Our Takeaways from a Disastrous Road Trip that Ends with the Bucs in Last Place

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My name is Nathan.

Alongside me is Doug, and Doug, this road trip absolutely stunk.

Yeah.

this team, we thought they'd have reasons to be motivated, right?

You're going to go play Cincinnati, you have an opportunity, right, to gain some ground.

They're supposedly a bad team, and they take three or four from you.

You acquire all these relievers, you redo the bullpen more than any of us expected.

You thought that would breathe some life into this team, and no, nothing, nobody, no signs of life, no pulse, no energy, just they look flat, they look disengaged, they look uninterested.

Yeah, it's a disappointment.

This is, even when they were collapsing with the 10-game losing streak in 24, it seemed like they were fighting.

It was just, like bullpen implosions and stuff like that.

This is just a whole team effort of nothing.

runners picked off first base, runners thrown out at third base, all very reminiscent of last year.

the pitching, the offense giving nothing, the pitching not able to, keep it under, it's hard to keep it under two runs.

So, and yeah, and there's just nothing.

So we acquired these guys at the deadline and hey, this bullpen looks better.

They just don't have leads to protect.

Yeah.

Like people were like, why are we even trading for Weaver?

They yet to use Luke Weaver because there's yet to be a single opportunity because the Pirates offense in this second half, Doug, I'll just put it simply.

They've fallen asleep.

They have the, we were, people were comparing them to the lumber company 2.0 and I've seen comments comparing them to Lincoln logs.

Now that is what they have turned into.

and it is really bad to watch.

And it's not just Esmerlyn Valdez.

And I, here's the thing with Valdez, he didn't even play today.

You could argue that this offense was being absolutely carried by Esmerlyn Valdez during that hot streak.

He was on last month.

Now that he's struggling.

I feel like this off offense has been exposed and Doug, you want to read this super track from Michael B our benefactor.

Hi, Doug.

I told you, my friend, the season is over.

Yes, you did.

little league base running poor fundamentals.

This is on Don Kelly, awful manager back in last place.

Now again, Michael, I have to, I say this to nearly every one of your super chats.

I can't argue.

I can say it's probably not all Don Kelly's fault, but you're right.

it's bad, but it's all that fundamental stuff.

All the stuff, a small market team has to do all the stuff, a team, we have to win in the margins and, Ben Cherington doesn't pay attention to the margins.

And it apparently nobody else in the organization does everywhere.

We're not a fundamentally sound team.

And for this team to win, they have to be fundamentally sound, but we give away outs on the base pass.

We give extra runners, when we're in the field, they're awful.

And everybody like should be held accountable, right?

Don Kelly, he's got a target square on his back.

Cherington does.

but I don't think any of it matters.

I don't think there'll be any change.

they're going to tell you that they did everything the way they were supposed to.

They had a little bad luck with the bullpen early on, but that it was injuries that derailed the season.

And that will be enough reason for, Bob nutting, Mr.

I don't have a pulse.

I don't have a competitive bone in my body.

I don't hold people accountable.

And I do know that I don't give them enough to win.

Contrary to what I say every once in a while, when I pop my head out of my hole.

so yeah, Michael, absolutely.

Right.

Can't argue.

I completely agree with you and Michael be there.

Like I've been saying in the discord, everyone who watches, no, I'm a doomer in the discord, but the thing, my theory about this team is you're way too young to be this bear.

This team is destined at anything at most for a 500 record.

And they're going to use the injury excuse at the end of the year.

Like you just said, they are going to use the injury excuse.

But as Michael B also brought back up in that end of his super chat, they're back in last place.

They're not 57 and 60.

They're going to be a half a game back of Cincinnati.

And which is crazy that the pirates basically let their reds pass them up because the reds embarrassed them at the beginning of this road trip.

And those games were already talked about and let's just try to, I'm going to try to stick the most we can with today's game, but like, they didn't give much to talk about the offense.

Again, six hits that you should have had an error there.

I'm surprised they didn't give Nick Gonzales an error at third base.

I should have been an error.

That's an error.

Listening on the radio on my way home from work.

