Takeaways from a 5-4 Victory and Series Win over the Cardinals

What's up, everybody? This is the North Shore Nine podcast presented by FanDuel. You're locked into the NS9 postgame show powered by Primanti brothers. I'm Jim. Joining me today is Dougie Fresh. Dougie Fresh, the Pirates win a game against the left-handed starting pitcher and they take another road series. 5-4 win. They hang on today. How are you doing this afternoon?

I'm completely annoyed.

See, here's the deal. Yesterday, so I was talking to you. I sent a text message this morning. So I was traveling this weekend. I was actually in Pittsburgh, but I was traveling back home today. And so I turned on yesterday's postgame show. And it was you and Tyler. And I'm just like, God, like you guys are being so negative. Like, just enjoy the win. Enjoy the win.

So here's what we're going to, we're not going to do today, Doug. We're not going to be negative today. We're going to enjoy the win. You're going to get your hashtag raise it in. And we're going to talk about the Pirates taking a road series against the St. Louis Cardinals. How about, how about we enjoy the win, Doug?

All right. If you say so.

No, it was a good game though. It was, it was a really good game.

I thought Braxton Ashcraft just finishes off a stellar August. just real quick, his August numbers. This was his sixth start of the month. With the win today, he's, he goes to four and one with a 2.13 earned run average in the month of August. So, which is crazy. Four wins by the starting pitcher in August.

I don't know if the Pirates had four wins in August, Doug, but somehow Braxton Ashcraft.

Yeah. How does that math work? They don't win four games. How did he get four wins? I'm down with you.

I don't know how Ashcraft gets awarded with four wins this month. and not only that, 14 and five on the year, like just, the dude's a, the dude's a stopper.

He just goes out there and he competes and he gives you a chance to win every game. So we'll get into that. but I really want to start off with, the offense today, facing a lefty starter, not necessarily a good one with Matthew Libretor on the mound, but we've seen Libretor have some success against the Pirates.

but the, they get to him early, and it's the rookie Esmerlyn Valdez to run Homer in the second inning, after Brandon Lowe started off with a double there off the lefty.

So some good piece of hitting from Brandon Lowe and he had some, Brandon Lowe had a really good game today. I thought just in general, but it was nice to see Valdez hit the ball over the fence.

He had an insane July and August obviously wasn't really what you wanted to see from him just as second Homer of the month, but, came in a big spot there.

Yeah. listen, we want to see him, snap out of this and he hit a home run opposite field, against left-hander. I know he's right-handed, but we struggle against left-handers. It's on the road. It's against the Cardinals.

I'm not going to complain about that. I'm going to be positive. That was a, that was a nice develop. so yeah. And, Brandon Lowe with the double against the lefty, which for him is something, I will double down.

Some people have been critical of me saying he's had the best season, second base that I've ever seen from a pirate second baseman. I'm not saying he's the best second baseman of the pirates all time.

I'm not, I'm not saying he's the best defensive second base than the pirates have ever had, but this is the best season. I think a Pittsburgh pirate second base has ever had just one season with the, with the production. The defense has been much better than advertised. yeah, I hope he's, I hope he gets to continue to be a pirate. I don't think he will, but I'd love to see it.

Yeah. Brandon Lowe was, that was, yeah. Yesterday you said, best season by a second baseman that you've ever seen. and then someone commented, Doug must've not seen Maz. I was like, I think Doug did see Maz actually. but no, I think you're right. obviously we're not, we're not saying Brandon Lowe is better than Bill Mazeroski. That's not what either of us are saying, but in terms of just like production in a single season. Yeah. I don't think we've ever seen this before.

you look at Maz's numbers, he was obviously a wizard with a glove, but offensively he was, below average for his career. And I don't think he ever had a season where he was above average. So yeah, the offense that we're seeing out of Brandon Lowe is something that we haven't seen as a second base position ever. so, love you, Maz. Love you, but you never hit 20. He's the greatest defensive player of all time. And I love that. obviously had

maybe the biggest home run ever in the history of MLB, right. He was an above average offensive second baseman for the time that he played. but what Brandon Lowe is doing this year is, just fantastic. And it's the best we've seen in a single season by a second base.

It is. so yeah, pirates get on the board there right in the, in the second inning, with the, get, gets the two run lead.

