Our Takeaways from Another Lefty Shutting Down the Bucs Offense

What's going on, everybody?

Welcome to the North Shore Nine podcast presented by FanDuel.

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I'm Jim.

Joining me tonight is Dougie Fresh.

Doug, I love the hat and the shirt.

We got some branding going on here.

Yeah, you've got a personal branding right there.

Yeah.

Doug Jones is running for governor, and much of his campaign stuff looks like it's just all about me.

So I've been taking advantage.

That's great.

That's great.

I love it.

Well, what I don't love, though, Doug, Pirates lose tonight, unfortunately.

It was a bullpen game.

Lake Bachar started.

We saw him.

We saw Brandon Eisert.

We saw Khristian Curtis.

We saw...

Antwone Kelly, and really it was the offense who just couldn't get it going again against another left-handed.

The left-handed pitching woes continue.

This is probably the last start the Pirates will have against a left-handed pitcher, but it didn't go well, just like it hasn't gone well all season.

Hasn't gone well all year.

Yeah, they are now eight and eleven in bullpen games.

They were five and seven, five of their last seven coming into tonight.

So five of the last eight now.

So they had been playing better in them.

I would have thought the record was better.

But Joe.

Joe Block said, they were eight and ten and now eight.

OK, after this loss.

Yeah, I would have thought it would have been higher than that, too, because I feel like when they do the bullpen games, it typically works.

It's been.

Yeah.

I was going to ask you, like, what's their record when Lake Bachar starts or whatever?

I can look that up.

Yeah, because it seems like that's pretty good.

But it didn't matter, right?

You could have had Bob Gibson throw a no-hitter.

Yeah, well, I guess a no-hitter would have worked.

A no-hitter probably would have worked.

Right.

But, yeah, you could have got a great game from a starter.

Somebody could have weighed in, went eight innings and given up two runs.

And the Pirates lose.

This lefty thing is just – there's so many things that we talk about on – why they've lost.

It was bullpen.

It was this record against left-handers is a significant reason that they are where they are now.

Yeah.

they face Matthew Liberatore today, who I feel like has just Liberatore is not having a good season, Doug season ERA of five point two, three.

But yeah, And this was the one lefty that the Pirates have actually had a little bit of success against this year.

They faced Liberatore two other times already.

The first time they faced him, they scored four runs off of him.

He failed to pitch five innings.

Second time they faced him, scored four runs off of him in five and two-thirds innings.

So Matthew Liberatore has been a lefty that they've typically been able to handle this year.

But today, Liberatore goes five and two-thirds, only gives up one run, strikes out six, doesn't walk anybody.

The Pirates, they had three extra base hits against them, but really couldn't string anything together.

All three extra base hits, Doug, also were from left-handed hitters today.

So it was like loading up the lineup with righties, giving crews a day off.

That didn't do anything for these guys today.

It was Brandon Lowe and Ryan O'Hearn who were doing the damage today.

The rest of the lineup was just sickly.

They were awful.

Right.

And like I said, the righties, Konnor Griffin was over for I think Flores over for Reynolds was over three.

Gonzalez got it, finally got it was one for four.

Simon over for yeah, it didn't matter.

if you take Ryan O'Hearn and Brandon Lowe out of the lineup, the rest of the team was two for twenty five today.

It's not going to cut it.

Forget winning games.

You're not even going to be competitive in games with those numbers.

Look, the Pirates won five in a row coming into this.

They're not going to win six in a row this year.

Now it's impossible for them to do it.

There's only four games remaining on the schedule.

Had they won today, it would have clinched a five hundred season Doug for the first time since twenty eighteen but they will have to wait in order to achieve that four more games remaining to do

that again one more win clinches five hundred two out of four clinches a winning season so that's I guess that's what we're shooting for at this point it is all that's left but

Yeah, let's jump into this one.

This was, I don't know about you, Doug, but this was like a snooze fest for me.

I feel like that's just like an exciting game.

It was not.

It was hard to stick with it.

just, you're already out of it.

And then this game was just, nothing.

There was no excitement, nothing.

The only thing that, made you look up a little was Brandon Lowe's home run.

And then there was a really nice double play turn.

The double play.

