Our Takeways from Another Comeback Win and Sweep of the Royals

Yo, welcome to the North Shore Nine podcast presented by FanDuel.

This is the NS9 postgame show powered by Primanti Brothers.

I have your host, Anthony DiNardo, with me we got Neil, live at PNC Park.

Neil, Pirates sweep the Royals.

They win today, they come back again.

Talk about resiliency, they come back again, and they win the game 4-3.

How you doing?

Good, I want to shout out all the Pirate Patriots who came out today, because they could have very easily gone and watched the Steelers lose a terrible football game.

And it's either time to spend it here at the park or with us through the live, so you guys, you guys are the best.

Drop those hashtag, Raisins.

That's right, that's right.

You could have watched those terrible, the Pirates scored more today than the Steelers did, I believe, right?

It was just a field goal.

They did.

Steelers only scored three points.

The Pirates got, what, four runs?

Yeah, three runs.

I almost forgot, yeah, but yeah, so, great day.

There it is.

Yeah, Pirates win today again, they do sweep the Royals.

It started with it as a bullpen game, as well anticipated.

Lake Bachar got the start today, although he did pitch yesterday as well.

So he pitched yesterday, comes back-to-back games.

I don't think he's done that so far with the Pirates when he's made his, like, pseudo start, but there's not a whole lot of options available.

He comes out today, gets a start, and it didn't look great.

He gets an out, then he decides to allow three straight hits, scores one run, but he gets out of it.

It was, it's one run, it wasn't pretty, but it was one run, and of course it was enough to allow this team to win.

But yeah, he goes one inning today, doesn't give up the earned run, didn't look his greatest today by any means.

No, it didn't look very good.

Royals, again, getting after us with the blooping singles everywhere.

Not as much today as yesterday, but no, I think, I think Lake did a good job settling back in.

I felt like, it's like, it could, I felt, it felt like the Royals almost break that game open very early on in that first inning.

And so, honestly, kudos to him for, like, riding the ship and getting those two outs.

I think he got a strikeout in there to, like, really, like, settle, I don't even down.

And yeah, one run from your opener is fine against this Royals team.

We've shown that we can score more than them.

And so, I thought, it wasn't great, but it was also, like, not the worst thing.

Yeah, like, it's not a good team.

the Royals are not a good team by any means, right?

The offense is not great, and it's the one thing, too, is, like, they aren't putting the ball over the fence.

So, you're not even over the fence.

they're not even, like, any type of slugging.

It's not that they're hitting for, like, doubles or anything.

It's all singles, like, as you mentioned.

So, that's one thing with this team is you can give up some hits typically and not cause a whole lot of damage against you because of this.

And that's simply what happened yesterday we saw.

It happened today early on in the game.

Again, allowing three hits, only having one run scored against you.

That's probably a best-case scenario, in that situation.

So, Bachar starts today.

Didn't have a great start, as mentioned with that inning.

Three hits, one earned run.

Does have the strikeout.

But there's the Royals hands it over to the rest of the bullpen.

Yohan Ramirez comes in today.

Ramirez pitched, Dotel pitched, Carmen pitched.

Of course, Mason Montgomery pitched again.

But, this bullpen type of game, Yohan comes in.

He goes two innings, four strikeouts, one hit.

Yohan Ramirez at .293 ERA on the season.

Yeah, I remember, what was it, a month ago?

We were talking about how maybe he was being overused.

And, like, he was really feeling the effects of how often he was coming into games.

And then, like, he got his ERA back under three.

You mentioned Mason Montgomery not giving up a run since July 26th, which stayed true today.

But I also think Yohan, over these last two months, has had an ERA, like, in the low twos.

So, even in the dog days.

And even though, like, he's shown some signs of, like, some regression, he has been incredible.

And he had a really good two winnings today.

The Royals didn't really look coming close to getting runs off of him today.

No, he looked excellent today.

I've always dubbed it the experience.

Today wasn't even really, like, the experience.

It always seems that he gets out of it.

But there's something that happens.

Whether, again, he has the strikeout, but the guy gets on first.

Or he hits a batter.

Or he loads the bases.

Whatever it is, it's always, there's always damage that's done, I feel like.

But he gets out of it.

And today, it was just very smooth sailing for Yohan Ramirez.

And you are correct.

I'm going to pull some numbers here.

But, since the month of June, right, and we were talking a good bit of time.