And they're like, it's a hit for now.

It was like Greg Brown said on the TV broadcast.

It's a hit for now, but I wouldn't be shocked if they're going to change that.

I was rewatching the play and I was like, how are you not making that play?

It's a ground out third piece.

Yeah.

Oh, it's frustrating.

Yeah, it really is.

Because again, these are things that frustrate you when you're watching, if I, if I go to watch Tyler's high school team play and his third baseman doesn't make that play, I'm like, look, buddy, you've got to coach that kid up.

He's got to make that play.

and we've got Nick Gonzales, not routinely, not making that play.

He doesn't make the routine play.

He routinely doesn't make the plays is the proper verbiage for him.

And again, it's just, nobody seems the least bit concerned over there, right?

There's, nobody.

Let's get back to it with Michael B.

Sorry.

I know I'm a glass half empty type guy, but I wasn't jumping up and down with BC's trade moves.

Why?

It was too late.

The time to trade was in June.

Again, I was saying that on this show many times, as were many others.

I wasn't, spouting anything original.

I was complaining in May when they're saying nobody makes trades now.

And that if you would have, you got Luke Weaver, Sammy Satfora.

If you would have sweetened out a little, I think you could have got that.

You know what I'm saying?

or similar type trades.

I don't, I know teams, they want to wait.

Wait to the deadline as much as possible so they can cash in on desperation and that thing.

So to circumvent that, you offer a little more now, make the trade now.

And Luke Weaver would have been a good guy to acquire.

He's got a, we'd have him for next year.

So it's not like you're just, it's a rental.

And yeah, no, they, I like the moves, but I agree.

It sure would have been nice to see just one of them maybe, or two of, one in June, one in July, that thing, stanch the bleeding.

And they don't do that.

Ben Cherington doesn't have a pulse.

He trusts his process.

He's analytically driven.

And, one of advanced analytics favorite things to do is blame bad luck when all of their numbers are right, but they don't get the results.

They say, we just ran into a little bad luck.

And, Ben's on record saying that we were a little unlucky with the bullpen.

I think you were woefully unprepared with the bullpen.

And you had bad luck, right?

We all thought Dennis Santana was going to be good this year.

I don't blame him for that.

But I was saying last season, spring, I'm not sure that Isaac Mattskin can repeat what he did last year.

And guess what?

He couldn't.

So if I could see it, and I'm as much an idiot as anybody, a guy paying millions of dollars should have at least considered it as a possibility and had an option somewhere, somehow, some way.

And it did not.

So yeah, here we are.

It's, but I still don't understand why this team seems to be mailing it in.

Right.

The moves, the opportunity in front of them should be enough to get any human excited.

You know what I'm saying?

And they just, they just look like they've checked out.

And I know baseball, even keel playing one game at a time, all that stuff, but man, they all just look bored.

They all look like they're ready to go home.

Exactly.

And to bring up that point again, you brought up like people were bringing up, why not trade for Luke Weaver earlier?

If not a Luke Weaver, you could have probably got Kirby Yates a couple months ago or like Locker a couple months ago.

Those were guys that, well, Kirby Yates mainly was a guy traded for nothing.

He was traded for a Lika Williams, practically, Doug.

You could have got him at least instead of like a Ron Marinaccio.

It sure seems to me like you could have got him for what you did and then throw in some high ceiling prospect down there, in the, in the complex league

or something, right?

Something that may, maybe it gets you.

Maybe, five years from now, we're saying, oh, wow.

Oh, Neil Cruz for Tony, that thing.

But we're, the Pirates don't have an opportunity to win every year.

And when they have one, they should jump on it, and they should grab it by the throat, and they haven't, they've, they're as always, trusting their processes, business as usual, that thing.

And, again, from a fan, for people that have passion for this team, who live and die with this team, it's very frustrating.

More Michael B.

We should have, we should have put him in as a co-host.

If the Pirates were a serious organization, Bill Murphy would have been given his walking papers already.

There is no coincidence.

Every picture is worse.

Again, hard to argue with.

