 5, although now is not really the time to think about those, both because we're a ways off from October still, and also because the MLB playoffs are a giant crapshoot.
But I digress... great win this night.
4 September - Pirates 3 Brewers 9 - Francisco Liriano did not have a good start against the Brewers today. He struggled with his control and just couldn't stop the bleeding once the hits came.
The thing is, earlier in the year a game like this from their starter would mean the Bucs were solidly out of it from the get go, but with their newly bolstered lineup, they can make a run at a 3, 4, 5+ run deficit. And don't let the final score fool you, because the Bucs had plenty of shots offensively at this one, despite being down by a handful.
The top of the 5th started off 7-2. When McCutchen, who's continuing to feast on whatever HR crack exists in Miller Park, launched a solo shot. Boom 7-3, and the Bucs are starting to smell blood on Brewer starter Wily Peralta.
A weird thing happened next where Peralta plunked Justin Morneau (aside: who switched his number from #36 to #66 today) up and in. It hit him in the forearm, but it was rising up to his chin. Some speculation after the game said that this was due to McCutchen trotting around the bases too slowly during his homer, which would be a pretty weak excuse for hitting Morneau.
The benches cleared as more of a precautionary measure, as everyone wanted to stand behind their teammates as the mood got a little touchy. Nothing happened though. If a Pirate team has ever gotten involved in a brawl, I haven't seen it. (I guess you have to be good for teams to care enough to fight you)
If Peralta did do this on purpose, he couldn't have picked worse time. Because the human dynamo Marlon Byrd jumped on a full count pitch and hammered it to the gap in left. Morneau, who's gotta be one of the slowest guys on the team was inexplicably sent home by Nick Leyva and was thrown out on a decent relay. The throw beat him handily, but the throw was up the first base line, and it looked like maybe Morneau got his toe around Maldonado's glove, but he was called out nonetheless. Replay made me think he was probably safe, but I don't think there was irrefutable evidence, and you're not gonna get that safe call unless it's the 19th inning and Jerry Meals is the home plate umpire. Bitter? What? I'm not still bitter...
The real issue was him being sent in the first place, which was a big mistake considering his speed and the fact that we would've had runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. And even if Morneau had scored we would still be down by three runs! It made no sense.
So the situation became 1 out and runner at 3rd. Alvarez struck out on a quality 3-2 curve by Peralta, and John Buck hit a sharp grounder up the middle right into a shift to end the inning.
Such is life. Such is baseball.
The Pirates had another opportunity to score in the 7th when they got the first two runners on base (Walker and McCutchen). Morneau struck out and Byrd lined out (it's impossible to blame either one of them though, especially Byrd). Pedro was hit to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate, and again John Buck ended the threat, this time he flew out on a decently struck fly to center-right-center.
A few other odds 'n ends:
- Stolmy Pimentel made his ML Debut in the sixth. He had a great 6th, but couldn't navigate around a defensive meltdown by Neil Walker in the 7th. He threw an inning and two thirds and game up 3 hits. 2 Ks.
- Jason Grilli made his first appearance since July 22. His velocity was down around 92 (we're more used to seeing him 94-95, but maybe it was the low pressure situation? That's what Grilli would tell you anyway). He gave up one hit and struck out two for a scoreless 8th inning in the loss.
- While the Pirates were enduring this catastrophe of a baseball game, the Reds and Cardinals were locked in a deep extra inning battle that saw both teams score in the 14th (including a missed batter's interference call that led to a steal that led to the Reds tying the game), a weird botched squeeze play with two outs and Chris Heisey at the plate (this play made no sense to me, whyyy??), and an eventual Cardinals victory in 16 innings. Crazy game, that. The Cards pulled to within 1 game of the Pirates and could pull to a half game back tomorrow on account of the Bucs' off day.
Set sail to St. Louis. Last series with the redbirds this year, and since it's gonna be impossible to stop them from going on a run in the last couple weeks as they take on their lighter opponents, I'd really like to take 2 of 3 from them at Busch Stadium. Hope that's not asking for too much.
Though perhaps a 0.500 season was too much to ask for.
Yet look where we are.
Pirates won more games than they lost in Miller Park this season. First time since 2002.
