Our Takeaways from Another Loss and More of the Same as Playoff Hopes Flatline

Yo. Welcome to the North Shore Nine podcast presented by FanDuel. This is the NS9 postgame show powered by Primanti Brothers. I'm your host, Anthony DiNardo. With me, we have Jim Rosati. And Jim, Pirates have lost their 37th game in a row. They're 500 games below 500. How are you doing?

Not great. Not great, DiNardo.

It was an excruciating game to watch. And then, of course, they had to make it a little bit interesting there in the ninth, just to, like, give you a tiny, just a tiny, like, sliver of hope.

And they still lose.

But, like, that's what's so frustrating is because, the fact they give you that sliver of hope just once again shows that this offense is competent until they face any lefty starter.

that's exactly what happened. They had a lefty starter today in Zach Thornton. Three hits. they mustered three hits. Like, give them that. I was surprised they had three hits.

But it wasn't until he was out of the game that the offense finally started doing something. They cannot. Well, unfortunately, they will. They'll continue because they don't have anyone in this offense that can hit against lefties in the future.

Yeah, this was Zach Thornton's seventh major league start. he's had decent results up to this point.

But, this was a guy who had an ERA over four in the minors, right? The last time a Pirates affiliate played Zach Thornton was in 2024, and the Bradenton Marauders knocked him around.

Kiner Delgado took him deep, DiNardo.

And no one in this Pirates lineup did anything against him, just like they can't do anything against any left-handed starter.

No matter how good or bad that person is, they are completely hopeless against lefty pitching.

It's insane. It's insane. And the fact that Ben Cherington, like I keep going back to this, like he did absolutely nothing to address this problem during the offseason, during the trade deadline.

I don't know if one player would have made any difference. Probably not.

But it's infuriating watching this team right now. It's the same thing over and over and over again since the deadline.

The bullpen's actually stepped up. The bullpen has been good recently, and they go six innings tonight, only giving up one run on three hits.

They were outstanding. Starting pitching has been a problem. Offense has been a problem, and cost them another game.

And they've faced quite a few lefties since the All-Star break. Obviously, part of the reason why this offense has been so bad since the All-Star break.

But you're seeing it bleed into righties as well. But again, today, the big story, it is a lefty. They couldn't do anything against him.

And yeah, like you said, it's disappointing. It's the way they came back is what makes this even more just gut-wrenching.

But again, that is to speak on this offense can succeed, and they can be confident against the right-hander.

It's just the second a lefty starter is there, they completely shut down. Can't do anything.

Also want to apologize. Four hits today, not three, against Thornton. It was four hits in five innings.

Whatever.

I can't believe you messed that up.

Robbed them of a base hit, DiNardo.

You know what? Put me inside, put me in front of the firing squad of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I'll throw left-handed and come out unscathed.

Yeah. A couple super chats I'm going to get to. Thank you to Silas, $2 super chat.

They just had to hug at the heartstrings there in the ninth.

Yeah. that was, I was ready to just come on here and just have a bad time, DiNardo.

And then they just made me wait. So all it did was, it just made me mad.

Like them scoring a couple runs in the ninth inning, it just made me, just made me angry.

I was going to say, you said you're going to come on here and be mad, but you're just mad.

Yeah. They just made me even more mad.

And then shout out Michael B, $10 super chat.

He says, Jim, every super chat, I tell you the season is over.

Would you believe me now?

Mlodzinski, man, just cut his ass.

He needs to get off this team.

Last place every season.

I'm sick of it.

Poorly managed to.

Michael B, I fear you may be correct that the season is over.

It's, you can't lose this many games at this point of the season in a row.

You can't do it.

they didn't afford themselves.

They didn't afford themselves the luxury to go on a stretch like this because of all the games that they blew earlier in this year.

So this stretch right now is hurting extra hard.

And now after today, their playoff odds going into this game was like 12%.

I'm sure it's probably under 10.

It's probably under 10% now.

I'm actually looking right now.

Which means it's going to take a miracle.

It's going to take a miracle.

Yeah.

I was going to say it hasn't updated since before the game.