Like I said, Valdez had a, struggled for the month of August. but comes through there, gets the two run Homer, puts the pirates in the lead. hopefully finding his groove back. that's a second Homer of the road trip. yeah, they definitely need him down the stretch. That's for sure. but they take the two nothing lead there.

I also want to give a shout out before we go too far to Dean with his super chat here says it's insane how good Mason Montgomery is. And yeah, we'll definitely get the Montgomery. It is crazy how good he is. We'll touch on him here at the end.

It's quite a, wow. Yeah. Something. Yeah. But I want to talk about this though, because in the third inning, Doug, we've seen how stupid this pirates team plays sometimes.

And it's like, we're just, we were due, we were due for another team to do something really stupid. And it happened in the third inning, right? Oneil Cruz lead off double. and then it's like, oh man, they're going to strand him here. They're going to strand him here.

Reynolds strikes out, Flores strikes out. And then, Brandon Lowe pops one up and you're thinking they just, they just got out of the inning.

But the third baseman, Luis Urias, is it Luis or is it Ramon who I never know which one plays for the Cardinal. It's Ramon. so Ramon Urias, just the ball went in his glove and just popped right out of it, Doug, and Cruz scores to make a three nothing.

I don't know if I've seen too many routine pop flies be dropped like that before, but we've seen a lot of bad third base play this year.

And that is one of the worst place we've seen all year, and, it's a large sample size of what we've seen. And that was just terrible. And that's not what the Cardinals do. that's not their typical MO. So to get that gift was really something. And obviously it proved to be a difference.

Yeah. without that run, we're still playing baseball right now, Doug. the pirates do add another run in the fifth, this time, off the bat of Jared Triolo and Doug Triolo clobbered this ball.

He ended up in the big Mac land. It was like, is this Mark McGuire or is this Jared Triolo? Yeah. Paul Ols is, I haven't seen him in the chat today and I'm assuming it's because when he saw this home run, he has not recovered yet fully.

So that was, that was, he crushed it. And that's, Wayner said, it's like, look, Triolo's got power. He doesn't hit for power, but he's got power. It's just, it's what's so frustrating with him. That is a, that's a big, strong boy, big tree. And man, you'd like, boy, if he could dial into that a little more often, holy cow.

As awful as the offense has been since the all-star break, we talked on Thursday, on NS nine live Tyler and I, we talked about how everyone on this team has gotten worse, in the second half, Jared Triolo was the one exception to that.

And Triolo was the only person, baby. It's his time. Yeah. Triolo was the only person who was had a better second half than the first half. after today, seven, 10 OPS for Jared Triolo, in the second half.

He's sitting two 77. So like all of the, like the offense just completely disappearing here in the second half. This is, this is Jared Triolo's time to shine. I guess he's the one guy semi-performing now, seven, 10, we're still talking about below league average, but it's pretty close to average.

Right. And then you throw in his defense, if he's playing in the right position and you would, you would, you know what I'm saying? If he played third base and did that all year long, right?

Hit two 77 with a seven 10 OPS. And was that plus defense? I would take that happily. you know what I'm saying? again, you gotta be better at shortstop, but you got Konnor Griffin, you gotta be better at shortstop, resign loud, Horwitz. You can, you can carry that bat when you get that defense.

It's if, but again, he can't, he doesn't, he can't do it until August, you know? So yeah, it is frustrating seeing the exact same thing every single year. It really is. It's almost like, just like, maybe you just play Triolo and Indy until the all-star break. And then you bring them up at the all-star break and then you start playing him. I don't, I don't know what the answer is, but his first half of the season is just always terrible.

but yeah, he's performing well right now. he's on a six game hitting streak, Doug. So, that's something, in that six game hitting streak. he is hitting 421 with a 1055 OPS.

So keep it up, keep it up tree. Yeah. He was, he was the leadoff batter today. And yeah, like I said, the solo homer there, put the pirates up four to nothing in the fifth inning. and this is when I want to start talking about, Brash Nat Braxton Ashcraft a little bit. again, guess his sixth start of the month. He's been, he's been on a roll five innings, six hits, two runs, both earned one walk, three strikeouts today.