The Pirates reached 80 wins. The lowest n such that n > max_wins(1993-2012).
The Pirates reached 81 wins, clinching a 0.500 record for the first time since 1992.
I was, as many others were, hoping for the bigger milestone, #82, to come this series, but alas it will have to wait.
Let's get to the games:
2 September - Pirates 5 Brewers 2 - Got some unusual contributions offensively in this one. Clint Barmes went 2 for 4 and scored 2 runs, being knocked in my Jose Tabata (Tabata went 3 for 4) both times. That's how the Pirates made it 2-1 in the 5th.
In the 7th, Neil Walker hit a 3 run bomb with nobody out. His 10th HR of the season.
Charlie Morton, who's unusually good performances are starting to become the usual, pitched a very good 7 innings, only giving up one earned run.
Mark Melancon closed it out for the save on this fine Labor Day afternoon.
Win #80.
3 September - Pirates 4 Brewers 3 - Jason Grilli returned from the DL, a welcome sight, as more quality arms in the pen is always a good thing. Here's to hoping he can regain his midseason form, though he won't be thrust into the closer role right away (a move that I think I agree with, I'm not a huge buyer into the whole closer pattern, but if we're gonna have a closer, I'd stick with Melancon, if it ain't broke don't fix it basically).
Cole had a fine outing. 6 IP 2 ER 5 H 1 BB 5 Ks. He was denied the win when Mazzaro allowed the Crew to tie in Vin's second inning of work.
Andrew McCutchen hit the 100th HR of his career to get the Pirates to a 1-0 1st inning lead. Byrd continued the scoring with a 2 run scoring single in the 3rd and a run scoring double in the 8th, which gave the Bucs a 3-2 lead.
After Vin's aforementioned run. Travis Snider (haven't heard that name in a while, huh?) came up to lead off the 9th, game tied 3-3, and pulled a pitch from Brewer closer Jim Henderson deep into the Milwaukee night (a.k.a., the right field bleachers) for a crazy dramatic run grabbing homer.
Fantastic hit. Clutch hit from a guy who hasn't given us much this year. Earlier in the year I was really up on Snider, but he just faded. I'm thinking a lot of that had to do with his toe injury, but it's hard to know.
Regardless, a big hit, no doubt! Then Shark Melancon came in a closed the door once again.
And that's how the Pirates won game #81. An injured, forgotten, player dusted off the shackles of the bench to play the biggest part in a big win against an opponent who's just beaten us down over the years.
Hows that for a bit of synecdoche for you.
For many long time Bucs fans, this game was a big deal. Not so much for me, since I endured (and I say endure lightly, because the Pirates have never been my only team) but a quarter of the 20 year sentence many fans received.
But even still, let's not lose sight of our goals this year [along with how I feel about each goal]:
1. Get a winning season. (One game left. I prefer this goal to getting 81 because it's a more positive one) [alright, let's do it]
2. Make the playoffs [this would be great, would love to see it]
3. Win the division [I would be fucking ecstatic if the Bucs won the Central for the first time ever]
4. Make a run in the playoffs [I am dying to see the Bucs make some noise in the playoffs, maybe win a series, that would be heaven]
5. Win the World Series [I'm not even gonna consider this, but if I did...]
Basically 1 & 2 are in the bag. 3 is the major one to work on right now, and with some of the recent moves the Bucco management have aligned the team very well to make runs at 4 and 5, although now is not really the time to think about those, both because we're a ways off from October still, and also because the MLB playoffs are a giant crapshoot.
But I digress... great win this night.
4 September - Pirates 3 Brewers 9 - Francisco Liriano did not have a good start against the Brewers today. He struggled with his control and just couldn't stop the bleeding once the hits came.
The thing is, earlier in the year a game like this from their starter would mean the Bucs were solidly out of it from the get go, but with their newly bolstered lineup, they can make a run at a 3, 4, 5+ run deficit. And don't let the final score fool you, because the Bucs had plenty of shots offensively at this one, despite being down by a handful.
The top of the 5th started off 7-2. When McCutchen, who's continuing to feast on whatever HR crack exists in Miller Park, launched a solo shot. Boom 7-3, and the Bucs are starting to smell blood on Brewer starter Wily Peralta.
