NS9 Postgame Show: Bucs Shut Down Angels in 1-0 Win

What's going on, everyone? Welcome to the North Shore Nine podcast presented by FanDuel. This is the NS9 postgame show powered by Primanti Brothers. I'm Jim. With me tonight is Tyler. Tyler, Konnor Griffin returns. Jared Jones shoves. The slider just looks insane tonight. Wilber Dotel looks great out of the bullpen.

Mesa Montgomery shuts the door. One nothing win for your Buccos. Yeah, this was a fun one. If you like pitching, I guess.

Yeah, but not even just that. It was a pretty clean baseball game as well. I think they played well defensively.

It's nice to win a game one nothing. Have they won a game one nothing this year?

I'd have to look.

I would too. But yeah, it doesn't feel like it's happened that often. Typically, we don't see them slam the door with a one run lead and top to bottom of the day pitching wise got the job done.

Yeah, outstanding pitching performance starting with Jared Jones and then in terms of just I said there was a lot of hype coming into this weekend.

And Konnor Griffin's return after being on the aisle for 60 game 60 days, missing 50 games and just making an immediate impact like we're still playing right now.

If not for Konnor Griffin, it'd be a zero ball game if not for Konnor Griffin.

So, yeah, really cool. This was actually the Pirates fourth one nothing win of the fourth.

Really? I don't remember like any of them. Well, I think there was there were some early, I believe.

I don't know. May 3rd, May 6th, August 25th.

And today, August 25th.

I don't remember that. That was like Padres teens six scoreless.

That's right.

Okay. All right. Tyler's stupid tonight.

You know what? You get a pass. You get a little bit of a pass.

You're under the weather. Yeah, that's why you weren't on NS9 Live last night.

Yes, and it had to come right after I ran my mouth about always being here.

I know. It's your fault.

It is.

But let's start off with Jared Jones, Tyler, because he was just outstanding tonight.

Got into a little bit of trouble in the second inning, right?

Lead off single by Von Grisham.

Another single by Moises Ballesteros.

Runners on the corner.

Nobody out.

He gets Christian Moore to foul out.

Gets Jose Siri to strike out and then strikes out Adam Frazier.

That's just what having the stuff can do, right?

Because we've seen pitchers get into a mess and they give up a run or they give up two runs.

And it's just because things snowball, balls get put in place, stuff happens.

But when you can just keep the other team from putting the ball in play, it allows you to get out of those jams a lot.

Not necessarily easier, but it makes it more possible.

Right, for sure.

Like you said, a little bit scary there early, I think.

But all things considered, really good outing from Jared Jones, obviously.

Early in the game, I think he just, he fell behind some hitters a little bit too much there in the second inning.

Like he got himself into two ball counts, three ball counts.

And that's just, it's baseball 101.

If you're behind in counts, it's harder to get guys out.

If you're a hitter, it's easier to get hits when you're ahead in the count.

After that, he really started, strike one, getting to the one and two, getting to the one and two.

And when he gets hitters in that situation, he's damn near unheadable.

Like his stuff is just so good.

Yeah, you bring up a good point because he was, he was ahead all night long.

I felt, I feel like every time I looked up, it was an O2 count.

And when you are in an O2 situation and you throw the ball a hundred miles an hour and you have a slider the way that he does, it just makes things extremely difficult on the hitters.

And that's what it was today.

91 pitches, which is a season high for Jones tonight.

63 of those pitches were thrown for strikes.

So almost 70% of his pitches thrown for strikes tonight.

And I want to talk about the slider, Tyler.

It was as good as I've probably ever seen it.

He threw a lot of them today.

Almost half of his pitches were sliders.

45 of his 91 pitches today were sliders.

He generated 31 swings on those and 19 swings and misses.

It's a 61% whiff rate on the slider.

It was unhittable today, Tyler.

Absolutely unhittable.

Yeah.

And a lot of that to me has to do with being able to get ahead in counts as well.

And when you have them one, two Oh two, you can throw that slider and guys are already in swing mode.

When you're behind in the count and thankfully tonight, he was able to throw it for a strike.

So when he was behind, he's able to still throw it in there and use it as a weapon, but it just makes your life so much easier when you're able to get ahead of hitters.

And when he's able to throw that for a strike as well, he is a really good pitcher.

Yeah.

he was, this was just, this was one of his better outings that I can remember out of him.

Want to give a few shout outs here.