This one, I say, and, Michael, we've had this exchange before, Matt Haig, we all wanted to run him out of town last year.

if you got, I'm supposing you have to give him a year, but yeah, it's very damning that every pitcher on the team, including the greatest pitcher many of us had ever seen, have taken huge steps backwards.

The only person that did take a step backward is Braxton Ashcraft.

And all he did was stay the same.

He, it's not like, Billy Murphy said, Hey man, if you just stand one inch over on here, you're going to get, he didn't, he hasn't done anything to help him either.

Yeah.

And I, as I was bringing up earlier before all the super chats for Michael B.

So thank you, Michael B.

I brought up about how this offense has been struggling.

I've seen a couple of comments so far, and I completely agree with everyone.

And I was bringing up the fact that Valdez did not play today and he's been slumping and it was a due day offer Esmerlyn Valdez.

But I brought up the point before the super chats started coming in about how he was carrying this offense basically all by himself.

He basically swept the brewers all by himself.

Yeah.

He was the July offense.

Right.

Yeah, exactly.

And ever since the Cleveland road trip, I could just watching it up in the press box in Cleveland, guys like Bryan Reynolds slumping.

Oh, for three again today, scored a run, but struck out three times, walked once.

Of course, Horwitz, he's coming off the aisle.

I'm not as angry with how Horwitz has been playing because he has to catch back up to pitching.

Brandon Lowe, that last strikeout was horrendous in the dirt.

There's been a lot of that this year.

Jake Mangum, a hit today.

He's coming back down to earth, I would say.

He's now down to a .298 batting average.

Endy Rodríguez in the cleanup spot today, had the hit, but struck out twice.

This team strikes out way too much, I think, for all of our likings.

Nine strikeouts today.

We saw it last night.

I think it was like eight or nine strikeouts in a row.

This is hurting, it's hurting the team.

The offense is incapable of getting a rally now because it's just one, two, three.

Here comes three strikeouts in a row.

One, two, three.

Here's a ground out, base hit, and then a double play.

We saw that in the ninth inning from Ronny Simon.

Oh, yeah.

Ronny Simon, leading hitter in the International League.

Reminds me of when we got Hoy Park, who was the leading hitter in the International League at that time.

This is what happens.

Guys that spend a lot of time at the Miners can do well in AAA.

More often than not, they're not going to do well at Major League Baseball level.

Yeah, it's, again, it's very reminiscent of last year.

Team looked checked out.

Nobody can hit.

We're striking out like crazy.

We're getting thrown out.

Like, and he does get a hit.

He gets thrown out at third.

Again, I love his fire and enthusiasm, but, you've got to funnel that into the right directions.

And, yeah, it's just, it's not been good.

And the thing is, right, it's hard to believe it's going to get any better, right?

Yeah.

and baseball is a funny game.

They could wake up tomorrow and, but, it's funny.

We got the Mets coming to town.

They're one of the worst teams in baseball.

They've sold a bunch of players off, but none of us are saying, oh, the Mets are coming.

We can take this series.

And that's a very pirate-y fan thing to do.

We're like, oh, gosh, here come the Reds.

We got it made.

we're going to take three out of four.

We might even sweep them.

And, no, and now the Mets are coming down.

And now we're like, oh, God, we're afraid of the Mets.

Yep.

And it brings up, who is Brian?

Says the Mets scored 13 tonight.

Yeah, they're coming to PNC Park right after this.

And we haven't scored 13 all week.

It's been a while since they've gotten to double digits.

No, in the total for the week.

Total run scored for the week.

Exactly.

The way this offense has been playing, Doug, I don't know the next time we'll see a game like that.

But I guess let's just get into more of the game.

Since we've been ranting about the offense, let's shift gears.

Let's go to the pitching side.

Braxton Ashcraft, I wouldn't call it great after his last outing in Cincinnati.

Five innings, four hits, four earned runs, one walk, five strikeouts, two homers.

The solo home runs kill Braxton Ashcraft.

Yeah.

And they said, I was listening to the, I was, I had the TV broadcast on at work.

I'm such a great employee.

But I'm listening to what Matt Capp said after the first home run by Jackson Churio, basically saying solo home runs aren't going to kill you.