It's still at the 12.6, but right.

They're 57 and 61.

They're 57 and 61.

Now, if you assume maybe 86 wins gets you into the postseason, means they needed to go 29 and 16 the rest of the way.

Well, now they got to go 29 and 15 the rest of the way to have a shot.

And I don't know if 86 gets you in anyways.

Lost four straight.

This is a team that had to, again, like we discussed the Brewers last night a bit, Tyler and I, that, you know what?

Like that can happen.

That's that itself is an end of the world.

It's what led them up there.

But the thing is, as Doug always keeps saying, like near now in the playoffs, you have to start making up ground, just breaking even isn't good enough anymore, let alone losing series.

like you can't, you can't split, waste or, homestands, go three and three.

You have to start going four and six now in these back-to-back series and such.

You can't go one and two against the Mets.

You have to start going two out of three and you drop the very first game.

You have to go and win these next two.

And Oh, by the way, there's another lefty here in this series that you should probably be, but welcome.

Welcome to the best left-handed years in your life.

I'm at the point now where there's no way they should be any left-handed pitcher.

the Mets could just, I don't know who the first left-handed pitcher, the Mets drafted this July, a month ago.

if it was such some high school kid who throws 87 miles an hour and has a projectable frame, I'd start him against these guys.

He'd probably pitched five scoreless right now.

He'd at least go five innings, two runs.

Yeah.

This team is pathetic against left-handed starting pitching.

I, it's dumb founding and it's the reason why like their season is going to be lost because well earlier it was because of the bullpen, but now it's because the starting

pitchers stink and the offense stinks.

Yep.

$5 super from guardian.

Pretty says there's only one thing left for the bucks to do as an attempt to save the season.

They have to kill the cone, leave it in the bottom of the Allegheny.

You're definitely at the time of the year where you got to try anything.

The cone, you could argue sparked a lot in Cincinnati and they rallied against it.

Maybe it's time to kill that spark and maybe it's time to sacrifice the cone.

Maybe.

it's possible.

I don't, I don't condone littering though.

Like don't go sinking cones in the Allegheny river.

I'm sure there's worse things sitting at the bottom of the river.

I have no problem stealing them.

Just don't give them back.

Yeah.

Steal all the cones you want, but right.

Yeah.

Let's not, let's not pollute the river any more than it is.

Yeah.

We know the problems of left-hand pitching.

It's been a problem today.

That's going to be a major problem down the stretch.

And again, that's going to be causing a lot of scrutiny on Ben Cherington in this trade deadline.

There was a problem that needed fixed.

It wasn't addressed.

But another problem was the starting pitching.

And the fact that you knew Mitch Keller was injured, that she didn't get a starting pitcher as well.

You know what?

You had Mitch, or I'm sorry, Mitch.

You had Carmen Mlodzinski awaiting, I guess.

They wanted to utilize, right?

They broke the glass.

They opened up Carmen Mlodzinski and said, you're going into the rotation.

He makes his first start today going back into the rotation.

Jim, tell us how that went.

It didn't go great.

What was the final line there?

Three innings, seven hits, five runs all earned.

One walk, one strikeout.

Gives up a home run.

Started off with a bloop double, which, it was a bullshit hit.

It is what it is.

But, and then Bo Bichette with an infield single.

But then Carson Bench hit one hard to drive Ewing in.

And then it just kept going.

in the top of the third, the Mlodzinski walk.

Then he got it like a gift.

He got a gift double play.

The second time that plays happened in like a week where a runner overruns a bag, doesn't step on it to go back.

And the pirates appeal it for a double play.

Again, you rarely see that play.

It's happened twice in the last week or so.

But then he, like I said, he's given that gift.

When we were at Cleveland is when it happened.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's given that gift and then gives up another hit to Bench, gives up a base hit to Young.

And then Marcus Semien just destroys an inside fastball for a three run homer.

And at that point it's five, nothing.

And game over three innings.

Exactly what it felt like.

And, like when it was two, nothing, honestly, like at that point in time, like you mentioned the first inning, that was just a lot of the baseball guys were working against the pirates.

both sides of the baseball.