A weird thing happened next where Peralta plunked Justin Morneau (aside: who switched his number from #36 to #66 today) up and in. It hit him in the forearm, but it was rising up to his chin. Some speculation after the game said that this was due to McCutchen trotting around the bases too slowly during his homer, which would be a pretty weak excuse for hitting Morneau.
The benches cleared as more of a precautionary measure, as everyone wanted to stand behind their teammates as the mood got a little touchy. Nothing happened though. If a Pirate team has ever gotten involved in a brawl, I haven't seen it. (I guess you have to be good for teams to care enough to fight you)
If Peralta did do this on purpose, he couldn't have picked worse time. Because the human dynamo Marlon Byrd jumped on a full count pitch and hammered it to the gap in left. Morneau, who's gotta be one of the slowest guys on the team was inexplicably sent home by Nick Leyva and was thrown out on a decent relay. The throw beat him handily, but the throw was up the first base line, and it looked like maybe Morneau got his toe around Maldonado's glove, but he was called out nonetheless. Replay made me think he was probably safe, but I don't think there was irrefutable evidence, and you're not gonna get that safe call unless it's the 19th inning and Jerry Meals is the home plate umpire. Bitter? What? I'm not still bitter...
The real issue was him being sent in the first place, which was a big mistake considering his speed and the fact that we would've had runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. And even if Morneau had scored we would still be down by three runs! It made no sense.
So the situation became 1 out and runner at 3rd. Alvarez struck out on a quality 3-2 curve by Peralta, and John Buck hit a sharp grounder up the middle right into a shift to end the inning.
Such is life. Such is baseball.
The Pirates had another opportunity to score in the 7th when they got the first two runners on base (Walker and McCutchen). Morneau struck out and Byrd lined out (it's impossible to blame either one of them though, especially Byrd). Pedro was hit to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate, and again John Buck ended the threat, this time he flew out on a decently struck fly to center-right-center.
A few other odds 'n ends:
- Stolmy Pimentel made his ML Debut in the sixth. He had a great 6th, but couldn't navigate around a defensive meltdown by Neil Walker in the 7th. He threw an inning and two thirds and game up 3 hits. 2 Ks.
- Jason Grilli made his first appearance since July 22. His velocity was down around 92 (we're more used to seeing him 94-95, but maybe it was the low pressure situation? That's what Grilli would tell you anyway). He gave up one hit and struck out two for a scoreless 8th inning in the loss.
- While the Pirates were enduring this catastrophe of a baseball game, the Reds and Cardinals were locked in a deep extra inning battle that saw both teams score in the 14th (including a missed batter's interference call that led to a steal that led to the Reds tying the game), a weird botched squeeze play with two outs and Chris Heisey at the plate (this play made no sense to me, whyyy??), and an eventual Cardinals victory in 16 innings. Crazy game, that. The Cards pulled to within 1 game of the Pirates and could pull to a half game back tomorrow on account of the Bucs' off day.
Set sail to St. Louis. Last series with the redbirds this year, and since it's gonna be impossible to stop them from going on a run in the last couple weeks as they take on their lighter opponents, I'd really like to take 2 of 3 from them at Busch Stadium. Hope that's not asking for too much.
Though perhaps a 0.500 season was too much to ask for.
Yet look where we are.
Monday, September 2, 2013
A quick note about August
My first kiss was on an August night, I remember that. A fond memory, to say the least.
In French, they call August "août" which I always thought was sorta cool, if a bit difficult to pronounce.
...but that's about all I have to say that's positive about August. It's hot and muggy (even in Seattle, go figure) and the days get significantly shorter reminding you both of the impending winter (Winter is Coming) and of your own impending demise (I'm a cheerful one aren't I?).
But no August in my lifetime has been worse than August 2012. That month ripped my little Pirate heart out. 2011 was a pipe dream that faded away early, and we all had a feeling it was coming. But August 2012 hurt. Bad. We thought it might come, but we didn't think it would happen so suddenly.
And we didn't even finish over 0.500. It really was one of the most spectacular collapses in baseball history, especially if you consider the team and the context.
