Despite getting one of Mitch Keller‘s better starts on the season and peppering the bases with base runners all game, the Pirates drop another frustrating game to the Mariners 3-2. The Pirates went 2-8 with RISP and left 9 runners on, leaving a sinking feeling set in that they let another winnable game slip from their grasps. The Pirates fall under .500 yet again and look to rebound back to .500 tomorrow. Watch Dinardo and Doug break the game down here:

Veteran Leadership Needs to Step Up

The Pirates have quite a lot of veterans on this team, and despite having talented youngsters, it is not a particularly young team either. Marcell Ozuna, Ryan O’Hearn, Bryan Reynolds, Brandon Lowe, Mitch Keller, etc. Some of these guys have been meaningful faces during playoff pushes and even World Series-winning runs. They should be demonstrating leadership to the rest of the clubhouse, but so far it hasn’t been showing. The Pirates continue to make rookie mistakes repeatedly, not hit in clutch situations, and overall keep throwing away winnable games. The veteran players should be coming up and delivering game-winning hits and moments, and instead they are faltering with the rest of the young guys. Unless this team learns situational awareness and winning baseball attitudes, they will continue to underperform. They cannot continue to be elite in low leverage situations and fade when the games are on the line.

Mitch Keller is Pitching Good Enough to Win

Mitch Keller was good over his 6 innings tonight against a talented Mariners lineup. I was skeptical about letting him go out for a 7th when he has been so poor, but I understand Kelly not wanting to go to the bullpen until he has to. Mitch has recorded his 8th quality start tonight and kept the Mariners at bay for the most part despite allowing 8 base runners. When your starter goes 6 innings and only gives up 1 run and you have a lead going into the final 3 innings, you should win that baseball game. Mitch hasn’t been good enough this year; his 4.90 ERA points to that. However, he deserved a win tonight and didn’t get it because the Pirates consistently bailed George Kirby out of bad situations throughout the night. Long term, Keller looks much sharper in how he is limiting hard contact and preventing walks from ruining his outings. If he is able to strike out even a few more batters per game, there will be a genuinely good pitcher for the rest of the season.

WPIAL Is a Terrorist Organiation

Cole Young joins the long list of players who grew up in Pittsburgh ripping the soul out of Pirates fans whenever they visit PNC Park. It’s bad enough having Ian Happ and JJ Whetherholt in the division; now the Pirates are losing games because of WPIAL graduates like Cole Young hitting nukes out of the park. Despite Young having an OPS below .700 and having struggled in his early MLB career, he got the magic pixie dust every opponent who grew up in a Pittsburgh suburb has as soon as he entered the North Shore. It is crazy how consistently these guys perform against the Pirates, and it seems reasonable to me that the entire region just stop playing baseball collectively so I don’t have to keep torturing myself watching this garbage.