I tweeted out there and I think I quote tweeted like two more times in the first few innings.

This is just going to be one of those games where it just seems as if nothing was going in the pirates favor.

Nothing.

It was just going to end up being one of those games.

Everyone that's listening to this show knows exactly what we're talking about.

You've watched the pirates long enough.

You know what when I say it's going to be one of those games.

And that's the way it started out.

Looked, like Carmen did actually look bad the first inning.

They scored that run.

But like you mentioned, there's just a lot of BS hits and that happens.

It's whatever.

When it was to nothing, it didn't seem as if this game was out of hand.

And Carmen was fine until that inning started.

And then Semien, just like you mentioned, just capped it off, made it a 5-0 ball game.

And that's when he said, well, we're done here because Thornton still pitching.

And again, there was a rain delay.

Wasn't enough to knock Thornton out of the game.

That was my whole hopes.

I said, let's make this rain delay two hours.

That's the only way the pirates will win this game.

And unfortunately, it was only 40 minutes.

Yeah, Thornton stays in the game, continues to shut the pirates down.

You mentioned the baseball gods there, DiNardo.

I don't know what everyone's religious backgrounds are who are watching or listening to this.

But I'm to the point now where whatever your God is, they must hate you.

They must hate you and this organization.

I don't know what to say.

Is that me?

Like the person looking at Jesus, right?

right.

I've been doing all your struggles and he's like, well, how are you still alive?

What else can he put us through at this point?

I don't know.

This is the biggest test.

This is the biggest test of anyone's faith is just following this team for 39 years, DiNardo.

Well, anyways, Carmen Mlodzinski.

Yeah.

Oh, before we do that, there's another super.

Let's get to that.

So Michael B, once again, five dollars.

The A's canned their GM today.

Bob Nutting has to cut bait with his with this clown already.

How do you wait until August 3rd to finally get bullpen help?

Awful.

Again, Michael B, thanks for the five dollar super.

You can debate it.

Yeah, you can.

it takes two to tango right when it comes to a trade deadline.

And I'm sure the pirates were calling about relievers the whole time.

And there's a deadline for a reason.

And it and sellers hold on to their assets until the deadline to get maximum value.

So it's difficult to acquire people before the deadline.

But I don't necessarily blame.

Cherington for not addressing the bullpen earlier from a trade standpoint, I blame that more on the fact that, he was just hoping that this bullpen was going to work going into the year.

He did.

you look at it and this isn't a postgame show topic, I feel like.

But like the bullpen was overhauled again and again and again throughout the season.

It was just overhauled with shitty pitchers.

that's that's how it was.

He added some good pitchers on August 3rd.

But by that point, it's too late.

So, but Maginski as a starter, 47 innings, 4.98 ERA as reliever 50.1 innings, 2.15 ERA.

So, yeah, it's, I'm cool with this decision to move Maginski back into the rotation with Keller being out like he's your best option.

But you've got to use them in a different way.

You can't use them just as a prototypical starter.

Like we've seen that when you use an opener for Carmen Mlodzinski, like it works.

It works.

so use them that way.

Don't let them go out there and face the top of an order two, three times.

Like be creative, go out there, use an opener for him as much as I hate it.

It works with him.

So figure out how to do that going forward.

That's what I think is the biggest issue with this whole thing.

I, given what you have at your disposal, like you're not going out there and you don't have another pitcher.

You can't say, well, I guess you could say you should have gotten a pitcher.

You should have gotten a pitcher.

The thing is, there is no pitcher here.

What does Don Kelly have at his disposal?

Like he has Carmen Mlodzinski.

That's what he has.

That's what I would go with at this point in time.

absolutely.

Unless maybe there's another choice.

Get that later.

Maybe not.

But anyways, I'm taking Carmen Mlodzinski as well, but like, what is a good leader?

What is a good manager, right?

A leader among men, you put your people in the best situation.

You create success for them.

You bring the best out of people.

And the best version of Carmen Mlodzinski has been proven, again, proven.

And the reason you even do this is for Carmen Mlodzinski is the perfect example of why you use an opener.