For some reason with this Pirates pitching staff, I don't know if it's just me, Doug.

I think solo home runs do kill this team.

They start rallies for the other.

It's just, any home run is going to kill you.

It sure seems that way in the Paul Skenes and Braxton Ashcraft starts, right?

Jared Jones, too.

Jared Jones, too.

We don't have margin for error.

This team's not that good.

yeah.

Solo home runs don't hurt Greg Maddox.

They don't hurt Randy Johnson.

they didn't hurt Paul Skenes last year.

But if you're giving up hits and you're giving up walks and that thing, a solo home run is going to get you.

And, obviously you have opportunities for that to be, two and three run homers, that thing.

But also, right, it's you're throwing more pitches.

You're tiring out faster.

you're losing your edge and your control a little bit sooner.

And, right, next, you give up a solo home run and the next guy hits a double.

So, it's like, well, the double didn't kill you either.

But until the next guy hits a single, you walk the next guy, Nick Gonzales, does not field the next thing, that thing.

Yeah, again, this team does not have room.

They can't be comfortable.

We can't shrug our shoulders and say, oh, that's fine.

it's just a two-out solo home run.

It's not, it's not that bad.

It's the moving of the goalposts, basically.

It's, oh, it was only a solo home run.

Well, then what happens later in the game?

We'll get to the fourth, the fifth inning it was, but let's just go through Ashcraft really quick, inning by inning.

After that solo home run that was nuked by Churio, Mangum misses it.

And I forget who posted on Twitter the exact same shot of Michael A. Taylor robbing that home run in the same spot in Milwaukee.

Mangum misses it.

It's 1-0, is what it is.

But then Ashcraft bounces back, strikes out Garrett Mitchell and Andrew Vaughn.

And immediately, okay, he turned it around.

He got out of the inning.

He can't complain.

He only allowed the one, and then you just had to hope and pray this Pirates offense can score.

We go to the bottom of the second.

Ground out, strike out, ground out.

Ashcraft stays solid there.

Bottom of the third, leadoff walk.

This always comes back to bite the Pirates some way, shape, or form.

David Hamilton would steal second base immediately.

Wild pitch by Braxton.

Ashcraft moves Hamilton to third.

And then Cooper Pratt, without the Brewers even having to get a hit in this inning, gets a sacrifice fly.

So, leadoff walks are another team that hurts this pitching staff.

We've seen it from Skenes.

We saw it with Skenes last night.

He escaped out of that first inning, but the first guy, he walked on four pitches.

Right.

Like, leadoff walks.

You can't keep playing with fire and not get burnt.

And that's what this pitching staff has done for the better part of this year, right?

Skenes and Mitch both had a great April, but it started pretty quickly going downhill after that.

And, Ashcraft is very close to his innings limit.

He's pitched more than he's ever pitched before.

He's wearing down.

Yeah, it's ugly.

Yeah, so after that sacrifice fly, he gets the ground out, and another ground out gets out of the inning.

Only allows the sacrifice fly.

You're only down 2-0.

The Pirates' offense would surge back, and I guess we can talk about this.

Right now, Brandon Lowe homers, No. 24, he makes it 2-1.

Reynolds would walk his one-time on base today.

Endy singles, he's had an okay series, in my opinion, hitting-wise.

Horwitz singles ties up the game.

He's had some good RBI chances here in Milwaukee.

He comes through here to tie it up.

Nicky G and Ronny Simon.

And Endy got thrown out at third.

Yes, he did, yeah.

On the Horwitz.

I don't know how much of a difference that would have made.

Like I said, the other two guys made quick outs, but I don't know.

Maybe one would have advanced into third.

Maybe the next one knocks him in.

I don't know what happens.

But yeah, it's, again, bad baseball by the Pirates.

And you're making outs on the bases, and we'll get to one of them.

But Brandon Lowe, congratulations.

He is now the, has the all-time mark for home runs for a Pirate second baseman, passing Neil Walker from, a few years back.

And also, I think he hit the over on his home run total.

That, our, Tyler and DiNardo, Jim just says he presented.

