North Shore Nine

A .500 week while not ideal is better than a sub .500 week. A dumb thing to say, understood, however if the Pirates can have at worse only .500 weeks moving forward then they will start to weigh heavily in the playoff picture. As close as they are to the Wild Card, they need to keep weeks like this flowing, even as a better record could have been achieved with a few different decisions. Fans second guess coaches more in Pittsburgh then in most towns. Things are going relatively well this year for the Pirates, enjoy it, it’s better than Pirates fans have gotten in near a decade.

In this weekly recap, we will look at each of the three major categories—Offense, Pitching, and Defense/Baserunning—and grade how the Pirates played.

Offense:
The Pirates scored 27 runs over their 6 games this week. As expected, going into the week Rowdy Tellez was your top Pirate batter. He has been on fire of late and has reward the over patience with him to get hot in June. Bryan Reynolds also had a big week for the Pirates as he remains their most steady player at the plate. Andrew McCutchen and Oneil Cruz also had good weeks, as did Nick Gonzales. With these five firing on all cylinders at the moment and Ke’Bryan Hayes appearing to be on the cusp of his own breakout the offense could be primed for a strong June finish. Connor Joe has been struggling after a hot start, which is reminiscent of last year. Jack Suwinski continues to struggle mightily, he will need to figure out what is going on before he gets labeled as a one hit wonder.

Pitching:
The starters struggled a bit this week. Jared Jones was lit up in Colorado, a place that even the best can struggle in. Bailey Falter got scuffed up a bit with a lot of bloop type hits while allowing 8 hits over 4 innings. However, he only walked one and struck out 5 so it was not necessarily poor pitching that caused that performance. Mitch Keller have up a pair of homeruns and 8 hits over six, keeping his streak alive but pulling the loss for the game. The Pirates three horsemen of the bullpen, David Bednar, Colin Holderman and Aroldis Chapman pulled a Meatloaf. Meaning two out of three weren’t bad. Even Bednar did pitch bad, solo homeruns happen, even it was a pair of them allowed this week. The true stars for the Pirates pitching this week were Luis Ortiz and Josh Fleming. Both pitched very well in their respective bullpen games. If both can keep it up it will be a great bridge until the Pirates can get a starter or two back from injury.

Defense/Baserunning:
Two errors this week both on Yasmani Grandal, one for catcher’s interference and one on a throw. The CI was maddening to Pirates fans as it was near identical to the call that cost them a run from the day before. However, one was reviewable, and one was not. Hopefully, MLB will be able to learn from this and tweak the rules to best suit the game. Two stolen bases and two caught stealing were less than ideal. We will continue to beat this beat on the drum until the Pirates learn. Stolen bases=Wins, plain and simple. The weeks in which the Pirates have been terrors on the basepaths have been some of their most successful. It is imperative they use their speed to confuse defenders and push the offensive envelope.

At 34-37, the Pirates are still only a 1/2 a game out of the Wild Card spot for the NL. Its another big week as they face off against a NLC rival in the Cincinnati Reds then the Tampa Bay Rays. All three teams have near identical records. If the Pirates can ride the way of the fans and the Pirates starters to get to .500 or better this week then bully for them. Next week they will be on the road to see the Reds again then to Atlanta for a tough series. A big week will give them a wave to ride out the month as they decide whether to be buyers or sellers as trading nears opening in earnest.