Using an opener puts Carmen in the best possible situation and it brings the best version out of Carmen.

And it also probably allows length.

Like we talked about this to some level last night.

That is the best way to get the most out of Carmen Mlodzinski.

So if you're going to put them into the air quotes rotation, I have no problem with it, but do it in a way that also helps the team helps him create success, creates opportunity.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't have much to add on Carmen.

he looked, he looked very bad tonight, which is a shame because he's looked really good, coming out of the bullpen the last couple of months.

And so you were hoping that would carry over and it just didn't, it just didn't.

So I think, I think next time through the rotation, you go back to them, but you gotta be, you gotta do it a different way.

And like we mentioned last night, if you're thought of doing an opener, you probably want a lefty.

There's Sisk who did a fine job tonight.

There's Sisk.

There's Soto.

There's Montgomery.

Like you have three lefties in this bullpen.

You couldn't afford to have one of them using the opener for that game and still have two at your disposal for that game for matchups.

that's the thing too.

Like you have that in your favor.

It's not as if you only have one lefty on this pitching staff.

I think that was a problem last year.

Didn't they have one lefty like Bailey Falter for a while?

Like that was it.

Did their bullpen even have a lefty last year?

They had Sisk towards the end who was pretty much in the Bailey Falter trade.

And then once they dealt Ferguson, I think it was just Sisk.

Like there was Ferguson.

Okay.

So it was Ferguson.

That's all right.

But anyways, what I'm alluding to is like, you actually have a multitude of lefties in this bullpen.

If you're going an opener, you would probably want a pitcher that throws the other hand, right?

Carmen's a righty, have an opener as a lefty.

That's typically the way you'd run these things.

And it makes a whole lot of sense.

So like do that.

Do that.

You have all the reasons and all the tools in your toolbox to do this thing perfectly.

Why aren't you doing that?

And like to me, again, like that's a Don Kelly thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

that's he's got this pitching rotation or this pitching staff on paper shouldn't be all that bad.

I said the bullpen's been better lately.

If it's me the next time through, I'm starting Evan Sisk, I'm letting him go one to two innings and then I'm bringing Carmen in.

That's what I'm doing.

I love that.

That's what I would suggest as well.

And then you have Soto there for late innings.

And of course, Montgomery's, however, he's going to be used.

Was he warming up today?

I heard he was.

Montgomery was warming up early on.

Yeah.

Like, that made me wonder, again, we talked about the roles and how they're utilized.

That makes you wonder how he's going to be utilized.

I don't know.

Maybe that closer role isn't so much as closer role at all, but at any rate, you have two other guys that can go later in the game.

Yes.

Six hard hits, three whiffs and three innings pitch for Carmen.

Seven hits, one walk, one strikeouts, five earned runs.

Yeah.

Let's talk about somebody else.

He was terrible.

So on to the next guy that was terrible.

Who was that going to be?

the offense got absolutely nothing done the first two times through the order.

It wasn't until they got to the Mets bullpen that they started doing something.

And by that point it was too little, too late.

They were already down six to nothing.

So like they got a couple of runs off of dead Neil Nunez.

And then the most exciting part of the game, DiNardo was the Mets brought in Jeffrey Jan, who, if you aren't aware, is a 29 year old dude.

He pitched his second game ever.

He's electric, DiNardo.

He just, every time he strikes somebody out, he does this jump in the air, little dance.

I really just wanted to see the dance and he didn't strike anybody out.

Instead, the pirates almost scored against them.

And he ends up getting Jared Triolo out on a wild pitch.

Play at the plate.

At least give us something on that play at the plate though.

Like that was a nice play that he made.

I was hoping for like a jump and then maybe like a moonwalk back to the dugout.

He didn't even give us that.

He's wanting a moonwalk.

the game was over.

I just wanted to be entertained by this guy.

Yeah.

And it wasn't that entertaining.

I had, I'll say I had a meme ready to go because I thought the pirates were going to do it.

They had bases loaded with no outs, Jim.

Bases loaded with no outs.

They're going to do it.