Thank you to Sean for the 20 memberships.

You are awesome.

Shout out steel city.

He's been a member for 24 months and shout out to Rob becoming a new member today.

So appreciate all you guys.

Make sure you get your rate hashtag raise it in the chat.

We're giving away from any brother sandwiches at the end of this one.

But yeah, he, every time it looked like, that second inning was really the only time he got into trouble.

The fourth inning, he gave up a lead off single, but it was quickly erased with a double play.

He gave up a walk, but again, got out of it.

he really didn't get into trouble again after that second inning.

And it was just pounding the zone, getting ahead.

And that, again, that slider, it was, it was as good as I've, it was as good as I've ever seen it.

And the angels just had no chance, no chance on it.

And I think what helped out today too, this angels lineup is, there were, there were quite a few righties in there sprinkled out.

and when those right-handed hitters are getting behind, they just, they can't touch it.

They just can't touch a chance.

They don't stand a chance.

And the other thing I think he did really well after that second inning, when things seemed like they're going to start to get away from him, he really settled down.

And it became efficient.

Like he went into straight up attack mode after that.

And the pitch count just really stayed in line following that.

I didn't think there was a chance he was getting through six innings, getting the six innings, to be honest.

I thought he was done after five, not a chance he'd come back out.

And even then, like they pushed him a little further than they have in the past, but it was still in a good spot at that point.

Yeah.

I think he was like right around like 79 pitches after five.

And yeah, he's been hovering around that 85 pitch limit for the majority of this season.

but they push him to, again, they push him to the 91 pitches today, the most he's thrown.

and he was like going back out there for the sixth.

It's not like, that was much of a problem for him.

He just goes strikeout, ground out, like was super efficient.

And that wasn't against like some bums that was facing Zach Neto for a third time.

That was facing Mike trout for a third time.

And that was facing, Wade Meckler for a third time.

So, those are the, those are the three best hitters in this, in this angels lineup that he was facing a third time.

And he was able to get through that.

So yeah, really good start from Jared Jones.

really encouraging this angels team, obviously, isn't very good.

This is a bad angels team, but he was, he was great.

He just, he shoved straight up shoved straight shoved, straight up shove sesh.

Sov shove sesh.

Yeah.

That's tough.

Yeah.

I want to get to, pirates enjoy your, thanks for the $5 super chat.

He says, God bless KG.

And, yeah, that's, I think that's topic number two today, right?

Is Konnor Griffin comes back today and this pirates offense also didn't do anything all game long.

They were over six with runners in scoring position.

They only had five hits.

They did get two extra base hits.

And one of those was Jake Mangum in the second inning.

Konnor Griffin was on first.

Mangum pulls a ball down the right field line.

Doesn't even get to the corner.

It gets cut off, by Meckler in right field, but Konnor Griffin just showcasing his speed.

I don't think there's any, I don't know if there's anyone else in the league who scores on that play, Tyler, but he gets a great jump.

He's going full speed the whole way of an aggressive send, a really aggressive center and a really good relay.

Like the angels did everything right themselves.

They made a good play to cut, to cut off the ball in the corner.

Good relay, good throw at home.

But Konnor Griffin is so fast and he just, it's a perfect slide.

Perfect slide.

he slides, three feet wide reaches with his oven mitted hand, and scores and gives the pirates the one, nothing lead, which ended up being it.

And I think he's the only person who scores there.

The only one I think Oneil Cruz might score there.

Maybe, I don't know.

You look at, you look at the sprint speeds on baseball savant and O'Neal's nowhere near.

to it, they needed every ounce of that sprint speed to score there.

And he had to be perfect.

The slide had to be perfect.

The way he rounded third had to be per rounded second have to be perfect.

The way he cut everything.

Like he does everything very fundamentally well, like he's just a ball player and he's a game changer.

Even without the elite, numbers that the play right throughout this year with him, he's been good, but nothing outrageous.

The abilities that he has, it changes the game.

Like the speed alone just changes this lineup in general.

God, they missed him.

They did.

They missed him a lot.

Shortstop who can play shortstop.

And I want to get to that too.

And we'll get to that in the second half of the show.

But yeah, it's, this offense clearly didn't get anything, get do anything today.

It was that one play.

That was it.

But it was a game changing dynamic play made by Konnor Griffin that scored the run.

And then, Jake Mangum with the double two, that was a big hit in that spot.