It was 22 and a half, whatever.

He's surpassed it, I'm sure, now.

It was either 23 or 24.

So, they both missed that.

So, Jim has probably surged into the lead in their competition.

Jim also thought under, but since he presented the question, it does not, he gets to not count.

Exactly.

So, Doug, you like to say the Pirates pitching staff loves to give runs right back when they tie the game or take the lead.

Ashcraft would stop this for an inning.

Ground out.

Three straight outs there.

Good stuff from Ashcraft.

Top of the fifth.

The Pirates offense does nothing to provide anything there from Jacob Gonzalez, Henry Davis, and Jake Mangum.

Bottom of the fifth, though, you get a strikeout on Lara, one of the Brewers rookies.

And then Gary Sanchez hits an absolute nuke to left center field for his ninth of the year.

He makes it three to two.

Again, another situation where you could say, does this solo home run kill you?

As they've said on the broadcast, solo home runs don't kill you.

That one did.

It was at least very painful.

That was the game-winning run.

That was the difference.

It was over.

That was it.

It would have been nice if we would have just agreed with that and just wrapped it all up and didn't have to watch the rest of it.

End the game right there.

So, 3-2.

Gary Sanchez homers off of Ashcraft.

His second home run allowed today.

David Hamilton strikes out.

He bounced back after that.

Cooper Pratt doubles.

And then let's get to one of many Nick Gonzales mishaps today.

Brice Turang would single on a ball that gets past Nick Gonzales's glove.

I'm surprised this has not been changed to an error yet, Doug.

The Brewers have seven hits still.

I don't understand how it wasn't immediately ruled an error.

It was very strange to me.

I know they're softer and more gentler about this.

They're giving everybody hits.

But, man, that was just an error.

I didn't think of anything else.

Yeah.

Was it you and Tyler bringing up this whole argument?

Like, these are errors.

These are costing them two runs.

Yeah, it was Tyler and I.

These are costing them runs.

And just like that, it is now 4-2 with an offense that was only able to put up two runs today.

And lately, they have not been hitting well.

So, Ashcraft allows the four runs there.

His day is done.

We got to see Gregory Soto then come in.

He allows a double to lead things off.

Andrew Vaughn singles to give him a 5-2 to lead.

And then Soto, being Soto, strikes out the next two guys, allows a single to Gary Sanchez, and strikes out David Hamilton.

So, the Gregory Soto experience is three hits, three strikeouts, one earned run.

Then we go to the bottom of the seventh.

You see Camilo Doval come in.

Allows a walk, but the ending ends on a caught stealing by Jackson Churio.

So, good stuff there by Duval to get out of it.

And then lastly, Kirby Yates came in.

Got another appearance, second since the trade.

He got two strikeouts in a clean inning.

So, good stuff from Kirby Yates today.

I've been impressed by Kirby Yates.

Honestly, I've been surprised by Kirby Yates.

It's only been two outings.

I know Angels fans were excited to have him off the team.

But I think he was pitching in a lot higher leverage situations in Anaheim compared to what I think he's going to be doing in Pittsburgh.

So, I like what Kirby Yates has been doing.

I wish they could.

He's going to be mop-up duty, right?

He's not going to be in high leverage situations because we're not going to have high leverage situations, right?

I wish we could have gotten to see Luke Weaver any of these games, but they haven't had the opportunity to use the guy.

And poor Luke Weaver was probably like, wow, I got traded to a team that's hypothetically in the playoff race, and they've lost every game since they've all arrived.

And it's not even their fault.

No.

Right.

They have not blown.

They've been fine.

They have done exactly what they're supposed to do.

Keep the, turn it over.

Keep good, clean innings going.

That's what they've done.

It just doesn't matter because our offense is just, hitless and witless.

Yeah, and this, it's funny, Doug, I saw someone on Twitter say this.

It's funny, once this bull, the second half started, the bullpens had their downs, but this bullpen has been surprisingly solid for the most part, besides a couple blow-ups.

It's been okay.

It's been the offense and the starting pitching now that has let this team down.

And the theme of the Pittsburgh Pirates, in my opinion, and I think all of our opinions, has always been, they can't do everything right all at once.