Here's the, they've come back plenty of times.

This is a team that you can always say they're never out of it as much as you say they're out of it.

And it's a rational thought to think they're out of it because most teams are out of it.

The pirates find a way to do like they did tonight and give you some hopium later in the game and say, okay, maybe they're not out of it.

Right.

They can, they can come back.

They do have a good enough offense to maybe come back here and keep this interesting and potentially win.

That was their opportunity.

And I know they scored some runs that inning, but like that's, you had to, you had to really do some damage there.

you had to, you had to, because you were down so much.

You had to do more than two runs.

Yeah.

Right.

You had to put up a big number there and they didn't know.

They didn't.

Yeah.

And I don't really fault Jarrett Triolo running there, but I'm also like, eh.

Here's the deal.

If you're going home on that and you're down for like, you gotta, you gotta be safe.

That's the thing.

You gotta be safe.

That was too risky of a, you can't be out.

So yeah, I'm going to blame him.

And it wasn't like all that close.

No, it wasn't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But Hey, the ninth inning rolled around and they tricked us again.

They really did.

They really did trick us.

Yeah.

And that was off of Devin Williams.

So, Devin Williams comes in, Ronny Simon, who, today was apparently Ronny Simon day on Twitter.

Let me cut you off.

Yeah.

What was that about, by the way?

it's not that I'm unaware.

I've seen it happening.

I don't know why it happened.

It's just the random children on Twitter.

I think having, a good time.

I can't fault him.

I feel like the Ronny Simon game tonight was like an online version of tarps off tarps off for people who don't want to take their shirt off.

That's probably the best way to describe it.

It was, it was fun.

It was fun.

They, it seemed like everybody enjoyed it.

And then shout out Ronny Simon.

He had two hits tonight.

And RBI and a stolen base.

So you could argue that if this team had an entire lineup of Ronnie Simons, they run away with this game.

Probably.

Probably so.

Yeah.

Yep.

I'll say this.

Someone was in my mentions about changing the Twitter API and like, I'm not going to, but if Ronny Simon hit a home run, I had something ready.

So if he does, if this continues, maybe something will be ready, but Simon has to earn it in order to, yeah, it was fun.

It's a good performance.

And he scored a run.

I enjoyed it.

I wasn't going to score two runs.

I know half the team's runs, Ronny Simon.

Boom.

And he, almost got a double or a triple or whatever you want to call it.

Carson Benz was just an insane play in left field down by the wall.

Ronny Simon had a good game.

I thought that was the play.

I thought that was the hit.

I was changing the profile picture.

Yeah.

I thought that was out.

But alas, it wasn't enough.

Jacob Gonzalez with a almost double off the wall, almost Homer.

Just another, you talked about like the baseball gods and I talked about how, who knows if there is a God, but if they, if there is, he hates us.

That's just proof again.

that's a bad, that's six inches for being a Homer.

It bounces directly to the right fielder.

Like you couldn't have placed it in the right fielder's glove any better than what it was.

It was a gift from the gods.

They handed it to him.

And then Brett Beatty delivers like a three hopper, but it's still, it's right on the bag.

And it's, those were the angels in the outfield delivering the baseball, the second base.

That's what it was.

That's what it was.

It was, I can't even fall.

Like I like triolo.

It was one of those deals where it was like, no, you got to make sure you score like Jacob Gonzalez.

If it was just a perfect sequence of events that got him out there.

I don't even blame Gonzalez for that one.

I know.

Yep.

Yep.

we did get to see today though.

DiNardo is Luke Weaver's bucko debut.

Successful.

Six, two deficit.

He, it was successful.

He showed why he's worth the cost that he also started to give into the bucko fever.

He had the two on there.

He did walk a batter.

The hit that was hit pretty hard, but Esmerlyn Valdez made the out there, it didn't know if he played off the wall or not.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He made a little uneasy, but he got out of it unscathed, no runs, but he'd have the two base runners there and made things interesting as well.

You know who else helped make things interesting again?

I'm mad that it even got interesting because I wish I would have never gotten interesting, but shout out to Yohan Ramirez.

