The Pirates returned home hoping to right the ship and their struggles against left-handed pitching showed up again as they dropped another game 6-4 to the Mets. Carmen Mlodzinski returned to the rotation and gave up five runs on seven hits in just three innings of work for the loss. And the Pirates mini comeback late came up short as they fall four games under .500. DiNardo and Jim vented on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti Bros, which you can watch or listen to here:
Here’s my 3 takeaways from another loss…
It’s Over
I’m calling it. The season is officially over. The 2026 version of the Pirates hung around long often to be interesting and get fans excited to where their floor looked to be of a .500 team, but with this loss to the Mets at PNC Park Friday night, they drop to four games under. 500 and drop six games back in the NL Wildcard race behind a bunch of teams. Here we go with another August collapse. This offense suddenly went cold and they’re absolutely pathetic against LHP. The latest evidence came in the form of Zac Thornton firing five scoreless innings against the Bucs in this loss. Some fans on social media will tell you the usual standard lines: “there’s plenty of baseball left to be played” or “they just need a hot streak.” I’m not sure what these fans need to see to call it?
Do they need to see Paul Skenes giving up another five runs in a start? Do they need to see this offense flailing away at another left-handed starter with no extra-base hits? Do they need to see more poor defense that allows runners to move up and score? Do they need to see more shitty base running where they run into more outs? I’m tired of seeing it all and it tells me one thing—the season is OVER. A long winning streak is the only way this team gets back into it and they’ve showed nothing all season to prove they can do it. Their longest win streak of the season was the first week of April and it ended at five wins. And any win streak would get thwarted as soon as they ran into a left handed.
This team stinks right now. In nearly every aspect. The bullpen is now the only part of the team that’s performing. This team’s lifeless play since the trade deadline when the team bought is embarrassing and pathetic.
Cherington Waited Too Long to Fix the Bullpen and Then Ignored the LHP Problem
The Pirates and Ben Cherington overhauled the bullpen at the trade deadline and it basically didn’t even matter because they didn’t fix the left-handed hitting problem. Case in point in this game: Luke Weaver, your prized pickup for this bullpen, made his Pirates debut in the 9th inning and the season was already over at that point. They acquired four relievers and they can’t even get a lead to let them pitch and try to hold the lead!
Apparently, Cherington used up every ounce of energy he had on this bullpen at the deadline and he ignored a need in the rotation and ignored picking up someone that could hit a left-handed pitcher. And there were options at the deadline that were moved for next to nothing. It was very doable. Instead, he stood pat on hitters and they continue to get dominated by LHP. Just a horrible job by the GM once again. But hey, he fixed the bullpen finally! Cherington waited too long to fix the bullpen and it lost so many games in the first half and now the offense, who carried the team all year, is sinking the team now and not being able to hit lefty pitchers is killing them in the second half.
CAN SOMEONE THROW UP SOME ZEROS IN THE ROTATION?
Not to be outdone by the awful offense right now, no one in this rotation can put their foot down, say I’m the stopper and throw up some damn zeros in an outing. Paul Skenes hasn’t been able to do it, Braxton Ashcraft can’t do it, Bubba Chandler can’t do it, Jared Jones can’t do it and Carmen Mlodzinski can’t do it now that he got his second chance in the rotation. After the whole situation with Mlodzinski going to the bullpen, him not being available to pitch out of the pen, going on the restricted list then the weird pitching out of the bullpen where he was only available every third or four days…after all of that, he gets a second chance and fell flat on his face against the Mets. Mlod went just three innings, gave up five runs on seven hits and struck out just one. He had the perfect chance to show the Bucs what he can do in the rotation and he stunk. This rotation has been an issue for most of the season besides a nice first half by Ashcraft, but no one is getting it done right now and three of them are almost out of innings for the season and Cherington didn’t pick up any depth at the deadline. Unreal.
What do you folks think? Is this season over, are the Pirates officially cooked?
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