But yeah, this is, this is what this team's been missing because for two months you didn't have Cruz, you didn't have Griffin.

And those are the two guys that can just make things happen on the field that really no one else can do.

And yeah, you Connor showed it today.

Just, first game back made an immediate impact.

Yeah.

The slide was so good.

Like, I didn't think there was a chance he would score when I saw the relay.

I thought he was dead.

I was shocked when I saw that he was, he was being sent.

Like when I saw the ball get cut off and didn't make the wall, I was like, there's no way we're scoring on this.

But yeah, he somehow made, and he stumbled to like rounding third.

He didn't even, it wasn't even a clean rounding of third.

Like he was stumbling on his way to home plate and he still made it.

I think he was a little bit shocked that he was getting set too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know what it was.

It was a good sign.

like it was, it worked to have it.

If he hadn't been sent, if they would have held him up there, they would not have scored there because in true pirates fashion, right?

The next batter popped up on the infield.

Next batter flew out like that run wouldn't have gotten in.

And who knows?

things would may have been different, but based off of what happened, that run wouldn't have scored.

Yeah.

Aggressive send and they've been aggressive pretty much all year.

Having Konnor Griffin helps.

It doesn't be a lot more aggressive when you have that fella.

Don't forget to have to get your hashtag raises and guys, before we move on to, I want to talk about Wilber Dotel quite a bit because I think he's, he deserves a lot of credit here.

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All right.

So pirates rub one, nothing Jones shoves finishes his six innings.

Just outstanding work.

And then Don Kelly goes to Wilber Dotel and Tyler, I don't know about you, but I was like, Don, what are you doing?

What DK, what are you doing here?

this is a one nothing ball game.

You absolutely have to win this game.

And, Ryan posts the bullpen breakdown every day, every day.

So if you follow us on social media, if you follow us anywhere, you'll see that.

But I was like, is, are people unavailable today that I don't know about?

And I'm looking at this chart and I'm like, okay, well, Yohan Ramirez is available.

Mason Montgomery is available.

Gregory Soto is available.

Camilo Doval is available.

And Luke Weaver are all these players should be available today.

And I'm like, why Wilber Dotel?

And so, and then Wilber Dotel walks the first battery face and I'm like, oh brother, here we go.

but then after that, just incredible work, gets a fielder's choice, gets more to line out.

Oh, no cruise with a huge play in center field there.

and then gets Josh Lowe, swinging to get out of the seven.

But what was your thought process there going to Dotel one nothing in the seventh?

I think legitimately the same exact thing that you did because in the North shore nine app in our game chat, I put in there, I'm not sure about going with Dotel here.

And then immediately after that, I went to Ryan's bullpen breakdown to see who else was available.

Yeah.

And I went down the list and, Ooh, I don't know about this one, but it's one of those cases where a player can make a coach look really smart and not the end of the day.

If these guys just do their jobs, a manager will look a lot smarter when they're not doing their jobs.

You look pretty stupid.

What were Dotel?

I think probably did bail Don Kelly out.

Cause I still don't think it was the right choice.

Like you have Soto there for the seventh.

You can go Weaver in the eighth.

You have other arms available.

It worked out now going into the morrow.

You have Braxton Ashcraft and you have all your horses.

So going into the morrow, it looks like pretty good on paper.

Yeah.

It worked out.

That's for sure.

I just don't know if I still agree with it, but it worked.

It definitely worked.

and yeah, Luke Weaver too.

I don't know if he was, came out earlier today, he's been dealing with like really bad poison ivy for like a month, which is just, true.

Like, is that not the most pirates thing you've ever heard in your life?

You acquire this guy.

And then as soon as you get them, he brushes up against a bush, gets poison ivy and he can't sleep for a month.

Like what is going on here?

I've had really bad poison ivy before.

So like, I understand what Luke Weaver is going through.

And also I don't think he can take like Nestor zone or anything like that.

Cause it's a band substance.

So like, he's just screwed.

It just has to get better.

but yeah, anyways, like they went to do tell there and I was like, but then he gets out of that inning and I'm like, okay.

Great job onto the eighth, but then they send hotel back out for the eighth too.

And I'm like, well, this just seems like we're playing with fire, right?

Sure felt like it, but guess what he does strike out, ground out, foul out, no balls, leave the infield, just an outstanding.

this, an enormous six outs provided by Wilbur do tell.

Yeah.

Like I said earlier, he put them in a good spot for tomorrow now with all their horses available.