Bryan Reynolds.

Yeah.

And I liked seeing Flores throw out, throw out the runner.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's coming along.

What's Jordan.

How do you say his last name?

The bullpen coach or the.

The catching coach, Jordan Comadena.

Comadena.

That dude's good.

Look what he did with Henry.

Look what he's doing.

Flores was, he was over twelve to start his career out throwing out runners and he is improving.

Yeah.

I do have some... I've been very happy with Flores and his improvement over the course of the year.

I do have some gripes with Flores today, I think, though.

So I will get into that.

That's fair.

Michael B., thanks for the super chat.

He said, here's my thing.

Imagine... Excuse me.

Imagine if this team was one or two games out of a wildcard spot, right?

They should not be all these bullpen games.

I blame Ben Cherington.

...

let's be real the reason why the pirates are limping to the end here with three starting pitchers is because they don't have five right now so that is on ben now with

that said they're having a really good september too so it's hand in hand there but what are they twenty two and thirteen since august mid-august or something i too late, but yeah, it's all,

it's too little too late, obviously, but they are having a good September.

I think that is something that needs to be addressed.

And thanks again, Michael be another super chat.

He said, Bryan Reynolds stinks.

Seriously.

This contract is becoming unsustainable when he sucks for four months, every season, it's getting old trade him.

Yeah, I don't know.

I think Bryan Reynolds, Bryan Reynolds is certainly someone to blame for the overall collapse of this team, right?

Because he did not perform whenever they needed him when Cruz and Griffin were out.

But I think for the most part, it's been a pretty decent season for Reynolds, but when they needed him the most, he didn't, he wasn't there.

He disappeared.

Yeah.

right.

he's living off a hot streak of the first two months thing.

And that's, it's like Jack Suwinski-ish, right?

You have to have some consistency.

You have to, again, and you especially needed to produce when Horwitz, Cruz, and Griffin are all down, and he didn't, and it's a failure.

And yeah, now you're looking at, for me, I'm looking at all three extensions by Cherington, and none of them look really good.

You're wondering if Bob will ever extend anybody again.

Thankfully, we have Konnor Griffin for a while.

Connor should hopefully knock on wood.

We'll change that.

Getting back to this, none of these pitchers were sharp today.

That's the key of a bullpen game.

You need multiple arms to look good.

And, like, Lake Bachar, even from the get-go, didn't really look outstanding.

He walks J.J.

Wetherholt to lead off the game.

Does do a good job of stranding him, right?

Comes out for the second inning, faces three batters, but, gives up a single to Nolan Gorman, who, Nolan Gorman, Doug, is hitting...

.

And, they let him get on base twice today, which is an issue.

But, yeah, that.

..

Bachar didn't give up any runs, but he didn't really look as sharp as you have typically seen him when he's been doing this.

I actually just looked it up too, Doug.

Teams are, and this includes the Marlins, because I think he had two starts for the Marlins, but eight and three in Lake Bachar starts heading into today.

I had a sense.

he's been fine.

Yeah, but you wanted two innings out of him at least, right?

You want to...

for me early in the bullpen games, you want the guys go a little bit, just, you don't, you don't want, I don't want to see a parade of eight pitchers.

Like, let this guy give me, two innings and the next guy get, an inning, two thirds, that thing.

And yeah, he got four guys out and that's not enough.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was just, I thought...

Especially when you're bringing in Eisert.

Well, and like I said, that was the thing, right?

Like, Eisert, up to this point, has been pretty effective, since his recent call-up.

Like, he's been doing a good job when called upon.

He was really bad when they first traded for him.

Really bad.

But then, yeah, lately, Eisert's been pretty good.

Following Bachar, too.

what I'm saying?

That's been the...

It's worked pretty well here recently.

Yeah, but it did not work today.

This was the worst we've seen Eisert, I think, in quite a bit of time.

He does get the last out of the second inning, and then the Pirates take the lead in the bottom half of the inning with Brandon Lowe's thirty-fourth home run of the year.

And then the pirates they had an opportunity to add on in this inning, Doug.

And this is, I think the, I don't know if you can call it the turning point or what, but Brandon Lowe homers, Ryan O'Hearn doubles.

