The hellish skid from playoff prominence continued on Thursday night as the Pirates lost to their division rivals the Cincinnati Reds 3-2. Despite the bullpen doing an admirable job to keep the Reds at bay all game, the offence capitulated yet again and couldn’t capitalise on facing one of the worst starters in baseball. The team went 1-7 with RISP, including not scoring with the bases loaded in the 7th inning. The Bucs have now fallen to .500 and are in danger of becoming sellers if the ship isn’t turned around fast. Watch Tyler and Jim break down the game in detail here:

This Team Can Never Be Good at Everything

If the Pirates had this kind of bullpen performance in April and May, the team would’ve been 10 games over .500 and comfortably in a playoff spot heading into the deadline. Instead, as soon as the bullpen starts pitching well for 2 weeks, the offense suddenly vanishes into thin air. Gregory Soto was not good, but a bullpen game surrendering 3 runs over 9 innings is a win for this team. Especially when facing Rhett Lowder, who has an era in the mid-5s, you would expect this to be an easy win for the Pirates. The reality was that the Pirates offense couldn’t get anything going yet again, scoring only 2 runs. The team has consistently had 2/3 of a playoff team, whereas the other third has sunk their ability to go on prolonged winning streaks. It now threatens the team’s ability to buy at the deadline because of 5 other teams fighting for the same playoff spot.

This Team Lacks a Clutch Gene

Statistically, the Pirates are clearly one of the best teams in baseball. They have accumulated the top 5 WAR in the league, as well as being one of the best run generators in the sport. They have gotten elite performances from some of their starting pitching and have some guys who are statistically reliable. Yet this has not translated into wins that reflect these stats, because they have struggled all year to close out close games. This team is not good at coming through in high-leverage situations, including both the bullpen and the offense. The team had 7 at-bats with runners in scoring position tonight and only delivered a hit a single time. Gregory Soto only surrendered a single hit, but because he can’t control his pitches, he basically walked home the winning run tonight. It has been great fun to watch this team effortlessly dump double-digit runs on opponents repeatedly this season. However, I would happily forgo those wins if they could learn how to close out games like this and during the Diamondbacks series. The season depends on it.

Jacob Gonzalez Is Ben Cherington’s Poster Boy

Ever since the Cleveland series, Jacob Gonzalez has been pretty much worthless in terms of offensive output. He only got one at bat tonight, and has been rarely used since arriving in Pittsburgh. He is slashing .219/.212/.438 and has an OPS+ of 72 in a Pittsburgh uniform. Ben intentionally decided to not help the bullpen by acquiring Brooks Raley (sub 2.50 ERA) from the Mets and instead went for pure value. Gonzalez has not been able to show that value on a consistent basis when the offense needed him the most. He could be the offensive spark that is needed to pick up a slumping Bryan Reynolds and Ryan O’Hearn, and instead he’s a bench bat that occasionally replaces Jared Triolo. It’s not fair to lay most of the blame at Gonzalez’s feet, but it is a good microcosm of how Cherington operates. He is always playing for next year and not addressing the current needs to the team. He did it in 2024 where he barely committed to buying, and unless he radically changes his approach in the next week we will see something similar at this deadline.