Like, except for Montgomery probably, but Montgomery probably won't be.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But just an outstanding outing by do tell the stuff's legit.

Like there's no doubt about it.

It's just being in the, it's just being in the zone with him and good enough tonight.

Yeah.

in the fastball was there, right?

he was pumping one Oh one, most of the time.

I think his average fastball velocity today was 99.

but yeah, he looked really good.

Lots of fastballs.

He threw 68% fastballs, put in a few sliders and cutters in there.

But yeah, for the most part, just spammed 100 the whole time.

Yeah.

It was like, Hey, wait a minute.

I can, I can throw 100.

I can throw one Oh one.

Let me just continue to do this.

They can't hit it.

Yeah.

They're not hitting this.

So let's just keep doing it.

And it worked.

Yeah.

Yep.

That's big.

It was big getting those two innings out of them.

Like I said, I wouldn't have done it, but it works out and Hey, that's all that matters.

Yep.

Also, I'm going to, I'm going to just address this in the chat.

everyone needs to bully DiNardo because if you go into the emojis in the YouTube chat, there's still a Dennis Santana emoji in there.

And I told DiNardo a week ago, like we need to replace the Santana.

Actually, it was like two weeks ago.

I was like, we need to replace the Santana emoji with a Montgomery emoji and he hasn't done it.

So yeah, everybody bullied DiNardo about that.

We need that Mason Montgomery emoji ASAP.

He's a fun fellow to watch pitch right now.

He deserves all the emojis.

He's so good.

He's so good.

he goes into the ninth with the one, nothing lead.

Actually, before we get to Montgomery bottom of the eighth, I, the pirates, I would have loved for them to get a run there.

They do like, this was the one chance, like time of the game where they actually like got some base runners.

Horwitz walked Reynolds singled.

Nick Gonzales got hit by a pitch.

Oh, no cruise up against the lefty with the bases loaded two outs.

he ends up striking out, leaves the bases loaded.

so the pirates don't get anything there in the eighth, but yeah, then you go, then you go to the ninth.

That's one, nothing.

Mike trout is up to bat to lead off the inning.

Right.

And trout, it's been famously told over and over again on this show and on the broadcast.

Pirates are the only team.

Tyler, Mike trout is not homered against outside the angels.

And I'm just like, please don't let it be right now.

and Montgomery is just spamming him fastballs, fastball, which is what you want to do against trout.

If you're a left-handed pitcher, he leaves one a little bit out over the plate.

Trout takes it to right field for a base hit.

It's a nice at bat.

so you got the lead off runner on there.

And then this was what was weird.

your number three hitter, your number three hitter.

it, we're not talking about, Babe Ruth or anything.

We're talking about Wade Meckler, but your number three hitter, he goes up just bunting with three outs down by one.

He takes the first pitch.

He pulls back, he bunts foul the second pitch, and then he, they leave the bunt on with two strikes and he fouls one off, pops it up to Henry Davis.

So like, thank you for the free out.

Angels.

Yeah.

I'm to be totally honest here.

If that was Don Kelly making that call, I'd be on here screaming to fire him right now.

That's just terrible baseball.

You're bunting with two strikes with your three hitter.

That's just stupid.

Thank you.

Yeah.

like, seriously, like, just thank you.

You're, it's your three hitter and you're bunting.

And not only are you bunting, but you're bunting with two strikes.

Right.

Like, if you want to take the bunt off with two strikes, I still think it's stupid to try to bunt in general, but you just gave up the hit back completely there.

Like Mason Montgomery is not exactly easy to bunt off of either.

Not easy to do anything off of.

No.

They were better off going up there and telling him not to swing and trying to walk.

For real.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Angels.

What did, the pirates are a dumb organization, but the angels might take the cake.

Yeah.

That was pretty stupid.

So free out, free out.

Mike Trout's still on first.

Von Grissom flies out to right.

And then Travis Darno, who is clearly the lesser Darno chase, obviously way better, way better.

Travis Darno strikes out looking to end the game, on absolutely back to back fail challenges.

Or was it just one fail challenge?

It was just, I think just the one, just the one fail challenge.

But yeah, it was, yeah.

Darno strikes out looking ends the game.

Mason Montgomery picks up his ninth save.

just a, just a great job by the, by the pitching staff.

Jones don't tell Montgomery can't say enough good things about all of them.

They were for the most part throwing strikes outside.

Don't tell us lead off walk there in the seventh.