That's his first of two doubles.

And then you had Jared Triolo get a base hit.

He actually hit the ball so hard that O'Hearn couldn't score on it.

Like when there's like that's the pirates luck, right?

Jared Triolo.

Yeah.

Triolo gets a hit with a runner in scoring position, but he hits it so hard.

So this is an argument in your favor, Doug.

If he just wouldn't hit the ball so hard, the Pirates would have had another run, right?

Exit velocity overrated.

So, Pirates have runners on first and third there, though, with two outs in the second.

Jake Mangum strikes out to end the inning.

And from that point on, the Pirates did nothing at the playoff.

Just, like, absolutely nothing.

But Eisert comes out for that third inning and just...

doesn't get the job done.

He does strike out Masyn Winn to start the inning, but then gives up a base hit to Wetherholt, who is a lefty.

You're brought in to face these guys.

He doesn't get Wetherholt.

Who was O for eighteen against the Pirates coming into this, too.

The Pirates have been handling him.

Other than that first series or two where he just went crazy, he was O for four last night with three strikeouts, and you're letting this guy just get off base so easily.

Yeah.

So like Wetherholt gets on, then he walks Herrera.

Then he gives up a base hit to another lefty in Burleson.

And at that point, it's a tie game.

You leave with runners on first and third.

and then Khristian Curtis comes in and Curtis looks just as bad, to start off with there.

Right.

He does get, Jordan Walker to pop out.

but just wild pitches.

he throws a wild pitch on that at bat, throws two wild pitches, actually, allowing one run to score, and then gives up an RBI single, to score Burleson.

But, yeah, it's, two wild pitches by Curtis in that inning.

And it hurt him because you don't give up that wild pitch.

And, I guess you probably give up one more run.

So you're out of that inning down two to one instead of three to one.

But yeah.

And that's, this is also where I'm going to, you talked about Flores, right?

I thought Flores did a great job on that caught stealing, but these wild pitches now, some of the like there's plenty of blame to go around here Khristian Curtis can't be throwing curveballs fifty six feet right can't be throwing change-ups fifty

eight feet can't be doing that stuff but on both of those attempts flores just stabbed at the ball right didn't really get down didn't try blocking it and it ended up

costing the team at least one by doing that Yeah, he didn't look great.

There's no doubt about it.

just no fluid, just like you said, it was like half-hearted stabs.

it's your job.

Your job to block those, keep them funny, all that, all that stuff we learned in Little League.

And, he's, again, he's improved.

There's no doubt he's come a long way, but...

You've got, you're right.

You don't want your pitchers throwing fifty six footers, but they do.

It happens.

And you've got to keep those in front of you.

You can't let them, especially at PNC Park with the way those bricks, it could shoot anywhere.

as you said, it allows another run.

It wouldn't have scored in the end.

It doesn't matter because the Pirates could muster no offense.

But in a game like last night to nothing, it makes a difference.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that is one of the things where, just the age of catching has changed, you're on one knee, you're trying to get that low strike.

So, I feel like pitch blocking is just, it's a lost art nowadays.

and, it's not as prioritized by clubs as framing is.

So, it's just, so it's like, yeah, who's to blame there.

Like, is he taught to even go down and block those balls?

I don't, I don't know.

Right.

Is it organizational philosophy there or is it just, his, inability so combination probably so cardinals get two runs okay they get three runs there in that third inning all of those get tagged to brandon eisert

so his final line obviously not looking good two-thirds of an inning he only gets two outs gives up two hits three runs with a walk era up to five point six five on the year through eighteen pitches only eight of

them for strikes so just wasn't around the plate and when he was it was getting hit So not a great game from Brandon Eisert.

And again, Khristian Curtis didn't really do him any favors as far as cleaning up that inning there in the third.

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Yeah, so again, Pirates are down three-one after three.

And again, just offense can't do anything.

Liberatore, with a really quick bottom of the third inning, quickly disposes of the top of the order.

Curtis comes back out here, Doug, and this is where...

like it just didn't really look good for him either.

let's for me and reach on an infield single, Mason win with a double into the gap scores for me and JJ Wetherholt with another base hit scores.

When, it, Curtis, that's a group of guys that had not been hitting.