Since June, he has pitched 50 innings.

He has a 1.78 ERA with a 1.05 WIC.

That's 50.2 innings.

Yeah.

And he's, what, 70 strikeouts in that time, I think?

Is it close to 70, over 70?

62.

Okay, darn.

62 strikeouts in 50.2 innings pitched.

That's a lot, you know?

Yeah, especially since we had, like, beginning of the year, we were really struggling bullpen-wise with a lot of guys who couldn't miss bats.

Yohan having that in his repertoire and able to go two innings on a repeated basis is really cool.

like, he's not that far behind even Mlodzinski in terms of innings.

It's like 50 innings.

But realistically, it's not too far, in my opinion, since he's been in the bullpen the whole year.

he's just been incredible the entire season, bridging games together for this Pirates team.

Absolutely.

He's pitched in 38 games since that time frame.

12 of them have been at least two innings pitched.

So, you are right.

he has, he's become the new Carmen to some level.

and I think what's nice is there's multiple of those guys.

And I've always felt the Pirates have really utilized this role in a very good way, going back to, pitchers from before.

Carmen was that guy.

Braxton Ashcraft was part of that, last year as well.

Obviously, Braxton's doing his thing in the starter role.

But it's like, I always felt the Pirates, their best with the bullpen usage is having, like, one or absolutely, like, two of these types.

And Carmen really hasn't been that guy this year.

He's been all different type of roles.

But Yohan has certainly been that, and he's certainly excelled in that role.

Bachar, you could, argue, of course, it's used with him much differently as well.

But these multi-inning guys that are in relief, yeah, like, Yohan has been outstanding in this role.

outside of Montgomery, he's probably been the second best arm in the bullpen all year.

And arguably, if you want to make an art, he's probably been the most consistent, I would say.

Montgomery wasn't the most consistent until, June hit a round.

But I felt like Yohan has been putting in good innings for us since March.

He's had some bumps in the road, for sure, because that's the Yohan Ramirez experience.

But, it's the consistency of good pitching this year.

If you ask me anyone, I don't think, I think Yohan might have been six on the list I would have guessed going into the year.

Oh, at highest, six.

But, no, you're right, because that's one thing we talked about.

I remember in April, the end of April, we were discussing, is he like the unsung hero?

you can't really dub him the MVP.

But in some way, maybe he should be because of the games that he allowed this team to win by holding them, through extra innings.

Or this big jam that was created, and he got through it and such.

So, yeah, he had a really good April.

Like you mentioned, there's certainly been bumps on the road.

But I think throughout the entire season, he's been the most consistent, like you say.

Like, Mason Montgomery, it's really been after June.

But, again, it's been lights out after June.

But the first half wasn't all that good where, yeah, Yohan's pretty much been consistently inexperienced, but consistently over the course of the season, he's been one of your better relievers.

Yeah, it really, it's nice to have, at this point in the year, eliminated from playoffs, you're really looking to see, like, what you have and, like, what holes you don't need to fill.

And at this point in time, I feel pretty solid, like, building the middle relief around Bachar and Yohan.

I think Yohan's clearly better, but those two guys have clearly shown the ability to come in into those fourth and fifth and sixth innings and get us to the end of the game.

And not only not have the game blow up, but keep us in it or keep the leads.

Like, they've been able to hold that stuff down.

So, really happy, really happy with those two.

Yeah, that's why we talked a little bit, about Stovall yesterday.

It's like that, there's, I don't really think there's a need to bring him back at the price point because, again, of these guys that we're talking about yesterday and today, Carmen included, most likely.

you have, obviously, Mason Montgomery's your closer, there's Weaver, but then, yeah, there's Bachar.

There's Yohan, there's Carmen, who knows what they'll tell, what's going to shake out.

But, like, there's so many options here that you don't really need to go ahead and spend six, eight million dollars on a right-handed reliever for next year on no ball.

You can just use those resources elsewhere.

So, at any rate, yeah, like, Yohan today, he had the sinker going, sinker sweeper, threw the four-seamer a couple times, ended up having three whiffs, like I said, the four strikeouts.

he looked, he looked really good.

He looked really good today.

Yeah.

overall, again, I think it's hard to cover nine innings as a bullpen.

I thought, overall, except one pitcher who will get to, excellent stuff today from the bullpen.

Yes.

Like, I will take three innings, I will take three runs of a nine inning bullpen game any day of the week.

