The Pirates grinded out another low scoring victory against the Angels on Sunday, winning off the bat of a Henry Davis solo home run. Despite being outscored 6-3 this series and never scoring more than 1 run in any game, the Bucs managed to squeeze out 2 victories against one of the worst teams in baseball. The offense continues to struggle, Paul Skenes was good but shaky, and the team continues to drift around .500. Watch DiNardo and Doug breakdown the game in detail here:
The Offense Still Sucks
It is nothing short of a miracle that the Pirates leave PNC Park with their 4th straight series win. The offense was putrid against a very pedestrian pitching staff the Angels threw at them. Scoring one run a game against one of the worst teams in baseball with your season on life support is terrible, and they are lucky the rest of the team picked them up. It was great to see Henry go yard in a season he’s struggled mightily in, but 3 hits total is embarrassing. Walbert Urena looked like prime Randy Johnson and has to be furious he didn’t earn a win for the masterclass he put on today. The offense cannot continue to drag the team down; the lineup has too many good players now.
Horwitz/Reynolds/Cruz/Lowe/Griffin/Gonzales should be more than capable of putting up more than 1 run against a bad Angels team. The offensive players should be forced to take economy class on the flight to Chicago.
It’s Still Not Good Enough
Despite the Pirates being extremely lucky this weekend, I have the same message I had after the Giants series: They need sweeps not winning 2 out of 3 games. This was the easiest stretch of 6 games the Pirates had remaining, and now they get 9 straight against playoff teams. Winning 6 straight against these bad teams would have them at .500 and sitting only a couple of games out of. a wild card spot. There would be a real belief this team could fight for a spot in the playoffs with how good the pitching staff has been. Instead, our playoff odds sit below 3%, and we have quite a small gauntlet to face. They have 5 games to make up with some 20 games left to play. They must go out and sweep the White Sox, but this team doesn’t sweep anyone so I won’t be holding my breath.
How Did Cherington Mess Up the Bullpen?
Watching this current bullpen core pitch is fun and infuriating at the same time. The front office clearly has an eye for what kind of arms they want for the bullpen, and yet the pen was a garbage fire for the first half of the season. Ever since the trade deadline and the bullpen got bolstered, they have been excellent, like they were today. Doval, Mlodzinski, Soto, and Montgomery combined for 4.2 shut-out innings and never really came close to letting the Angels score. It begs the question of what Ben was thinking when assembling the bullpen in the offseason. Even having 1 or 2 more competent arms early in the season has this team over .500 and believing in Buctober. Despite objectively fixing the bad bullpen, it will be that bullpen that will ultimately cost Cherington his job if he doesn’t make the playoffs this year.
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