And then August 2013 happened. I was bracing for it. You saw my post at the end of the 5-game Cards series.
These Pirates, they didn't fold. They bent, but they did not break. And I give them all the credit in the world for that.
Obviously, the fight isn't over. We still haven't even glimpsed the insanity that is to come (I don't think so, anyway).
But I'm proud of this team for hanging in there through the "Dog Days." Possibly prouder than I ought to be.
The Pirates went 14-14 in August.
And what did that mean? Well, meaningful September baseball arrived in Pittsburgh on the 1st.
In French, they call August "août" which I always thought was sorta cool, if a bit difficult to pronounce.
...but that's about all I have to say that's positive about August. It's hot and muggy (even in Seattle, go figure) and the days get significantly shorter reminding you both of the impending winter (Winter is Coming) and of your own impending demise (I'm a cheerful one aren't I?).
But no August in my lifetime has been worse than August 2012. That month ripped my little Pirate heart out. 2011 was a pipe dream that faded away early, and we all had a feeling it was coming. But August 2012 hurt. Bad. We thought it might come, but we didn't think it would happen so suddenly.
And we didn't even finish over 0.500. It really was one of the most spectacular collapses in baseball history, especially if you consider the team and the context.
And then August 2013 happened. I was bracing for it. You saw my post at the end of the 5-game Cards series.
These Pirates, they didn't fold. They bent, but they did not break. And I give them all the credit in the world for that.
Obviously, the fight isn't over. We still haven't even glimpsed the insanity that is to come (I don't think so, anyway).
But I'm proud of this team for hanging in there through the "Dog Days." Possibly prouder than I ought to be.
The Pirates went 14-14 in August.
And what did that mean? Well, meaningful September baseball arrived in Pittsburgh on the 1st.
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Pirates go 4-3 on their final West Coast trip
@ Padres (2-1)
@ Giants (2-2)
I was hoping for a bit of a winning streak against some lighter opponents, but this'll do. As the Pirates limped into Petco Park, and the fans gritted their teeth with memories of last year's San Disaster in their minds, Liriano took the mound in game 1 and shut the Pads down. He threw 7 scoreless and struck out 13. There's been some debate on whether or not Liriano is an "ace" but that's one of the things an ace would do, for sure. Pirates win 3-1.
The Pirates blew out the Padres the next night behind a great start by A.J. Burnett and a 5-run 7th inning. Also, weirdly the Pirates hit 3 triples that night, one each by Pedro Alvarez (!), Andrew McCutchen, and Josh Harrison. The last two occurring in that 7th inning. Burnett's only failing was giving up a solo shot to Jedd Gyorko. Pirates win 8-1.
The Pirates couldn't get the sweep though as Cole had another of his shaky-holding-it-together-bend-but-don't-break type starts, giving up 2 runs on 10 hits (9 singles and a double) over 6 innings, walking none and striking out 5. The score was 2-1. The offense couldn't get anything going against Ian Kennedy which was disappointing, because it was certainly a winnable game given the pitching performance. Most of us were fine with the loss though and were happy to sail up the coast to SF on the back of a series win.
I didn't have the opportunity to watch too much of the Giants series because, ironically, I was on a trip to San Francisco. I did get to see the second game of the series though with some of my old college friends which was a treat! Both to hang out with them and take in my 2nd Bucco game of the year (after the one in Seattle in June). Plus AT&T Park is beautiful.
The Bucs won game 1 10-5 on the back of an offensive explosion, which was due in part to Matt Cain being hit on his pitching arm by a line drive and getting knocked out early (Cain would head to the DL, though I from my understanding that has more to do with the Giants being precautionary with one of their best pitchers while they are out of contention than Cain being really seriously hurt). This outburst helped erase another poor start from Jeff Locke who only made it through 4 innings. Again, he gave up many hits and walks and isn't showing many signs of improving. I continue to hold my opinion last I espoused it, which is that he needs some extended rest and has the ability to be a quality mid rotation guy.
