The Pirates kicked off Yinzerpalooza on Friday with an agonizing 3-2 loss in front of a packed crowd. The Cubs were begging the Pirates to win this game on numerous occasions. Despite their generosity, the Bucs decided they wanted it even less by shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly. They wasted a start where Jared Jones looked excellent yet again, and the bullpen even held its own quite well. The Pirates are now only two games over .500 and two games behind the Diamondbacks for the last wild card spot in the National League. Watch Tyler and I complain about this game for half an hour here:

Here’s my three takeaways from this one:

The Cubs Made Winning Plays. The Pirates Made Losing Plays

The difference tonight ultimately came down to the fundamentals. Neither team was tearing the cover off the baseball, and both pitching staffs were dealing. The Cubs erased multiple Pirates runs from excellent defensive baseball while the Pirates hit/ran themselves out of chances to break the game open. The Pirates had a long laundry list of bad plays (cue circus music montage): Jake Mangum dropped a routine fly ball. Henry Davis is not going 1st to 3rd on Mangum’s single. The third base coach is not noticing Hoerner making an amazing diving play. Getting doubled up with a runner on third. Scoring 1 run with the bases loaded and no outs with the top of the lineup coming up. Wilber Dotel not beating Happ to the bag. Henry Davis is standing 50 feet behind home plate to receive a throw. Walking PCA on 2-0 with an erratic Yohan Ramirez. Jake Mangum is bunting down 2 runs. Mistakes were made repeatedly, and the Cubs eventually took advantage to win this game. The Pirates cannot escape their habit of claiming defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Best Hitters Are All Slumping at Once

The Pirates’ offense was abysmal tonight in every way possible. I cannot be mad at the trio of Brandon Lowe, Bryan Reynolds, and Ryan O’Hearn because they have been crucial to our success. Even great players go through cold stretches throughout the 162-game season. In a vacuum none of these should worry any fan. It is deeply unfortunate that they are all slumping at the same time, as all 3 players are having brutal Julys. With Oneil Cruz, Endy Rodriguez, and Spencer Horwitz injured, the top 5 offense is finally slowing down. It is not fair to lay blame at their feet, but they combined for 2 hits tonight and made no impact when it came to driving in runs. Jake Mangum and Nick Gonzales cannot be the driving forces of a good offense; they need to be in their place as secondary pieces to complement the real stars. Hopefully, one of these 3 will break out of their slump and help propel the Pirates to a series win this weekend.

Wilber Dotel Can Be as Good as a Trade

Because Jared Jones has been so good for a month that I am running out of things to say, my one positive will be about Wilber Dotel. Outside of being beat to the bag on an infield hit by Ian Happ, Dotel was excellent tonight. The Pirates are in desperate need of competent right-handed relievers. Dotel can be an answer to that prayer and is showing excellent stuff in his 2 appearances back from the IL. Slowly but surely he is being allowed to handle high-leverage situations, and his 7th inning tonight was a good sign he can handle the pressure. Dotel and Montgomery are separating themselves from the rest of the clowns in the Pirates bullpen as reliable guys. Now it is up to Cherington to get some more guys around them at the deadline so the team can be a complete contender.