North Shore Nine

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Mitch Keller gave the Pirates exactly what they needed—five scoreless on just 62 pitches—before an early hook flipped the script in Washington. Don Kelly turned it over to the bullpen with a 3–0 cushion, and the wheels came off. A passed ball, a non-competitive miss in a two-strike spot, and a couple of poor sequences snowballed into a crooked inning, and the Nationals stole a 6–5 win. To make matters worse, a bizarre missed-plate slide wiped out what would’ve been the tying run, turning a potential momentum swing into another “what if” moment.

There were positives. Jared Triolo stacked competitive at-bats and found grass, Nick Gonzales stayed on time and shot line drives, Bryan Reynolds kept producing in traffic, and Spencer Horwitz continued to look the part with solid plate appearances. Joey Bart delivered late off the bench—pinch-hitting for Henry Davis to punch across a run—and Nick Yorke put together a gritty ninth-inning trip to the box as the Bucs tried to claw back. Still, the storyline belongs to the decision tree: pulling a cruising Keller, the order of relief options (Evan Sisk, Kyle Nicolas, etc.), and the lack of margin for error when command isn’t crisp.

Doug and DiNardo unpack all of it—pitch counts, leverage choices, base-running fundamentals, and what this says about Kelly’s in-game leash and the front office’s roster-building bet on bullpen volatility. Keep an eye on Andrew McCutchen, too; an 0-for-4 with some back tightness chatter is something to monitor. It’s a tough 6–5 loss—and the kind that lingers because it felt avoidable.