Yeah.

And I'll say this about Curtis.

Like he's a rookie, right?

So he's going to have his ups and downs.

This was certainly one of his down games.

I would love to see him, not necessarily like attack more because i do think he's doing a pretty good job of like throwing strikes for the most part

but he's just not missing a ton of bats he did generate nine swings and misses today which is i feel like more than i remember him doing but yeah

i want to see him strike out walks and strikeouts yeah i want to see him strike out or something the fastball was working fairly well for him today, generated five swings and misses on it.

It did it seemed like it was jumping a little bit out of his hand, topped out at but he averaged right around with that today.

the cutter, that got hit hard.

So it's just, I think one of these days, hopefully we see him put all of it together.

Cause like his stuff is really good.

It's just like, I feel like we haven't seen the best version of Khristian Curtis yet.

It's what it seems like.

It's like, he's not, I don't know.

again, he's a rookie.

He's pitching out of the bullpen after being a starter.

I would have liked to seen him start one game.

even if it was like a three inning, just to see what he could do, in the routine he's used to pirates are going to need him next season, whenever it starts.

he's going to have opportunity and we really need him to execute because he does have the stuff.

It's just, yeah, he's got to put it together and, we need him to do it.

this offseason is big for him, right?

Like, get to work, young man.

I am wondering if, because he pitched, he threw, he threw, seventy-one pitches today.

That means he's likely done for the year, right?

Like, he's probably not going to be available again.

I would guess.

you'll see a swap between Curtis and maybe Barco for these, for this last, stretch here.

So they have at least just another arm available to them.

Cause I said it before too, like I would love to see Hunter Barco start a game, like whether that's Saturday, when, they'd be slated for another bullpen game, whatever that may be i

i would like to see them give these young guys at least a chance to start a game because we still haven't seen that like we haven't seen Antwone Kelly start a game we haven't seen Khristian Curtis start a game so we just haven't

seen them get that as dotel started and i think dotel may have started dotel started one but it was it was the same thing where it was more of an opener situation as opposed to like hey go and go and take the ball and go deep

into this game.

It wasn't one of those.

He's started two games this year so far, actually.

Curtis gives up those two runs in the fourth.

Now it's five-one Cardinals.

pirates do get a base runner in the fourth, but Ronny Simon grounds in a double play erases them.

and then in the fifth, I feel like this is when Curtis started settling in a little bit.

Like he got those last two outs in the fourth.

Jordan Walker does lead off the fifth with a base hit, but he gets, foul out line out, and then to strike them out, throw them out, double play, to end the fifth there with for mean

striking out and getting Walker, Oh wait, no Walker did steal second.

He just struck out for me to end that inning.

That wasn't sorry.

Can I throw him out there?

but that was, that was the, that was like when I've noticed, okay, Curtis seems to be calming down.

He's getting into a groove a little bit.

so pitch the scoreless fifth there.

Fifth inning, Pirates get a leadoff double.

Ryan O'Hearn doubles off the wall, right?

I think they said the wind.

Without the wind, it would have been out.

That affected the Cardinals a couple times, too, so I'm not going to blame it.

But they leave O'Hearn stranding on second.

And then and then Curtis pitches a scoreless six.

So, all in all, you look at the Curtis's line and it's not great.

Gave up five hits in three and two thirds innings, gave up two runs, walked the batter, struck out three.

But he does end with, two clean innings there.

And that's when the strike mouth throw mouth that will play happen.

Like I said, I think he's a really interesting pitcher.

And like I said, he is going to be needed.

This team is going to need him next season.

So hopefully he can get it together because he'll be making some stars next year.

He's certainly going to be in the mix.

You look at this rotation and I don't know about you, Doug, but I feel pretty comfortable with where they're at right now.

You hope Paul Skenes rebounds from this year.

Paul Skenes is a number four starter.

That's a good spot for him.

That's what.

You look at the way Braxton Ashcraft pitched.

You look at the way that Bubba progressed throughout the year.

You look at the way Jared Jones has finished this year off.

That Those are four guys that – I just feel good about them.

Yeah, exactly.

You like your chances.

They say Keller's healthy and he's going to be getting ready.