He was on absolute cruise control the first four innings of this game. and then the fifth inning, there was, some batted balls that landed and he got himself into a little bit of trouble. He walked the batter. so there was, there was a few things there. but all in all, another really good start from Braxton Ashcraft ERA is down to 3.59 on the season, 71 pitches, 50 of them for strikes. He just,

he's just so fun to watch because he's quick, he's fast, he's efficient. He pounds the zone and his curve ball. Doug is so good. It's such a good pitch for him. And it's like, if he ever does get behind an account, he just goes to that curve ball and he gets right back into it. Or he gets a quick out. he's just, it's a pleasure to watch.

Yeah. He, even when schemes was at his peak Braxton Ashcraft is more fun to watch again. He rears back, throws the ball, bouncing up and down on the, on the steps, dying to get into the game, like works quick, just strike, strikes. It's just great. not the least bit intimidated by the moment or anything.

All the love that I've had for Paul Skenes and all the love that I had for Dennis Santana, I am funneling in to Braxton Ashcraft. I'm considering getting married for the eighth time, having a child and naming it Braxton, regardless of whether it's a boy or girl. So that's where I'm at right now.

So eight might be lucky. Willie started those numbers, I don't know where this team would be without him. Right.

We talk about like at the beginning of the year, we were like, we were talking about how important Paul Skenes is to this team. but, and I think we were all really high on Braxton Ashcraft.

it was one of those things where like, we all, we all watched him last year. We all saw him in spring training and it was like Braxton Ashcraft is primed for a really good year. but after today, Doug, the pirates are 19 and eight.

When Braxton Ashcraft starts 19 and eight. Imagine if they were, imagine if they were 19 and eight, when Paul skiing started, right?

That this team would be 15 or 500. It's right. The difference, what he's doing and people that say, pitcher wins don't matter. And I agree with that for the most part, but he's getting wins.

Cause he's pitching into the sixth and seventh and eighth inning. Right. It's, it's not that, he knocked in all the runs or whatever, any of that stuff.

But most of our pitchers are five inning pitchers and he's going and he's preserving the bullpen and he's, was avoiding the bullpen when it was especially bad and he's getting these wins.

And he, it just been outstanding. He has been an ace this year. he really has. He's, he stopped losing streaks. He's kept winning streaks going.

He's preserved the bullpen. yeah, he's just fantastic. It's been an outstanding season from him.

And we did expect big things from him this year. I don't think I expected him. I certainly didn't expect him to be the best pitcher on the team.

You know? So, and, yeah, he's just, he's terrific. And I'm so glad I get to do this, his postgame shows. He's fun.

he yesterday, after all the negativity I spewed, I'm like, well, I get to see Ashcraft tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that.

So he's fifth in the national league in innings pitched after today.

160 and a third innings. And you bring up a good point there, like pitching wins. Obviously, like you can't, you can't just look at a pitcher's win loss record and determine if they're a good pitcher or not. Right. Like there's a lot of variables that go in there, but the deeper you pitch into a game, especially how this bullpen was at the beginning half of the year.

If you're effective and you're going deep into games, it's just less chances for that bullpen to blow the lead that you set up for them. And so Ashcraft, yeah, he's 14 and five.

and you can look at that and say, whatever, but he's 14 and five for a reason. And the reason is because he's consistently going into the sixth or seventh innings, especially early on.

And he didn't give the bullpen a chance to blow, to blow those good games that he had. Whereas, when you're not being efficient, like skeins was it for a few, for a period of time this year, you're going to have the bullpen blow games for you because you're relying on them to get you 12 outs, day in and day out.

Now they bullpen had to get 12 outs today and they almost blew it, Doug, but they, but they did barely hold on there. but yeah, I can't say enough good things about Braxton Ashcraft.