Jones was throwing strikes.

Montgomery was throwing strikes.

Just great stuff.

Yeah, we have, had some thoughts on Bill Murphy throughout this year, but I think you got to tip your hat on how Mason Montgomery's come along throughout this year.

Like even after the trade, you knew the stuff was legit.

You saw it earlier in the year, but he was all over the place.

It wasn't consistent.

These last three to four months, something has been unlocked.

With him, he looks like the real deal.

Hasn't given up a run since July 26th.

Wow.

He's only given up a run in one game.

Since the start of July.

Yeah.

He's been, he's been, he's just been awesome.

when we traded for him, it was always, this guy has really nasty stuff.

Hopefully he can figure out how to harness it.

And, throughout spring training, that's what we saw.

It was man, nasty stuff.

Please throw strikes.

Beginning of the season.

Nasty stuff.

Please throw strikes.

He walked three batters on opening day.

Right.

Since opening day though, Tyler.

he's only walked more than one batter twice.

So he had that rocky, like first start to the year, but really he's been, he's been pretty damn good.

For a while now.

take out Jake Mangum, take out Brandon Lowe.

At this point, I still make that trade for Mike Burroughs for Mason Montgomery.

One for one.

It would have been a net positive.

Like if the, if the trade was just Burroughs for Montgomery, it's a net positive.

Yeah.

They got one, right?

Yeah, they really did.

yeah, he's been, he's been just so good.

and with this win, it pulls the pirates to 70 and 72.

They are four and a half games out of the wild card.

Now just doing some quick scoreboard watching to the diamondbacks are down three, one in the seventh.

The Padres, just started there.

it's zero in the second against the Yankees.

So, yeah, there's a possibility, Tyler, the pirates are within four games of a playoff spot by the end of tonight.

We'll see.

We'll see.

It's possible.

It is.

It's just insane right now.

but yeah, let's get everybody's, let's get everybody's hashtag raises in there.

You ready to give away some sandwiches, Tyler?

Let's give them away.

All right.

All right.

You guys know the drill.

Hashtag raise it.

Gets you into the drawing for two free per Manny brother sandwiches.

And remember, just from a karma standpoint, you're not going to win unless you like the video.

You got to like the video.

So I'm going to give you like two seconds to just hit the little like button right now.

If you don't like it, you're probably not going to win.

I'm just going to, it's going to tell you that.

So that's how it works.

That's how it works.

So best of luck to everyone.

Again, we're going to give away two sandwiches to two different people.

First winner is Hamilton, the babe Porter, Hamilton, the babe Porter.

Congratulations.

Email us, just the email address that's associated with your per Manny brothers account.

and we'll get those things sent over to per Manny's for you.

So congratulations, and winner number two, Tyler, Brandon Clevenger, Brandon Clevenger.

Congratulations.

You're the second winner again, emailed North shore nine at gmail.com all words, no letters N I N E at gmail.com.

the email address associated with your per Manny brothers account, and we will, get those over to you.

So Tyler tomorrow lefty on the mound.

You see Kikuchi against Braxton Ashcraft.

What's FanDuel got this?

They have the Pirates favored minus one 78 on the money line, which big favorites.

Yeah.

With Braxton Ashcraft on the mound, they tend to be favorites.

Like I said earlier, they have their horses, big favorites again.

Angels aren't good.

We talked about on NS nine live last night.

Like they got to sweep the series.

They want to, if they want to do something just incredibly insane, the end of this season.

And when incredibly insane, I'm talking like 16 and five, 17 and four.

They can't lose a game to the angels at home.

You can't.

So you got to keep winning.

Got to keep winning.

You just got to win every night.

Basically.

also, I guess, I guess Montgomery emoji is live.

So shout out.

Thank you.

Steel city.

10, $10.

Let's go.

DiNardo, the hero created Montgomery.

See, bullying works.

Sometimes bullying does work.

Bring it back.

All right.

You got anything else to add here?

No, we'll be back tomorrow.

Hopefully giving away more sandwiches.

Yeah.

Let's just keep winning.

Keep winning.

Winning's fun.

Keep winning.

You just got to keep winning.

Every game.

All right, guys.

Appreciate you all.

Again, like the video, subscribe if you haven't.

we'll be back tomorrow.

Let's Go Bucs.

Peace out, of course, Scouts.

All right.

That wraps up this episode of North Shore Nine.

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Bye.

Bye.