Three and a third scoreless innings tonight.

One hit, one walk, four strikeouts.

He faces 11 batters.

Just incredible.

ERA is down to 2.80.

I think his, since, let me pull the numbers here.

since June 6th, he's given up one earned run over 29 and two thirds innings.

That's a 0.30 ERA.

Just incredible stuff from Yohan.

And you alluded to it earlier, but like, hell next time through the rotation, you want to try Yohan as starter?

Flip flop Yohan and Carmen.

Are you buying in?

I'm not, but that's an interesting topic.

I'd be, you know what?

If you want to say, go ahead and go Sisk Yohan to get through like five innings or something, I could be talked into it.

At this point.

Let's talk.

Let's talk.

Cause I said that slightly in jest, but also like, is it maybe the worst idea?

It's not a great idea.

It's not an idea that most playoff teams should be entertaining right now, but he has, he's a multi-inning pitcher.

He went, he went longer than the starter today.

Carmen Mlodzinski, Carmen went three.

He went 3.1.

No, Yohan has not started since 2019, the minor leagues.

I want to say 2019, he was a minor league starter.

And, it was what you would expect a Yohan Ramirez start starting line to look like bunch of strikeouts, bunch of walks.

That's why he's not a starter.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Why it's not.

So, but like, it is something you've done before.

Yeah.

You look at Carmen's minor league numbers and that's why he wasn't a starter too.

And here we are.

So, yeah.

Anyways, no, I, this was MLB the show, or like, how was the name of your game again?

Out of the park.

Yeah.

I wouldn't, I would, I'm absolutely doing this right now.

I am putting Yohan.

I'm saying let's YOLO.

Let's run Yohan and see what happens.

Just put like a 50 pitch limit on them or something.

Yes.

60 maybe.

Which it might end up being like one and two thirds innings.

Right.

With like eight walks.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it'll be zero round runs.

He's been, he's been really good though.

Really good.

And shout out to him because he did allow the pirates at least some time to try to get back into this game.

Because, this one could have gotten even more out of hand than what it was.

And, yeah, what, 10 outs out of the bullpen.

That's big.

One hard hit again, 3.1, one hit, one walk.

Four strikeouts, seven whiffs.

Like the stuff, the stuff looked nasty.

He has, he has been good.

Like there's no other way around it.

I know he was, he's, it's still interesting.

He keeps things interesting and entertaining to watch good, bad, or indifferent.

Of course, the results end up being good because he mentioned the stats since June 6th, but you see his stuff, this off season, we talked about big bank.

they let him go more or less at the expense of Yohan Ramirez.

And we weren't sure about that because one had results, even though there was an injury, one had results, one had stuff.

I guess they're banking on this stuff.

And honestly, it's worked out brilliantly in this aspect for them because John Ramirez, we talked early on this season.

He might be the quiet MVP for the way he pulled this team through to some victories.

And obviously it's not the same sense.

They're not really getting too many victories in this stretch, but he has been absolutely nails in this role that he's bitching in.

Yeah.

He's still walking a ton of people, but it's the experience.

They're not your tickets.

he's got 19 walks and 29 and two thirds innings.

That's like six walks per nine.

But the strikeouts are there and he's not giving up any runs.

So it's pretty crazy.

yeah, I want to get to another super chat.

We haven't gotten to, thank you to Steve, 499.

Cherington got caught with his pants down before the year started when the highlight signing of the bullpen was Soto and trading Bednar for chips.

Yeah.

I think right now you got to look back at that David Bednar trade and just think what an absolute disaster.

But Flores did go one for two today.

He did.

He's also never did have the walk on the bases, but that's a little too.

Ever.

And behind the plate, the combo of him and Carmen, a car when Carmen and Mlodzinski is pitching throughout his career, a base, a base dealer has never been thrown out.

Not once ever for his career.

And then Rafael Flores Jr.

Has not caught a base dealer once in his career.

So yeah, that was a lethal combo.

And that did come back to bite them a couple of times early on where, it was two outs.

The Mets would steal second and they wouldn't, they would score on a base hit.

