The Pirates took it to the Brewers Saturday sweeping them in a doubleheader at PNC Park, winning game one 7-6 and game two 3-2. Esmerlyn Valdez led the way as he belted three home runs and drove in eight runs, including a go-ahead grand slam in the 7th inning of game one. The Pirates move to 49-47 this season and finish up the first half Sunday with a chance to sweep the first-place Brewers. Cody and Nathan recapped game one and Tyler and Doug broke down game two on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti Bros. You can watch/listen to both below:

Game 1:

Game 2:

Here’s my 3 takeaways in this doubleheader sweep:

MERLYN MAGIC!

OK, the Esmerlyn Valdez hype train is off and rolling, but this is getting crazy. Valdez went 3-for-4 and homered twice in game 1, including a go-ahead grand slam in the 7th inning to lead the Bucs and finished with 6 RBIs. Who does he think he is, Ryan O’Hearn? Valdez accounted for 6 of the Pirates 7 runs in game 1. And then he followed that up with an encore in game 2 by belting a 2-run home run to give the Bucs on the board. That’s 8 RBIs on the day. He’s now homered 10 times in just 27 games! He’s homering every 9 at-bats which is completely wild. He’s slugging .722! I don’t want this train to ever end. He’s got 40-HR power and he’s not just hitting lefties, he’s hitting anyone who throws a baseball. Single-A, Double-A, Arizona Fall League, Triple-A, the Major Leagues, your backyard, it don’t matter. He drove in eight of the 10 runs scored in the doubleheader for the Bucs. This was Esmeryln’s doubleheader.

Comparisons are dumb and put absurd expectations on players, but I saw one early on when he came up and it won’t leave my head. I saw someone on Twitter compare Esmerlyn to Manny Ramirez when he first came up…and now I.can’t.stop.thinking.about.it. We can dream right? I can’t wait to see what he does next. Here’s some good notes from the Magician around the league:

The Pirates Will Finish the First Half Above .500

With the doubleheader sweep Saturday, the Pirates move to 49-47 on the season which means even with a loss Sunday, they are guaranteed to finish the first half above .500. A sweep with Paul Skenes on the mound would be sweet Sunday and go three up, but either way it’ll be above .500.

There’s been a lot of bad this season between the rotation struggling at times and the bullpen blowing saves left and right, but this team cleary is talented and continue to hang around. Maybe, just maybe they can hang around enough to get hot, add some legit arms at the deadline and get on a nice winning streak. Who knows, maybe this doubleheader is the start of it. Go win Sunday and sweep these Brewers.

Bubba and Braxton Struggled

Both Pirates starting pitchers struggled in this doubleheader as Braxton Ashcraft started game one and gave up five runs on two home runs by the Brewers from Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick. Ashcraft has been the Pirates best pitcher this season so I’m going to chalk this one up to facing a tough Brewers lineup, flush it and move on. Then Bubba Chandler struggled in game two, didn’t even make it five and gave up two runs and it could have been worse but Brandon Eisert, making his Pirates debut after the trade, got the final out in the 5th inning after walking the first two batters he saw in a Pirates uniform. Chandler had been pitching better as of late until these past two starts and then went 4.0 and 4.2 innings in the last two. Thankfully the bullpen somehow picked up the rotation in both games.

I think overall, Skenes included, this staff could use a nice break with the All-Star break approaching. I don’t think they’re necessarily all gassed, but a little break and reset can’t hurt them. They need it and it’s coming at the perfect time.