Game 2 was the game I went to, and it was a fun, if a bit understated game. The moment of the game was no doubt Barmes 3 run home run to left that just made it over the wall. On replays you see that Barmes managed to somehow dig out a tough down and in slider from Madison Bumgarner and pop it over the fence. It wasn't quite as crazy as the Inge HR I saw in Seattle in terms of insanity in a vacuum, but the timing could not have been better. Morton pitched very well in this game, scattering 7 hits and a walk to give up just one run over 7 2/3 innings. The Pirates won 3-1.
In game 3 Liriano had an uncharacteristically bad start, throwing just 4 innings, his first bad start since that awful game in Coors Field. The Pirates put up a bit of a fight to get back in it but couldn't make up the difference against Tim Lincecum and the Giant bullpen, as the Bucs fell 6-3. The Cardinals also caught up to the Pirates to gain a share of 1st in the Central on this night.
Game 4 saw the Pirates get shutout by Ryan Vogelsong over 8 innings, who's been awful this year. They lost 4-0. Andrew Lambo (who's been underwhelming, it's too early to pass any word on him in terms of ML stats, but so far he's been a disappointment), Andrew McCutchen, and Felix Pie (really?) got the only hits of the afternoon. Burnett was fine through 7 innings, but the Giants got to him in the 8th to put the game out of reach of the Bucs' impotent offense.
Series split. A middle of the road road performance, could've gone better of course, but while Marte is on the DL and Grilli is working his way back, the Pirates job is to "avoid the Grand Canyon", and as I've said before, playing 0.500 ball on the road is fine. It's not giving you any cushion of course, but it's fine. Let's head back to da Burgh to host our good buddies the Brewers.
A couple other notes. On Tuesday before the Brewers series started the Bucs made a move trading one of their young middle infield prospects Dilson Herrera and a PTBNL to acquire Marlon Byrd from the Mets after they claimed him off waivers (which was surprising in its own right, you'd think someone like the Reds would've blocked the Bucs). The Pirates also got John Buck to bolster their catching depth, freeing up Tony Sanchez for some pinch hit appearances.
This is a good trade in my mind. Byrd is having a spectacular year at age 36 (due in part to his 0.350 BABIP, counteracting his 26% K rate), though that's not why I like it. At this point just having another quality player is a good thing, as the depth will really help the Bucs. And that's not to mention that Byrd's a great right handed bats against lefties, and the Pirates have sorely been needing more firepower against LHP. Hererra's a good prospect but he's very young and the Pirates have fantastic depth in the minors. This is the kind of trade that needed to happen, because if there's a chance Byrd can help the big league club now while the Bucs are knocking on the playoff door, it's worth the probability that Hererra will pan out to give yourself that opportunity. In some ways this is like what a Nate Schierholtz-y deadline trade could have been, just a bit lower stakes (later in the season, with lower leverage players being involved).
The Pirates don't play a team that is not the Brewers or Cardinals until September 9th, when they head to Arlington for their last interleague matchup of the year.
Bring on the Crew. We're a 1/2 game out of the lead but that could easily change tonight. The Cardinals are facing the Reds after winning the first game of their set in St. Louis last night.
@ Giants (2-2)
I was hoping for a bit of a winning streak against some lighter opponents, but this'll do. As the Pirates limped into Petco Park, and the fans gritted their teeth with memories of last year's San Disaster in their minds, Liriano took the mound in game 1 and shut the Pads down. He threw 7 scoreless and struck out 13. There's been some debate on whether or not Liriano is an "ace" but that's one of the things an ace would do, for sure. Pirates win 3-1.
The Pirates blew out the Padres the next night behind a great start by A.J. Burnett and a 5-run 7th inning. Also, weirdly the Pirates hit 3 triples that night, one each by Pedro Alvarez (!), Andrew McCutchen, and Josh Harrison. The last two occurring in that 7th inning. Burnett's only failing was giving up a solo shot to Jedd Gyorko. Pirates win 8-1.
The Pirates couldn't get the sweep though as Cole had another of his shaky-holding-it-together-bend-but-don't-break type starts, giving up 2 runs on 10 hits (9 singles and a double) over 6 innings, walking none and striking out 5. The score was 2-1. The offense couldn't get anything going against Ian Kennedy which was disappointing, because it was certainly a winnable game given the pitching performance. Most of us were fine with the loss though and were happy to sail up the coast to SF on the back of a series win.