I think they need to trade him, but you guys discussed it the other night.

But who knows?

But then, yeah, then it's – to tell kelly curtis barco i guess you can throw it these guys it's an important offseason work on some stuff fellas you're

gonna have opportunity i'll say this like if they decide to keep mitch keller right and you go in the next year and you've got keller jones ashcraft bubba Skenes

I don't know if you need to address the starting rotation at all, right?

Like, you take those five and you go, okay, we got those five, and then we've got Curtis, Dotel, Kelly, Barco, if we need them.

And you can throw Mlodzinski in the mix, too, there.

So, like, yeah.

I know.

But, like, you could do worse.

You could do worse.

No, you definitely could.

And if you were a serious team and addressed your – if you re-signed Brandon Lowe, instead of counting on all these other things to repeat themselves,

like what's the surest thing that's going to happen?

Brandon Lowe hits thirty home runs next season or Flores and Valdez and Andy all repeat, what they've done.

the surest thing there by far is Brandon Lowe, right?

and that's, again, a serious team.

They would do something along those lines, but.

We all know what's going to happen there.

With the starters we have, you work on that offense, maybe get a right-handed hitter or four.

It could be a good team.

No, I'm with you.

I'm with you a hundred percent.

Thanks, Norman, for the super chat.

Twenty plus blown saves.

Pirates should be in the playoffs.

Fire Ben Cherington, DFA Soto.

I think it's maybe a little too late in the year to DFA Soto.

It's not too late to fire Ben Cherington, though.

No, today is a good day to fire.

so Curtis comes out, gives up those two runs.

again, pirates offense, just not doing anything at all game long.

Antwone Kelly comes in and it's first time we've seen Kelly in quite a bit.

He hasn't pitched in a while.

And he immediately hits Herrera with a pitch.

Herrera leads the league in hit-by-pitch.

I think they said it was his thirty-first hit-by-pitch.

He basically stands on top of the plate, so that's understandable.

But he hits Herrera.

And then he falls behind Burleson, two and O, with Herrera there on first base.

And this is where I'm going to go back to Flores, right?

And just the growth.

Something I've noticed with Flores a few times now is...

And he did it last night with Soto, too, in the ninth, where the first runner gets on, and then the second batter, it doesn't start off the way that it should.

In this one, I said he fell down two-oh to Burleson.

Flores called timeout, walked out there, had a pretty lengthy discussion with Antwone Kelly, and who knows what he said.

It's somewhat animated, too.

Yeah.

Patting him on the chest.

Yeah.

Whatever he did immediately calmed him down.

He was down two-oh on Burleson, comes back, strike swinging, foul ball, strike swinging, strikes him out.

Then he strikes out Jordan Walker, the next at bat, then gets a ground out to end the inning.

So again, something I've just noticed with Flores a few times now is identifying, okay, something's not right here.

Let me go out and say something, calm them down, whatever it is.

And it's actually like making an impact in the, in the inning.

Yeah.

I, when he plays first base and then he goes out to the mound, when the pitch, when the, when Henry Davis comes out, I love that.

I don't know why, it's like, I don't even think he says anything, but it just, I don't know.

It shows me how engaged he is in the game.

And he's like, maybe he saw something, maybe he contributed or just learning from, soaking stuff in.

But I, like I said, I like what he's been doing.

Yeah.

I never expected anything from them.

I certainly didn't expect we're getting this year.

And, this improvement, I've been watching catchers for a hundred years.

They don't make the strides that these guys, that Henry Davis and Flores Jr.

both have.

It's really been impressive to see.

And, yeah, I'm loving it.

I can't say enough good things about what I've seen from Rafael Flores Jr.

over the last month and a half.

Just can't say enough good things about him.

I still am not a fan of the trade, Doug, and I wasn't at the time.

Nothing's ever really changed my mind there.

Because I think if David Bednar were on this team, we might be talking about a completely different situation.

We might be talking about, yeah, can we get home?

Can we angle for home field here instead of...

But I'll say this, in terms of a return for David Bednar, it seems like it's going to end up being a pretty good trade in terms of just value for value.

Yeah, when it's all said and done.

Taking out of consideration how much Bednar would have helped us.

