The Pirates drop another game in front of their largest crowd since 2024: 11-0 to the Chicago Cubs. The Bucs got outclassed in every facet of the game, and the Cubs pummeled them for every mistake made. Despite Paul Skenes looking magnificent through 4 innings, he still was saddled with 5 runs at the end of his start. The Pirates are still within arm’s reach of a wild card spot, but the team continues to frustrate the fans with losses like these. Watch Jim and I break down the game in detail here:

Shota Imanaga Remains Unhittable

The Pirates have never been able to hit Shota Imanaga since he arrived in the Windy City, and that trend continued Saturday night. Through 9 innings the Pirates had no threat to score whatsoever, but Imanaga was particularly dominant. Over his 6 innings, he only surrendered 5 base runners, and none of them were for extra-base hits. He didn’t need to strike many Pirates hitters out, instead forcing weak contact from the Bucs all night. He only allowed one runner to reach scoring position, and that was off a double error committed by the Cubs’ defenders. The Pirates finished the game 0-1 with RISP and had no answer for the veteran lefty. He now has a 0.24 ERA (1 earned run) over 6 starts in his career against Pittsburgh. It shouldn’t be possible to be this bad against such an average starter.

My Kingdom for a Healthy Lineup

The Pirates have not been scoring runs recently, they have 1 run in their last 27 innings (not counting Manfred Rule Innings). Tonight they had 0 threat to score all game, as Jake Mangum was the only player to even reach 2nd base. They only got 5 hits, and everyone in the lineup had a terrible game. The team right now is in the perfect storm of bad luck of their 3 best veterans playing terribly and missing other key parts of the lineup. As it stands, the team is missing their best 1B (Horwitz), C (Endy), SS (Griffin), and CF (Cruz). The bats missing make them particularly vulnerable against lefty pitching, especially with Cruz and Griffin beating up southpaws when healthy. We have been fortunate to have scored as much as we have with the pieces missing, but eventually the lack of damage catches up to every team. The Pirates need to tread water until they guys return, or find reinforcements at the deadline to prevent a total collapse.

Paul Skenes is Fine

If you simply looked at the box score tonight, you might come to the conclusion that Paul Skenes pitched poorly. In reality, Skenes was brilliant for most of the night and was deeply unfortunate to surrender the runs that he did. He generated over 20 whiffs, struck out 11, and was untouchable through his first 4 innings. The Cubs had an absurd batting average of over .500 on balls in play despite an average exit velocity of 85 mph. Skenes simply got BABIP’d tonight and eventually let down by terrible bullpen pitching that let his 2 inherited runners cross the plate. There has been reasonable annoyance at Skenes for not being the ace the Pirates needed this season. If Skenes continues to give us outings like this, he is going to be the ace the team needs down the stretch. His stuff was filthy, and he is due for some luck on his side that he has not got all season.