Well, I was going to say, it seemed like that's something the Mets probably knew and was part of their game plan today because they were, they were running on them.

And what was it?

Four stolen bases?

Four stolen bases today?

Yes.

Yeah, four.

Four for four.

Wendy's combo meal, baby.

Do they still have that?

There's no way they still have that.

I doubt it.

If they do, like it's got to be.

Inflation.

You know the TikToks with like the small food.

No way they've got four for fours still.

Anyways.

Remember you could get a double cheeseburger, fries and a drink at McDonald's for $3.

This is the point of the post game show we're at now.

Like a double cheeseburger is like $2.89 right now.

Do you remember back on like Wednesdays when cheeseburgers were like $0.49?

Do you remember two weeks ago when the Pirates had a 50% chance of making the playoffs?

No, I don't remember that.

That didn't exist.

Well, it's 10.3% now.

Oh, so it's updated.

Yeah.

You know what though?

$2 from Nathan, our very own Nathan.

Yeah, Nathan, you don't have to give $2.

Get your comment on the screen.

Simon says everything stinks.

But you know what, DiNardo?

At least FanDuel has the Pirates as favorites tomorrow.

Minus 142 with Bubba Chandler on the mound.

They have faith.

Well, there you go.

Bubba, we need you, buddy.

I said today, if you're going to write the ship, it starts today.

Well, now tomorrow is going to end up being today again.

And if you're going to, it's going to now start today, which will be tomorrow.

Every day going forward until it's officially done.

But every day you go forward that you don't make up ground, this makes that much more immensely harder.

And again, where are they standing right now?

I don't think we even talked about the actual standings.

But, you brought up the record.

But as far as the wild card goes, as of right now, they are behind the Reds still.

There are five games out of the wild card right now.

The Reds, the Cardinals, the Marlins, and Padres are still all ahead of them.

Yes, the Diamondbacks lost, but who cares?

Actually, it's probably not even live.

I don't know.

That might have been their loss yesterday.

Shout out to, this was a tweet I saw from Nathan Hirsch, but on July 26th, DiNardo, the Pirates were 54 and 52.

Yes.

That's the exact same record the 2020 and 4 Pirates, the 2024 Pirates were 54 and 52.

The 2024 Pirates then proceeded to go 22 and 34 after that.

Yeah.

Since 54 and 52, these Pirates are 3 and 8.

Do you remember when Subway had $5 footlongs?

I think they still have $5 6-inch subs.

Because I was at a Subway a little bit ago.

And I want to say they had like, you could get like a turkey sandwich, 6 inches for 5 bucks.

That's a large sandwich.

Some would say that, yeah.

We got another Super.

They don't want us to leave.

I want to go.

Thank you, Steel Dog, for the $5.

Time to check out for me and to focus on my Steelers now.

It was fun while it lasted.

We'll still watch, but we're done, boys.

I can't blame anybody for checking out right now.

That's for sure.

Like, hopefully you stick around and you still pay attention.

But it's getting worse.

Tomorrow's a new day.

I don't know.

If you want more encouragement, you got to see Platinum Key for that.

I don't have much more than tomorrow's a new day.

Yeah, no.

Speaking of Platinum Key, though, Josh Harrison.

Josh Harrison retired as a pirate today.

So that was something.

Shout out, Jay Hay.

Tomorrow's Jay Hay Day at the ballpark.

T-shirts, the first 20,000 fans.

Thrown out the first pitch.

I'm sure the get-in price is probably super cheap for the low price of $58 or something like that.

But, outside that.

Do you remember Pirates tickets for $19?

It's going to be an outstanding day at the ballpark between the last place Mets and the last place Pirates.

You should make your way out there.

Download the awesome app.

So you can watch the Pirates fall in the standings live.

Go on the website.

Go like the video.

Subscribe.

Do all the good stuff.

Other than that, Jim.

We out of here?

Yeah, let's get out of here.

We still love you guys.

That's for sure.

We do.

You guys are awesome.

All right.

That wraps up this episode of North Shore Nine.

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Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

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Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.

Thanks again for all your support, and Let's Go Bucs.