He is going to get Cy Young votes. In my opinion, I would be surprised if he's not in that conversation. as of today, he's ninth in war. He is, let's see 13th in ERA again, the innings pitched he's fifth. from a strikeout standpoint,

if you just look like looking at K's he's that's a guy that's he's fifth in innings pitched and he's on an innings limit. You know what I'm saying? Like, right. I, but he's been so efficient. He's thrown so few pitches. He's able to get these innings in. it's just, yeah, he deserves some Cy Young votes. there's obviously sale and say, he's not in the top three or anything like that. He's, but he's having a terrific season. And if there's something to really look forward

to is him building on this, next season, whenever it is, he, this looks real, right? He's got the stuff. He's got the pitches. He's got the composure. He's got the mental, approach. he's big, strong kid. Yeah. it's just an outstanding season.

yeah, I think for Cy Young, I think, I think Cy Young voters vote for five players. So I could see him being in someone's top five. Sure. we'll see. We'll see. I think he's, probably more of a top 10 pitcher, but those kinds of guys sometimes sneak in there with a, with a couple of votes here and there. but no, he was, he was great again today. Again, like he, it wasn't his best stuff. He didn't have a ton of swings and misses.

But he just pounded the zone through strikes and the stuff's good enough. He had a pitch dug in the gosh, what inning was it? I want to say it was early. it was against Jordan Walker. It may have been that first inning. Yep. It was the first thing when, he just painted like a hundred right on the corner to strike out Jordan Walker to end that inning because Torres led off the game with a single. He had

he'd got all the way down, got it all the way around to third base. and he just, he just quickly disposed of Jordan Walker, the cleanup hitter, with a hundred miles an hour, just right on the corner. Just a perfect pitch. Yeah. Yeah. He's basically, he can throw any pitch. He can do anything. He needs a strikeout, he can dial it up and get a strikeout, right? If he needs a double play, he can throw a pitch that'll yield a grounder. he's just, he just, it's an outstanding season.

For, it's not, it's not his rookie season, I guess. Right. He's, he doesn't qualify as a rookie, but it's his first full season and, it's his first full season and he's been terrific. Yep.

So he goes five, gives up the two runs in the fifth. and then we go to the, we go to the sixth. So pirates are up four to two, Kirby Yates comes in. he was coming off that game against San Diego where he threw like a ton of pitches.

but really nice inning from Kirby Yates, just quick one, two, three, eight pitches, six strikes. it was, it was good to see him bounce back from that. They were saying 35 pitch outing his last time out. It was the most pitches he's ever thrown in a game in his career.

And he's 39 years old. He's never thrown that many pitches before. but he threw that many last time. That's why he's still pitching. Right. Yeah.

But he didn't do that tonight. Tonight, like I said, eight pitches, one, two, three, gets a strikeout, hands the ball over to, Camilo Doval.

actually wait, first off top of the seven, pirates, get some, get some guys on base and get a run in. So, Oneil Cruz let off with a walk.

Bryan Reynolds flies out two outs. Cruz gets into a scoring position with a stolen base, his second of the game.

Flores with a really nice at bat walks four pitches, doesn't chase, Brandon Lowe again, just really good piece of hitting, taking a change up, hitting it the other way, scoring Oneil Cruz for that, for that fifth run puts the pirates up by three.

And it was a much needed insurance because they were going to need it down the road, but yeah, going back to Brandon Lowe again, just a really good game by him.

and Oneil Cruz, like just another really good game from him, a double, two stolen bases, two runs scored.

He is a difference maker in this lineup.

Yeah.

And he looks different than he has in the past, right?

He's, he seems much more locked in, he has his moments like yesterday.

Wasn't a great day for him.

He wasn't running.

He wasn't, the terrible whiff on the flat ball.

but he, yeah, he just looks like a much more focused locked in guy and it's showing all over the stat sheet, right?

It's the stolen bases.

It's an RBI.

he is just, it's fun to watch.

It is fun to watch.

there was a stat.

Yeah.

There was a stat that Danny, D'Amelio tweeted out during this game to, Pittsburgh sports.

Now, Oneil Cruz.

Since the start of the 2023 season, he's 87 for 97 and stolen base attempts.

It's about a 90% success rate.

and I think he was, from like a percentage wise, that's fifth best in baseball since that, since that point.

So not only is he stealing a high volume of bases, but he's doing it at a rate, of great success.

So you want him running because he's not getting thrown out.

I think, again, John Weiner said, it takes him eight steps.

You counted eight steps to get from first to second base.

Yeah.

right.

He's just, if he gets any jump, he's it.

He's it.

Yeah.

24 stolen bases on the year.

Now, just four caught stealings too.

So 24 for 28 on the year.