I think that's really good stuff.

And I think this speaks to that group, and again, like, while we're talking about this, how you feel comfortable going next year, is usually the bullpen games are one of the better pitching games for the Pirates.

And, yeah, part of that is, of course, like, the pitching's fell apart.

there's only three starters right now in the rotation.

And, of course, one of them is not being Braxton Ashcraft, who's been, the solid, the most consistent starter pitcher as well.

there's bumps, there's ups and downs, but it's almost like you're comfortable.

You feel pretty comfortable when the bullpen game happens that, you know what, it's probably going to be a low-scoring game on, for their team.

So, if this team offensively can come together and string some runs, you're probably pulling out a win.

In most cases, that is the case.

And like you mentioned today, that was, right, Bachar gave the run, but then Ramirez comes in, Dotel replaces him.

Dotel, it was a good out.

Like, he wasn't as impressive as Yohan, I'll say.

He does go two, give four really hard hits, but only one actual, well, four hard events, right?

Only one landed as an actual hit in those two innings, one strikeout.

But two scoreless from him as well.

Again, go three innings.

It's only a one-nothing ball game when Dotel comes in.

Dotel, again, he keeps this thing going, holding them to just one run, allowing this team to have a chance.

Yeah, no, Dotel was, I agree, not nearly as impressive as Yohan.

Like, Yohan's innings, like, almost flew by.

Like, I almost couldn't believe how fast they went.

And, yeah, Dotel generally really did have to work a lot harder for his outs.

But overall, I think, especially since he struggled results-wise, you take what you can get from this.

Like, did he get hit hard by a team that doesn't hit the ball hard?

Yes.

But overall, like, these are the type of results you need from him to start building confidence for next year.

Because I really don't see a future for him as a starter.

But he's shown enough that, like, I could see him giving one, maybe two innings next year.

Obviously, you can't have, like, four guys whose roles to go two innings next year.

But I see a role of him on this major league team next year.

Yeah, he was an early, I'm going to throw this term around quite loosely right now, MVP candidate for this team, of course.

Because, like, when they were suffering in this bullpen, he came up and he was brilliant.

Now, it didn't last, right?

he came back down to earth a bit here.

But he certainly still has put up quality, appearances.

And Tate was certainly one of them.

He's needed to pass the baton off to the next, bullpen pitcher when bullpen games happen.

And that's what he did today.

He went two, scoreless two, was perfectly fine.

And, again, it was a 1-0 ball game until Oneil Cruz came up to the plate and tied things up.

Oneil Cruz hit a home run today, his 20th on the year.

He now has 20 home runs, 28 stolen bases, enters the 2020 club.

And I say the Pirates Elite 2020 club because it's not just the fact that he did it.

This is the third season in a row he's done it.

There's only been two other Pirates that have done that in the Pirates' tenure.

And that is Barry Bonds and Andrew McCutchen.

So, again, that's some pretty impressive company there.

That's some good company, yeah.

and it's in 93 games.

Or, I think, to the name of 94.

Whichever one it is.

Just, like, again, I said it last time.

I'm going to say it again tonight.

We were robbed of a full season of greatness.

And I'll say this.

That home run was awesome.

But also, yeah, it was so good.

But also.

Aren't they all awesome, though?

Like, seriously.

He has awesome pop-ups.

Like, there was one pop-up he had.

Like, the launch angle was, like, 52 degrees.

And it still went 110 miles an hour, almost left the park.

Like, it was absurd, the power that he has.

And, like, and then the home run was the icing on the cake there.

We're an incredible home run.

Individly so, being in the 2020 club.

And getting us closer to our first season ever with 100 home runs at home.

We're at 98 now as a team.

We've never had more than 100 and worked only two away now after today.

Yeah, or actually, that pop-up you're talking about was his very next at-bat after the home run.

And I know you're at the game.

You couldn't see on the broadcast.

I'm not sure if you saw it.

But, he just knew it.

it was there.

He just missed it.

He was so disappointed because that could have been back-to-back home runs easily.

And he just missed it.

Like you said, that pop-up, he hit that thing so high.

And that still was close to the warning track.

it still was out there.

Just shows the power that he has.

If he barreled that ball, that was going 500 feet.

Like, that was going to be an absolute tank.

Like, I don't even know how he hits it that hard.

Like, it was, again, so really cool to see from Cruz.

Fully deserved.

Can't wait to see him a fully healthy year next year.