Again, just another guy where going into this month, you wanted to see as much of him as possible to see if you could make the decision that he was going to be a guy for you next year.

He absolutely has.

Yeah, can't say enough good things about him.

So, Antwone Kelly gets out of that inning.

The eighth inning, Kelly gets into a little bit of self-inflicted damage there again, too.

Walks Nolan Gorman, Freddie Fermin with a base hit.

Then you get a pinch runner in for Fermin.

And then, like, Bryan Reynolds has made some pretty nice plays in left field, especially when it comes to, like, robbing balls at the fence.

I think this play today was the best play I've seen Bryan Reynolds make all year.

Nathan Church with like a, just not really a line drive, but a blooping, like a bloop shot down the left, dying, but also like flailing away from right.

Like this ball was moving away from Bryan Reynolds and Reynolds makes just a unreal diving catch, unreal diving catch.

Doubles up Gorman at second base as well.

Really nice play by Brandon Lowe on the opposite end with the pick.

Like, really nice play.

But just, the game, it was five to one at this point, so it's not like the Pirates had much of a chance.

But, like...

The game could have really gotten out of control there, and that was a huge play for Bryan Reynolds.

Yeah, if he does not make that catch, run score.

it gets behind him.

So, yeah, it really was.

It probably was his best catch.

Those things at the wall, you're a lot more, you back up.

they're nice.

They're impressive.

They're fun to watch.

But that, headlong dive and then get up to make the throw.

And, again, a great stretch from Brandon Lowe.

Brandon Lowe has also been better defensively than I certainly expected.

I saw a stat today on Brandon Lowe.

This is from Mike Petriello.

The biggest year-to-year defensive improvement in StatCast history.

Brandon Lowe.

Again, another miracle that the Pirates have done had happened to him in this season and haven't been able to capitalize.

Right.

again, veteran players in particular do not make that improvement, just out of the blue without, just unbelievable what he's done and how,

how good he's looked.

And, again, here we are.

Yeah, Kirby Yates comes in, pitches a scoreless top of the ninth inning.

First time we've seen Yates in a bit since he was on the IL.

Poor Kirby Yates.

They could have just left him at home.

Poor guy has to come back.

Give them a couple more there.

But yeah, Pirates lose.

They drop to eighty and seventy eight on the year now.

Again, they got one more win to get to five hundred.

It's clinched that mark.

Two more wins to clinch the winning season there, Doug.

Tomorrow, Paul Skenes making his final start of the year.

FanDuel has the Pirates at minus one sixty two on the money line.

So the Pirates are heavy favorites tomorrow to take the series against the Cardinals.

I wouldn't bet it, but, hopefully Skenes will have a nice strong start.

It's the last home game.

I don't know if anyone will be there.

At one point, I felt like I was going to thank the individual twelve people that went to the game tonight on our show, but we never got around to that.

It did seem like a pretty sparse crowd.

A couple milestones today too, Doug.

Pirates broke the all-time franchise record in strikeouts today by pitchers.

By pitchers, yeah.

A good kind, right?

Yeah, they did that today.

It's like one-fourteen-hundred, fourteen-forty-five or something?

One-thousand-four-hundred-and-forty-four, I think was the number.

Yeah, Lake Walker got that in the first inning there.

They needed one strikeout today to get it.

And then also, the sheets shots sign, Doug.

They have ninety nine home runs at home this year.

There's only two.

There's only two numbers on the side.

So like, right.

They got one more game.

If they can hit number one hundred.

It's never happened before in the history of PNC Park.

They've hit one hundred home runs.

It's amazing, right?

That this team.

Yeah.

That any team that you talk about, like it was out hitting the lumber and lightning company team.

it just doesn't seem possible that like.

that this team has more home runs than a team that had willie stargell and dave parker and bob robertson and al oliver and on and on and on right unbelievable yeah very impressive But I'm just concerned.

I don't know how they're going to do this, Doug.

If they hit one more homer, I think we're approaching a Y-to-K situation.

Do we know what the computers are going to do at midnight whenever the year-to-thousand hits?

Are we going to know what's going to happen to the sheet shot sign when they've got to do a third digit?

They'll probably put a surf side up next to it, a surf side up.