They are incapable of that.

There's always something that goes wrong.

It could be great pitching, but you have horrible defense and horrible hitting.

It could be great offense, but everything else in the pitching side is not great.

It could be your offense and your starters are great, but then your bullpen comes in and blows it, like we've seen this year, the bullpen side of things.

They've got to figure things out.

The Pirates are a great team, right?

They pick each other up with the bad, you know?

It's like, hey, you got yesterday's loss starting pitching.

Don't worry, us guys in the bullpen got it today.

And then the offense will get it tomorrow and the defense will get it the day after.

it's part of being a small market team.

It's part of a team that's not aggressive, who doesn't address all its issues.

again, this comes, from ownership.

I don't think that Ben was, given a big budget to go out and get stuff.

And so he chose the area that was the greatest concern, I suppose.

But yeah, look, I'm on board with trading Nick Gonzales, packaging him as part of it.

Something to get a, good hitting third baseman that can also field.

And I guess Gonzalez will be playing second next year.

Maybe he won't, if there is games next year.

Maybe he won't be as bad at second.

I don't know.

Maybe he'll work hard in the offseason.

But I would really like to see this team get back to, because you got some decent hitters now.

But I'd really like to see them put an emphasis on fundamental baseball and get players that can play defense.

And, any business, not just baseball and sports, any business, supposedly you want to put people in a position to succeed.

And what do the Pirates do?

They've got five guys every game playing out of position.

Every game.

That's not a position to succeed.

Yes, he wants him to do better.

Nick Gonzales should have made that play.

It's that simple.

But he's not a third baseman.

Yet, he's playing third base every day.

Yeah, he's been playing there all year.

And it just hasn't gotten better.

And what's funny is...

And good for him, he was broken out as a hitter.

good for him.

He's figured it out offensively.

But the defense, man, it's holding his game back.

It's holding the team back at times.

It's holding the team back, yeah.

There's been losses that have been on the defense.

Now, there have been losses that have been solely on his errors, right?

And there have been more of those.

I don't know what his war is right now.

But it's not as high as like four games that he personally, it was like his error and a couple of those Paul Skenes's games, that thing.

So, he's got to be better or he's got to not play at that position.

And again, part of it that the...

we didn't think...

We weren't sure that Nick Gonzales was going to make the team this year.

They went and got loud.

They identified loud quickly.

We want a second baseman.

We're not happy with our second base production.

So, we were pretty sure that, again, we weren't sure that Gonzalez was going to break camp with the team, right?

And if we did, we thought it might be as a bench player.

And he is hit and hit and hit and hit.

And that's, something so refreshing and something we needed so much.

But yeah, it's come at a cost.

That defense has not been good.

I remember back in our spring training trip, we were like, who's going to win the second base job?

Who's getting that last infield spot?

Nick Yorke, Nick Gonzales, or Jared Triolo?

Right.

Exactly.

We are.

But I want to talk about the other Nick Gonzales mishap, another mishap on the bases for the Pirates today.

Top of the seventh inning, he does lead it off with a single to the right fielder, Luis Lara.

Ronny Simon flies out.

Ronny Simon hasn't done much in these.

This was his first game back, like starting wise.

Right.

Hasn't looked great.

We've seen him last year.

I didn't expect much from Ronny Simon, to put it lightly.

So, Jared Triolo comes in to replace Jacob Gonzalez, is what it is, whatever.

He would line out to Lara, and Nick Gonzales is on first base.

And I look down at my phone for a second.

I'm like, okay, Nick Gonzales, you're back on first base, whatever.

Until I hear Greg Brown and Matt Capp saying, oh, they're challenging, and I look up, he's out.

He's out.

He was out.

And that is great defense by Lara, catching Nick Gonzales off guard right there.

But you have to get back to first base on that.

Yeah, I think it's less great defense and more of just bad base running by Nick Gonzales, who has been a terrible base running.

He hasn't been as bad this year.

His past couple of seasons, I don't think anybody in baseball has gotten thrown out more trying to stretch a single into a double and picked off first and picked off third.