Best player to watch on the field, just in terms of entertainment.

I want to point some things out here.

Let's talk about Oneil Cruz a little bit.

Let me give this guy some flowers.

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But yes, Neil.

Oneil Cruz is very polarizing.

There's people that love him.

There's people that don't love him.

I'll put it that way.

And I think the big reason the people that don't like him are the laziness tag and like the strikeouts, the, well, he doesn't, so he gets a fun, exciting home run

here and there every once in a while.

And then he doesn't get a hit for the next five games.

Right.

Oh, no.

Cruz is slashing right now.

280.

367.

490.

And I know we talk about this a lot, but again, I want to talk about this.

And I want to put this even in some more perspective.

Does Oneil Cruz strike out 33.5% of the time?

Yes.

Is he a 200 hitter?

No.

Like that's not, that's not prohibiting him from being productive, even in batting average, even getting on base.

This isn't just like he hits him at a majestic home run every once in a while.

And then he's just nothing at the batter's box.

He's hitting two baby.

I want to put this out there.

He has over, he has 406 plate appearances.

So he's not a qualified hitter for everyone in major league baseball that had at least 400 plate appearances.

Oneil Cruz has the 26th best batting average in baseball.

If he was qualified, it'd be the 19th best in baseball.

That's batting average.

This isn't just, he hits a home run every once in a while.

He hits the ball.

He has a higher batting average in Jake Bingham now, I think.

You can correct me if I'm wrong.

It might be the exact same.

He does.

It's 279, but technically speaking, yes.

Yeah.

This, yeah.

And he has developed so many ways in his game this year that it's incredible to watch.

Like his defense has gotten significantly better as the year has gone on.

His ability to hit for contact now has gotten way better.

I'm sure Doug is thrilled.

Like that's, Doug doesn't want to see Oneil Cruz hit home runs.

He wants to see him hit those opposite field singles against lefties.

But yeah, this, yeah.

And he is developing into the guy like who has all those tools with his speed, with his power.

Now he's developing that contact.

Like, yeah, like it's like, wow.

Wow.

Has a lot of strikeouts too, but does anyone care that Brandon Lowe strikeout strikes out a lot that he almost has 200 strikeouts this year?

No, because he, because he just gets on, he gets things done.

He hits a ton of home runs.

He gets a ton of runs in and Oneil Cruz is the same way.

Like, I don't care that he strikes out a lot because he's a fun player who makes his team better.

And you can pretty much markedly see the steel, the pirates are in their season around too late, but it turned around when Oneil Cruz was healthy.

For sure.

I want to highlight that again.

It's not so much that, yes, he's a fun player, but let's not just focus on him being a fun or entertaining player.

He is a productive player.

He helps this team win more than he doesn't much more, and they're like a lot of criticism was certainly valid in the past.

him hitting 200 is not what you want to see.

there's more in there, but he's doing all of that right now.

The strikeouts are still there, but again, you can live with the strikeouts.

If he's still going to put up a 280 batting average again, we are talking, this is one of the better in baseball, 26 in MLB with players of at least 400 plate appearances.

And that is a total of 201 players.

That's upper echelon.

He's not just hitting for power.

He's hitting for doubles.

He's hitting for singles.

And when they are singles, he's stretching out to a double basically.

Cause he's still in the bag 28 on the year in those 93 games.

So he is having such a good season.

And I know we missed a chunk and I get that, but like, that's another guy that you're just I'm salivating.

It sucks that we're probably going to miss games in 2027 as well, because I really want to see this full season of Ohno Cruz, because there's also probably, unless there's extension happening, a finite amount of games that remain for him in a Pirates uniform.

And I want to, at least before he goes to that next team, see this fully unlocked Ohno Cruz that, it's that was in there.

He's certainly playing himself into a big payday, isn't he?

yeah, like, he was already going to get paid more just because like of his, like his stats were showing just because of those no skills, but man, like, even if he's just DHing or I think he has a future as an actually good center fielder in this league,

teams are going to pay up the nose to get a talent like him in the door.

I'd love to see them try to sit down and hammer out an extension in this off season.

I really do think like the best way they get better next year is by bringing back and extending these guys who are, who are going to be part of this core for the next to the future with wow, with Cruz, get them under contract because they're

going to be better than any free agent.

You can realistically sign.

There's not an Ohno Cruz in and out there in free agency.

He is just that good.