So they get that, 85 games or so.

That's in a 75 games after today.

Okay.

Yeah.

So, yeah, he would have stolen, had he been healthy this whole year, Doug, he would have stolen 50 bases.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was on pace for 30, but he, or, he would have said to be on pace for 30, 50.

He would have done it too.

Right.

he's, he is like the premier base dealer in major league baseball.

I think, again, my opinion.

I bet him to have the most stolen bases this year and it would have paid off nicely, but it would have, it would have.

Cause he probably would have, he probably would have been up.

He was going to do it.

I just felt it.

Oh, well, the baseball gods hate me.

Yeah.

I've got the over 21 and a half homers.

I'm still waiting on that one.

It was, he would have cleared easy.

Had it not been.

Oh yeah.

He would have cleared it sometime early July.

Probably.

Yeah.

So I'm waiting on that.

okay.

So five, two lead bottom of the seventh Camilo Doval comes in.

Who's been rock solid, since being acquired, but starts off the inning with a walk.

Never want to walk the lead off batter with a three run lead, Doug, especially when it's the number eight hitter and it's Ramon Urias.

but he walks Urias and then Thomas, so JC, who the Cardinals just called up today because JJ Wetherholt was placed on the IL.

he singles to go to three for three on the day.

Like the dude just, we just couldn't get him out.

but runners on the corners, nobody out.

He does get one out, but it's a sacrifice fly.

But you live with that.

Like you trade the run for the out right there.

Sure.

five to three.

And then Ivan Herrera delivers a blow where at this point, Doug, I was about ready to say like, all right, we're going to blow, we're going to blow this again.

Cause the bullpen's been pretty good this month.

Like as bad as the team has been and the losses have racked up, the losses haven't really occurred because of the bullpen.

And I was like, no, they're the bullpens going to lose this one now.

but Herrera doubles.

So now you got second and runner on second, one run game, one out, Doval walks Burleson.

So now you got first and second.

and then, he, the biggest jump I've ever seen off a pitcher.

They both steal double steel.

but then he gets a huge strikeout of Jordan Walker, just a huge strikeout of Jordan Walker.

He needed that bad.

He needed it.

Very important.

Right.

Yohan Ramirez comes in, finishes off the inning, gets Gorman to fly out after Gorman hit a bomb, like 10 feet foul that I was just, I thought it was gone.

Doug.

Then he was over there.

Right.

Yeah.

but yeah, pirates get out of it with the five, four lead.

I do have a question about this because we, a lot has been said about Don Kelly's management of this staff.

especially lately, I've been hard on him.

I've given Kelly a pass up to this point for a lot of things, but walk, single sack fly, double walk.

And like, he's just leaves him in there.

This is a three run lead, a game that you absolutely have to win.

And I don't know, Doug.

they ended up working out, like they ended up holding the lead, but he let Doval face six batters.

He only got two of them out.

Does he need to have a quicker hook?

I almost wonder if he's used to like managing before when everybody was just shitty in the bullpen.

It's like, Kelly, you've got, you've got some people to work with.

You got guys now.

You don't have to stick with this.

You can go to someone else.

Yeah.

This, I, like, I get it.

There was a time there where I defended him because I said, there's no good option.

Whoever you bring in lets them in, but you've got options.

Now you've got Luke Weaver, you got Ramirez, you've got guys now that can get it out.

I, it's so bizarre to me, this team, especially on Sundays with the Sunday lineups, they have no sense of urgency to win today's game.

Right.

It just seems like, yeah.

And right tomorrow's off.

It's like, you could use the whole bullpen if you have to.

it was driving me crazy.

It's like, he clearly doesn't have it today.

It's okay.

He's been good.

I'm, I don't want to DFA him.

I just want to remove him from this game and bring in one of these many excellent options you have that will be off tomorrow.

So it's okay to use them today.

And he just sits there.

I, again, I tweeted out the other day, I have not really been a part of the fire Donnie Kelly brigade, but man, he is making me hard for me to defend him with batting triola, lead off.

And these bullpen moves.

yeah, I get it.

He's probably conditioned to just being like, man, here we go again.

But no, you got, you got some, you got some horses now let's use them.

Let them run.

Yeah.

I said, you couldn't have said it better.