The dude is just not very aware of what he's on the bases.

I don't know what he's looking at.

I don't know what he's paying attention to.

But it's certainly not what the pitcher's doing, not what the catcher's doing, and not what any outfielder who catches the ball is doing.

And that is exactly the type of stuff this team cannot afford to be having right now.

Out on the bases, giving up solo home runs, as I brought up earlier.

Like they were saying on the broadcast, solo home runs don't kill you.

Well, they killed you today as the solo home run by Gary Sanchez was the game winner.

They won it 3-2 at that point.

And ultimately, this team needs momentum.

They need a rally.

And you can get rallies when guys are being thrown out at third and guys are being picked off first and doubled off a first, that thing.

I'm sorry.

Like every guy needs to be engaged.

They need to be locked in.

We can't make these stupid mistakes that we keep making game after game after game, year after year after year.

You would think by now, the great analytical brain of Ben Charington would say, I've just said the bat will play and have ignored the defense.

And man, that approach is really hurting us.

Maybe we should try something else.

Exactly.

And it's just crazy, Doug, with this team, the talent and stuff that they showed, especially offensively in that first half.

The problem was, like you just said, they can't get momentum.

We saw it basically all last month.

Win, lose, win, lose, win, lose.

Every time they go on a winning streak of at least three games or more, they'd immediately follow it with the same exact number in a losing streak with two or more.

Every time they drop below 500, they would get back to 500.

Every time they go above 500, they'd drop back below.

And I would, I'll say this.

I think the injuries have finally came back to bite them here.

The offense is definitely missing O'Hearn right now, even though O'Hearn was slumping.

They're missing Cruz.

He would help against lefties a lot.

And who knew we'd be saying that after last year against lefties.

But he showed a lot of improvement against lefties.

They've been missing him since he's been out.

Konnor Griffin would be a welcome addition against lefties.

He's out.

That's two guys with power and speed, right?

You've lost two guys that can hit the ball over the fence and can also, stretch, go first to third, steal some bases, that thing.

So, yeah, it hurts.

And like I said, Mangum came up and has, or not came up, but has started and has done a great job, but he's cooling off a little.

And he certainly doesn't have the power that Cruz might, and Valdez came up and, not playing the same position, but made up the difference for what Konnor Griffin, and more exceeded what Konnor Griffin was doing.

But now he's cooled off and it's like, yeah, you need, you need to get a couple of these guys back, but more importantly, man, they need to play better baseball, right?

They just can't do the stupid stuff.

Like you're going to get overmatched by a pitcher.

Sometimes that's fine, but don't get picked off second, first base.

Don't get thrown at it third.

don't let a, an easy grounder eat you up.

it's like really like somebody should be calling a team meeting.

Somebody used to know, Jim Leyland needs to come in and turn over a table or something and say, Hey man, like this is not how we're going out.

We might not be good enough to win.

We might not be good enough to make the playoffs, but we're not just going to lay down like we have been.

Exactly.

And you would hope at least one of these veterans in there, a Brandon Lowe, a Bryan Reynolds has been there for years.

And what's crazy is Bryan Reynolds has been on this team forever.

He's done so much for this team.

He's yet to make the playoffs and this is the closest he will get to the playoffs.

I fear this team and what it was being there and talk in the clubhouse.

Do something, wake them all up.

Do something out of character, right?

Bryan Reynolds is an even keeled mellow guy.

So if he were to stand up and make a speech, I think people would listen.

They'd be like, Holy cow, this dude who, just takes it one day at a time is fired up.

Let's get fired up.

it should be important to Bryan Reynolds to end his, he's got the longest streak in the league of games played without making a playoff appearance.

It's just like, they all look asleep.

And that's the negative from watching from a fan perspective.

Like this game, they allowed five runs and that should be enough to hopefully come back in a game.

I'm not as mad at the pitching today.

The offense has been abysmal.

This entire, we used to, we, right.

We used to give up.

There were times this year we'd give up some runs in the first couple of innings.

We'd like, Oh, but we still have a chance because this offense can score.

I was nervous when it was one, nothing.