I didn't have the opportunity to watch too much of the Giants series because, ironically, I was on a trip to San Francisco. I did get to see the second game of the series though with some of my old college friends which was a treat! Both to hang out with them and take in my 2nd Bucco game of the year (after the one in Seattle in June). Plus AT&T Park is beautiful.
The Bucs won game 1 10-5 on the back of an offensive explosion, which was due in part to Matt Cain being hit on his pitching arm by a line drive and getting knocked out early (Cain would head to the DL, though I from my understanding that has more to do with the Giants being precautionary with one of their best pitchers while they are out of contention than Cain being really seriously hurt). This outburst helped erase another poor start from Jeff Locke who only made it through 4 innings. Again, he gave up many hits and walks and isn't showing many signs of improving. I continue to hold my opinion last I espoused it, which is that he needs some extended rest and has the ability to be a quality mid rotation guy.
Game 2 was the game I went to, and it was a fun, if a bit understated game. The moment of the game was no doubt Barmes 3 run home run to left that just made it over the wall. On replays you see that Barmes managed to somehow dig out a tough down and in slider from Madison Bumgarner and pop it over the fence. It wasn't quite as crazy as the Inge HR I saw in Seattle in terms of insanity in a vacuum, but the timing could not have been better. Morton pitched very well in this game, scattering 7 hits and a walk to give up just one run over 7 2/3 innings. The Pirates won 3-1.
In game 3 Liriano had an uncharacteristically bad start, throwing just 4 innings, his first bad start since that awful game in Coors Field. The Pirates put up a bit of a fight to get back in it but couldn't make up the difference against Tim Lincecum and the Giant bullpen, as the Bucs fell 6-3. The Cardinals also caught up to the Pirates to gain a share of 1st in the Central on this night.
Game 4 saw the Pirates get shutout by Ryan Vogelsong over 8 innings, who's been awful this year. They lost 4-0. Andrew Lambo (who's been underwhelming, it's too early to pass any word on him in terms of ML stats, but so far he's been a disappointment), Andrew McCutchen, and Felix Pie (really?) got the only hits of the afternoon. Burnett was fine through 7 innings, but the Giants got to him in the 8th to put the game out of reach of the Bucs' impotent offense.
Series split. A middle of the road road performance, could've gone better of course, but while Marte is on the DL and Grilli is working his way back, the Pirates job is to "avoid the Grand Canyon", and as I've said before, playing 0.500 ball on the road is fine. It's not giving you any cushion of course, but it's fine. Let's head back to da Burgh to host our good buddies the Brewers.
A couple other notes. On Tuesday before the Brewers series started the Bucs made a move trading one of their young middle infield prospects Dilson Herrera and a PTBNL to acquire Marlon Byrd from the Mets after they claimed him off waivers (which was surprising in its own right, you'd think someone like the Reds would've blocked the Bucs). The Pirates also got John Buck to bolster their catching depth, freeing up Tony Sanchez for some pinch hit appearances.
This is a good trade in my mind. Byrd is having a spectacular year at age 36 (due in part to his 0.350 BABIP, counteracting his 26% K rate), though that's not why I like it. At this point just having another quality player is a good thing, as the depth will really help the Bucs. And that's not to mention that Byrd's a great right handed bats against lefties, and the Pirates have sorely been needing more firepower against LHP. Hererra's a good prospect but he's very young and the Pirates have fantastic depth in the minors. This is the kind of trade that needed to happen, because if there's a chance Byrd can help the big league club now while the Bucs are knocking on the playoff door, it's worth the probability that Hererra will pan out to give yourself that opportunity. In some ways this is like what a Nate Schierholtz-y deadline trade could have been, just a bit lower stakes (later in the season, with lower leverage players being involved).
The Pirates don't play a team that is not the Brewers or Cardinals until September 9th, when they head to Arlington for their last interleague matchup of the year.
Bring on the Crew. We're a 1/2 game out of the lead but that could easily change tonight. The Cardinals are facing the Reds after winning the first game of their set in St. Louis last night.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Pirates drop 2 of 3 to the DBacks, now heading to the west coast
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.
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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