100%.

And like, I want to put this in perspective here too.

Now this, understand this counts defense and this is a positive form to show that as well.

Oh no Cruz right now has a 3.1 war in 93 games.

One soda in 105 games has a 2.9.

Now one soda notoriously bad defense.

We know that he's a bad defender.

That calculates Ohno Cruz's defense as well.

If Ohno Cruz is such a bad defender as well, like you would imagine he would be even worse than one soda.

Right.

But he's better because the defense, as you've talked about, has progressively gone better.

And it's not good.

It's certainly still not good.

We're not here to tell that Ohno Cruz is a gold glove center fielder, but it plays now, especially with that bat.

So yeah.

Oh no Cruz in 12 less games has a higher war than one soda.

That's where he's at in 2026 breakout that we've been awaiting for so long.

really it's been, yeah, even though he's been, he's never been a bad player, but you've always known there was a little bit left in there and he's showing what that player is.

absolutely my favorite.

and yeah, my one struggle so far this year has been, I've been debating which Jersey do I buy Brandon Lauer or Oneil Cruz?

And my decision still has not been made any easier.

Well, one has, six games left in his career and I don't care.

I really don't care.

Brandon Lowe has been that.

I love Brandon Lowe.

I don't care.

I'll have one.

I'm 70.

Yeah.

so again, Ohno Cruz, fantastic year joins the 2020, one of three pirates to do it for three straight seasons.

So again, going back to the game here, right.

Wilbur Hotel does his thing.

Carmen Jensky comes in and Carmen started doing his thing.

he was adding to this, Hey, outstanding stuff from the bullpen.

he comes in, he gets to the first, that second, ending that he comes back in things came apart.

He does go three today, but he gives up those two in that one inning.

And of course that did give away the lead or I should say the tie ball game.

Yeah.

really good home run from Paschettino.

Yeah.

It was not a, it was not a horrible outing from a Jensky by any stretch of the imagination, like three innings, like two off one home run from a good hitter.

Like that's rough, but you can stomach it.

But yeah, no, it's just, it's not really doing him any favors.

I see this happened and he wants to be a starter.

like one really good inning at the front end, one really good inning in the back.

And right.

It was the second inning.

He did where you give him the second, the second, the home run.

Am I making that up?

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He pitched in the sixth.

It was fine.

He gave up two in the seventh and he pitched a scoreless eighth.

Yeah.

Just give us the one innings, Jensky.

And you're, again, the bullpen was really good.

We have our, we have our stretch guys.

Like we just need you to pitch a seventh inning.

That's what you're here for.

That's what you're good at.

Please let's just make that happen next year.

I'm with you.

I hope, we've learned a lot this year.

We've grown this year and heading into next year.

the front office also does enough to provide starting pitching.

So that way they don't have to even entertain going to Carmen and saying like, Hey, we might need your help this year.

Stretch yourself out.

Let's just say, you know what, Carmen, you are who you are.

Let's go into that bullpen.

Let's do that thing.

Let's focus on that and let's get back to being 2023, 2024, 2025, Carmen, Mijinsky and a lot less than 2026.

And if that happens again, we've already talked about the bullpen options.

This has the absolute potential to be such a lockdown bullpen.

And once again, part of that is because of this next guy, Mason Montgomery, who comes in once again, and we talked about him so much last night and now he just extends this perfect streak that he has, he comes in today and it got a little bit shaky there.

He gets the out.

there was a ball that I'm not going to say it was like poorly played by Mangome.

It was, it's at the wall.

It's a tough play to make guy gets on second and now there's some damage.

Is this going to be the case?

And we talked about last night, like you feel perfectly fine.

Cause it makes it Montgomery.

I'm also in the sense of like, well, it's the pirates.

So how are they going to pirate this one?

This is again, it was an opportunity for things to come crashing for Montgomery to allow the earned run, to tie this game back up and say, well, Hey, he can't be perfect all the time.

And he still remains perfect.

Yeah.

I was, as I was standing out here and as all that was going down, I'm like, Dinardo just had to say it over and over again.

He just had to bring it up that he's been perfect.

Cause that's what was going through my mind the entire time.

You know how you said you were nervous last night and I wasn't, that might've switched around a little bit.

Cause I was nervous.

I was convinced we were going to extra innings at that rate, but no, he doesn't bat an eye and he just gets out of it.

And the Royals didn't, again, despite having a runner on third, the Royals didn't really come close to score in that run.