I'm like, Oh man.

Yeah.

It's going to be hard.

and we haven't felt that way since last year.

Remember last year you were down one to nothing and you have Alexander Canario in the lineup every day.

It was like, Oh, this game's over.

Now it's like, Oh, they can come back here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

This isn't the Swinsky G1 Bay, Alexander Canario, three, four, five situation.

Right.

It's like, you got some hitters now.

And, but they've all slumped.

They've all collectively slumped and somebody somehow needs to do, a bunch of people need to do something.

They just need to get locked in, man.

They just look so lifeless.

It's so frustrating.

if they were busting their ass and you saw this intensity, it'd be a little easier to take, but it looks like they've just checked out.

And I know, I hate, I don't like to be that guy that's, Oh, look at the look on his face and his body language.

Like, we don't know what's going on in their heads.

I hate that stuff.

just because a guy yells and screams doesn't mean he's any more fiery than the guy that's quiet or anything like that.

But this team just looks listless.

they just, it's terrible.

It's like, Hey, we're in the dog days of summer.

We're just going to play out the string.

And then, we're going to go play golf.

It's what we've been used to as fans.

That's what we're watching right now.

And that, right.

And it's a team with a pulse and a fight and they've lost that fight.

They haven't had that fight.

We've seen since they lost the D backs last week when they came all the way back and that game, when they lost that game, that's when a lot of life, I think got sucked out of the team, but they come all the way back.

And then ever since there are two and six on this road trip, like losses like that are going to sting.

And I fear that loss.

And a lot of these losses on this road trip are going to make PNC park a rowdy place this weekend on the negative side of things.

And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some planes flying overhead for the first time this year.

That's a new record.

Some banners, right.

And, oh yeah.

So yeah, we've got the Mets and then, we go to Miami and then, oh gosh, Boston.

I, it's the schedule's not getting any easier for a little bit.

Yeah.

And it's crazy.

Like before we wrap this up, I wonder what Luke Weaver's thinking.

And he's probably like, I wish I could have got traded to the brewers or something else.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Why am I here?

What a bunch of losers, right?

I thought I got out of the losing in New York and now we're here.

but yeah, pirates lose it five to two before we go.

If you want to go to our friends at FanDuel, I was intrigued by this.

I was like, wonder what the odds are.

If this pirates team is making the playoffs right now, Doug, I told you in the pregame or pre-show that is plus seven, 10 to make the playoffs still FanDuel.

The odds are getting a little worse.

I wouldn't bet that, you know what I'm saying?

Like, it's not enough of a, so you're looking for value when you're gambling.

It's not enough of a value because more than likely, I would say they're not making the playoffs, right?

That seems like, to put up a hundred to just only win seven, 10, when you'd say there's a 95% chance it's not going to happen.

Now I need better value.

They need to bump that up to like 1500.

And, maybe I'll just take a flyer on it at that point, this pirates offense needs to feed bucko.

Mike, he thinks we won.

He says, hashtag raise it.

I'm sorry, bucko.

Mike, there will be no sandwiches today and hopefully the sandwiches can make return this weekend.

Doug, it's been fun ranting with you.

It's been fun ranting with the chat.

This team's in trouble.

They got to figure it out fast.

Yep.

Nathan, you drew the short straw.

I got stuck with me today.

Nobody else wanted to do this show.

So, thank you.

Thank you for joining me.

I got caught out of the bullpen as punishment.

Yeah, you've got, yeah, you must've pissed somebody off cause they made you do a show with me on a Thursday afternoon.

So I don't know what you did, but whoo.

Yeah, it was, the chat is always great.

Michael B.

Thank you again for all the super chats.

Thank you to all you people in the chat for engaging with us.

Hey, let's go get them tomorrow.

Yeah.

And they won't have an off day until Monday.

This stretch of 14 straight days is almost over.

They are almost at an off day.

Make sure to leave a like on the video, comment down below, and then subscribe to the channel if you aren't already.

And we will see you next time.

Let's Go Bucs and have a good one.

Everyone.

Let's Go Bucs.

All right.

That wraps up this episode of North shore nine.

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