They've already got a sponsor.

They've got a second sponsor for the sheets shots.

They're just going to take a post it with a one on it and put it up there.

Yeah.

And I think, I think that's the, there's two main storylines going into tomorrow games.

Tomorrow's game.

One is the, what do they do with the sheets shot sign?

If there's a home run.

And then the second one, Doug is, There is a tie for the Great Pittsburgh pierogi race in that jalapeno, Hannah, potato peas are tied at eighteen wins

apiece going into the final race.

So it's winner take all tomorrow.

Hannah versus Pete.

The only thing I'm watching the rest of this year is hoping that Brandon Lowe can get six more RBI.

That's all I want.

Yeah, he might be able to do that.

You don't have interest in the pierogi race champion, though?

I think the fix is in.

I think it's rigged.

I've lost a couple of wagers this year.

There's some shenanigans going on there.

That's what I get for betting on a pro-gear race.

I'm going to say this.

I am a known jalapeno Hannah hater, Doug.

not a jalapeno Hannah fan.

I think she plays dirty.

She uses that purse of hers and she should be disqualified more often than she's not.

So I am going to be pulling for potato Pete tomorrow.

He is the, he is the ethical champion in my eyes.

And he needs to win tomorrow because cheaters shouldn't win.

Jalapeno.

Hannah is like the Houston Astros of the brogues, right?

Potato Pete is the ethical pro game.

It would be great if she came out with a trash can lid instead of her purse tomorrow.

That's what I'm going to be watching tomorrow.

Yeah.

Well, I've got the post game with Cody, so we will, I would make sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've always been a Hannah fan, but you do, you do bring, you raise some valid points there.

Yeah.

So go Pete, let's go Pete.

I might rock my Potato Pete shirt tomorrow.

I do have a Potato Pete shirt.

I may just wear that all day and support.

Sorry, I can't wear.

You're wearing the Doug gear.

I just can't do it, right?

Wearing the Doug gear.

All right.

Well, let's get out of here.

So, again, Pirates lose five to one to the Cardinals tomorrow.

They're back at it.

Day game tomorrow.

What's the game time?

Twelve thirty five.

Twelve thirty five.

All right.

I think.

Let me double check.

Twelve thirty five.

Yep.

Yeah.

Yep.

Twelve thirty five.

All right.

Yeah.

Let's see if Paul Skenes could finish off the year strong.

Can't be nice to watch him, go seven strikeout ten.

It'd be fun.

We need a big game for Paul Skenes.

Big game for Potato Pete.

And Brandon Lowe.

I want RBI for Brandon Lowe.

And Brandon Lowe.

It would be great to have a guy with a hundred army.

When was the last time a pirate?

Was it Cutch?

Did Pedro ever do it?

Did Pedro do it whenever he led the league in homers?

I have a feeling he probably did.

Did Josh Bell do it?

Josh Bell definitely did.

he didn't have a hit after May, seventeenth or something.

But he had like eighty at the All-Star.

He had eighty.

Yeah.

It was crazy.

what?

No, Josh Bell finished with ninety four that season.

There you go.

Right where?

Oh, no, wait, no.

Twenty nine.

Twenty nineteen.

Josh Bell.

One hundred sixteen RBIs.

OK.

One sixteen.

Sorry.

Yeah.

But, that's a ways that was a while ago.

I don't think anyone's done it this decade.

Oh, gosh, no.

No.

Mostly you could take any two guys in the lineup and add theirs and it wasn't a hundred.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Reynolds hit ninety in twenty one.

But that I think that's as close as they've got.

All right.

Let's get out of here, Doug.

We've been rambling.

Yes.

Thirty-eight minutes.

Let's let these people go.

This was a bad baseball game.

It was.

It was.

There was nothing to talk about.

How did we go thirty-eight minutes?

Like the video.

Subscribe to the page if you haven't.

Offbeat tomorrow morning.

Make sure you check that out.

And then we'll be live with the post-game show tomorrow.

And then we got NSI Live coming at you tomorrow night.

So a bunch of stuff for you tomorrow.

Tune in.

Like.

Subscribe.

We'll see you tomorrow.

You guys rock.

Let's go Bucs.

Let's go Bucs.

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