Just some really good stuff from Montgomery in a, in a sticky situation and another, oh, well, there's a runner scoring position and it doesn't faze him.

He still gets the out.

the only thing I would really say about Mangum is you probably want to make sure you get to that ball.

So he doesn't get the third base, but like, yeah, it was a hard play off the wall.

it was hard.

He just misses it.

I don't only mind him trying to catch that ball.

I say, go for it.

but yeah, so, but good on Montgomery.

Just another real lead out.

Right.

Yeah.

It's like one of those things again, he comes in, Nick Lofton grounds out.

He strikes out, sorry, I'm pulling this up here again.

He strikes out the next guy rave.

and then, yeah, like that could have been the third final out, gets a double ends up on third, because of the play and you're right.

Like it's the right there.

There's, they're threatening to score and gets the flout and the game just nothing phases him.

Nothing phases him.

It's just remarkable.

the turnaround he's had, what he's become and, still perfect.

So perfect.

May it continue until the end of the season?

yeah.

And I, again, it was one of those games where like the energy was low and I didn't really think the pirates were going to win this one.

I thought, well, we got two or three and then, well, Rafael Flores had other ideas.

That was, that was awesome.

Yep.

He was a big part of why this team won because as we mentioned, right, with Carmen Jinski giving up the lead, they're down.

Can this team come back?

That's been the recipe of every single game against his Royals team in the series.

and they do, they come back late to Rafael Flores comes up and he has a two RBI, home run.

And, Oh, Hearn gets on base.

He hits the home run, takes the lead.

Everything we talked about offensively, I'm not putting him in a cruiser stands here, but like Rafael Flores offensively this year has been something too.

he went two for three today as well with a walk.

He's also batting to 86.

this is the guy who like, again, we talked about, especially with the trade and even after the trade, like the contact issues, what's that going to turn into?

Can he improve upon it?

What is he going to be as an MLB hitter?

And again, batting to 86 and OPS of nine 10 and the power, the power just is showing.

outstanding day for him also.

Yeah.

Oh, not to make, like, I'm not going to pit them against each other, but I'll say this is it feels what I don't think Flores is a nine 10 OPS guy.

I think that's what his OPS is after today, 10 home runs and limited, like really good stuff.

I don't think he's a 900 OPS bat, but I do think what we've seen from him so far is a little bit more sustainable than what we saw from say S Esmerlyn Valdez earlier in the year.

Like there's more, I would say there's not as much like Swin and miss stuff.

I'd say there's not like he's willing to like take the double.

Like he has some really nice doubles this series from what I saw in person where for, I think he had one today, right?

First pitch, he just ropes it into a left field.

I might be making this up.

I swear he had a double, but no, I'm just really, oh, he did.

All right, good.

I just want to make sure I wasn't thinking of last night.

Cause he also had a double last night.

but no, like really impressive with his at-bats.

and I like his approach and I like the fact he's not really Swin and missing as often as I thought as we might've been worried about.

Yeah.

I don't want to put them against each other too.

They're both not finished products by any means.

they're both in their developmental path.

Raphael floors is really at the plate appearances now where the league really started adjusting and pushing back on his Merlin.

The thing with Raphael floors is he's going to run out of the games.

Like you're not going to see that this year.

Right.

so it's still unfinished, but there are things about him that I liked about Esmerlyn Valdez's game as well.

Again, we both had the contact issues and both have improved upon them, throughout their tenure.

both are walking at a good rate too.

Now Esmerlyn Valdez's was higher, but like Raphael floors is still walking at a very, good rate.

That's one thing that he really improved upon this year in Indianapolis, his walk rate.

So again, like even that's what we talk about Esmerlyn Valdez, when he struggles, he's still productive in other ways, you know?

And I felt like Esmerlyn Valdez, yes, there's contact issues, but he didn't expand the strike zone too much.

until maybe the pitcher started saying like, well, then we're not going to throw you strikes.

We're going to pitch around you because you're an MVP hitter ever throwing in the strike zone.

So let's expand it.

And I felt like he started to press a little bit and that's how you started seeing the struggles here or there, with Raphael floors.

He hasn't really experienced that as of yet.

So like, I'm not sure what he's going to truly become.

I don't think, if you're a nine, 10 OPS hitter, you're probably an MVP talks year in and year out, you know?

