The Pirates pitching stymied the Phillies to one run on a hot afternoon day in Philly for a 6-1 win and a series split. Esmerlyn Valdez was the story again for the offense as he went 2-for-4 with three RBIs including a go-ahead RBI triple in the 7th inning that broke the game open. Jared Jones, Carmen Mlodzinski, Gregory Soto and Mason Montgomery shut down this Phillies lineup and limited them to just one run on four hits all game. Cody and Neil recapped this one on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti Bros. You can watch/listen to the show here:

Here’s my three takeaways from this win.

Jared Jones Looked Great

Jared Jones started his outing off setting the tone by striking out the side in the bottom of the 1st…that was Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. He finished with 11 whiffs for a 35% whiff rate and only allowed one run to this good Phillies lineup. That run came off a Harper double after Jones got into some trouble with walks, but that was it. He got out of that inning and then worked around an Alec Bohm double in the 2nd inning and he limited the damage in that one inning. He wasn’t too efficient, you’d like to see him get through 5 innings even on the 75-pitch count, but his four innings were really good. I thought it was a great step forward for him and hopefully he can continue lowering that ERA. Then Mlodzinski came in and fired three scoreless innings to bridge them to Soto and Montgomery. They all threw scoreless frames out of the pen shutting down the Phillies in this afternoon win. This is what the Pirates pitching was supposed to be this season.

Did the Pirates Just Hit the Lottery with Esmerlyn?

Anyone who’s followed the North Shore Nine for the past couple seasons already knew about Esmerlyn Valdez. We were all over his ascension through the minor leagues, we were in person for the tear that he went on at the Arizona Fall League last fall. The dude just raked everywhere he went. And now he’s doing it in Pittsburgh in the Majors. It’s incredible what he’s been able to do. The magician has officially arrived. And on Thursday afternoon, he ripped the go-ahead RBI triple to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. He also drove in the first run of the game and then came through late with the bases loaded and hit a sac fly to the outfield for his third RBI. He’s hitting .316 and slugging .737! That’s not his OPS, that’s a .737 slugging percentage. And it’s not just lefties, he’s hitting righthanders too. And the Pirates are being smart and playing him everyday. I love everything about this. But is this just a hot streak or is Valdez for real? Did the Pirates just hit the lotto with this kid? Boy, would that be a huge win if he’s the real deal. In the mean time, I’m going to enjoy the ride while we find out.

Haaaaaangin’ Around

The Pirates win Thursday moved them back to .500…again. We’ve done this I think five times in the past two weeks. I ultimately don’t think this team will be making the playoffs this season, but they are hanging around .500 and just split a road series with a good Phillies team. Their only shot is to finally get hot at some point soon. Hang around .500, get more consistency from your starting rotation, make some trades for the bullpen and maybe you can rip off 8 straight or 12-out-of-13 this month or in August. That’s really their only shot at this in my opinion. A lot of people predicted this team would be at .500 at season’s end and at this point, .500 seems like this team’s floor. But they need to improve the team with trades.