So like, I'm not going to say he's that guy either because that has a very high expectations, but I do think it's fair to say right now that offensively he's a lot better of a product than I was anticipating, especially right now at this stage of his career.

and that's exciting to see.

Yeah.

And again, like it was really good home run.

and I don't know, like it feels like surprisingly, like, I think you guys posted on the North store nine accounts or like earlier this week about pirates catchers this year being basically top 10 offensively in baseball.

You feel, you feel pretty good about Flores and ND going into next year.

I think as you're catching duo, presuming that ND can stay healthy.

I think that feels like a pretty, and you can also play them at first base.

You can DH them like, so you, they can get more at bats.

Cause they're those, both their bats are basically pining to be in the lineup when they're available.

I think it's a good problem to have going into next year.

You got catchers should be pretty good from an offensive standpoint.

Yeah.

Like there's still the uncertainty of ND has injury and he comes back when that will be, but let's go ahead and throw Davis in there also, because like, regardless of Davis, I think we see what he is.

If any type of offense takes a step forward, that's icing on the cake.

But like this version of Henry Davis, I'll still absolutely take as a backup.

Oh yeah.

the defense is outstanding.

his catch stolen rate is remarkable.

it's, I haven't checked the numbers here in a few weeks, but it was almost 50% when league averages, I think it was like 27% this year.

So it's crazy how many guys he throws out and what he can do controlling the run game and like the areas that he can affect the game without being in the batter's box.

And he still hits his, fair share of home runs that still help out in some manner.

And so like, yeah, the three of them, you're feeling comfortable with this catchers group.

So yeah, another, yeah.

Another big day from Flores here.

Outstanding stuff.

Yeah.

So yeah, again, September has hopefully been a September of not playoff stuff.

It's knowing what we, knowing what is good and what it needs to be filled in the off season.

You've been able, hopefully they've been, it's been able to identify like which holes you need to fill because it really, it really doesn't feel like we're that far off.

It doesn't feel like we're far off.

I, this year was so disappointed, but like you can almost taste a post-season birth with this current core of players.

Is it palpable out there?

Do you taste it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's palpable.

All right.

Well, let's go ahead and give some sandwiches away.

How's that sound?

Let's do it.

Let's give away some sandwiches.

So Neil, let everyone know what they need to do.

They need to drop the hashtag, raise it some chat, and then you will get your, if you win, you get your email over to northshore9 at gmail.com.

So one associate with the Three Man Two Brothers account, and we will get you your sandwiches over to you on your email.

Boom.

Nailed it.

65 entries.

I know it's NFL Sunday, but who wants to watch the Steelers and whatever team's playing now?

My fantasy team's doing a great job as well today.

I honestly haven't checked my fantasy team, but.

Shout out to James Stevens.

You're our first winner today.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

That's what Neil told you to do.

For our second winner, we got Harley.

Harley, congratulations.

You win two sandwiches also.

Get those emails over.

We'll get those out to you.

Congratulations.

There's three more home games now against the Cardinals.

I know.

Where.

Three more.

Jared Jones is going to take the start for the first game.

Then it's going to be a bullpen game.

And then Paul Skenes wraps up the final home game in 2026 against the Cardinals.

I think that means the last Jones and Skeen starts of the year.

Question mark.

Maybe Jones finishes off the season.

But yeah.

Yeah.

Jones could potentially pitch in the last game, but yeah, we'll find out.

Yeah.

Well.

Unfortunately, I won't be here at PNC for the last couple games, but it's been fun.

And it's always fun to be here.

There it is.

Yeah.

Right now there's no, there's nothing out on FanDuel.

So again, I would say, check that out.

Probably tomorrow.

There's the off day.

We'll be back with Bucco Brew in the morning.

Jim and I check out FanDuel.

We'll see what those odds end up being.

Cause again, there's no point of looking at award winners, home runs.

Like there's six games left in total.

The Pirates aren't going to have any of those.

So if you are even, if they even have a bet out there for some type of award, I don't know what you're doing betting on it.

So check out the, check out the FanDuel tomorrow.

See what the odds are on the Pirates game.

When our boys take the mound tomorrow.

Or Tuesday.

So Tuesday.

Six more games.

But that said, are we out of here, Neil?

We're out of here.

Have a good one, everyone.

We'll see y'all later.

Like, subscribe.

Later.

Bye-bye.

All right.

That wraps up this episode of North Shore Nine.

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Thank you.