Like I didn't blame him for any of the bullpen blowups in the first half.

It was like, look, what are you going to do?

Like these guys all stink no matter who you put in.

Right.

It just didn't matter.

Right.

But that's not the case now.

So it's like DK, I'm going to need you to have a quicker.

I'm having, I'm going to need you to have a quicker hook.

Like, don't you, there's no reason to leave a relief pitcher into a game with a lead when he doesn't have it and you got to win the game.

Like you've got the arms out there.

You just, you got to go and use them now.

So yeah, this T and I was saying this barely worked.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It worked.

He got away with it.

But again, you get away with mistakes in baseball.

You can more than any other sport, but like, I've been saying it since the beginning of the month, we're in the playoffs.

Now, every game is has a lot of value.

And that's because in the first part of the season, we blew 21 games.

We blew a game a week.

And I was saying back then, Hey, the pirates aren't good enough to throw away games and to give away games.

And people are saying, it's just one game in April.

It's one game in May.

Well, you did one game a week.

you blew 21 saves.

Had you converted 10 of those, they'd be 77 and what would it, 71 or something.

They'd be in firm grasp of the third playoff spot.

They'd be looking pretty right now.

Yeah.

You're right.

Exactly.

You'd be like, can you hold off the Padres?

That thing.

And a week where you just took two or three from the Padres at two or three from the Cardinals, when you're handling your business the way you're supposed to, but you've dug yourself such a big hole.

And then again, they just laissez faire their way through some of this.

And management, their decision.

And it's frustrating.

Don has got to step up his game.

Yep.

so Ramirez does get out of that inning.

So that was good.

pirates go down, in the, in the top half of the eighth, Luke Weaver comes in the bottom half, gives up a base hit to Freddie for me and who, another guy that the pirates just can't get out for some reason.

Another guy who can't hit that the pirates can't get out.

Dude is not a good hitter, but man, Freddie for me, just can't get this dude out.

but Weaver does a good job right after that line out, strike out, ground out, gets out of the inning.

pirates go down in the ninth.

and then Mason Montgomery comes in who has, clearly cemented himself in this closer role.

Now, one of the more dominant relief pitchers in all of baseball, as of right now, Doug, like, I don't, I don't think you can argue that he's his strikeout rate, his

whiff rate hit.

No one can touch his fastball.

He's in and around the zone.

Now he's throwing strikes and he gets a one, two, three, ninth inning slams the door.

he picks up his seventh save of the year.

yeah, Mason Montgomery.

I know we had the super chat earlier, but it's crazy just how good this guy has become, because, he's automatic right now.

If like, I am very confident when Mason Montgomery enters the ball game now.

Yeah.

if you remember on opening day, he pitched 1.1 innings, he gave up a hit, he gave up three walks and two strikeouts, and we're like, man, he's got stuff, but he can't control

it and to see where that guy is today is remarkable.

What a turnaround.

I'm going to give Billy Murphy some credit there.

I don't know if it's his or not, but we're blaming him for everybody else.

That guy has made such a turnaround and he, like I said, he's one of the best closers in baseball right now.

so, could, and the part that I give Kelly brought him along slowly, started putting him in and, higher leverage situations and he is, he's produced.

It's been outstanding.

Out of all pitchers in major league baseball with at least 50 innings pitched, Doug strikeout rate.

Number one is Mason Miller.

Number two, Mason Montgomery.

Number three, Jacob Mizrowski.

So like that's the top three it's Mason Miller, Mason Montgomery, Jacob Mizrowski, right?

Two of the most elite pitchers in baseball, which means right.

de facto, a plus B equals C this guy is an elite pitcher right now.

He's doing Mason Miller is for a while been considered like the most dominant reliever and Mizrowski's probably the site.

I don't know.

That's a young race.

It's going to be tough, but he's going to be in the top three.

That's for sure.

Yeah, I think it's, I think it's his to lose at this point.

but yeah, like I said, he, they pick this one up.

They win the series against the Cardinals.

They advanced to 67 and 71 on the year, Doug.

They are still two games behind the Cardinals, six and a half now behind the diamondbacks for the last wildcard spot.

again, we're still looking at that fan graphs has the postseason odds at 1.5% for the pirates.

So, I think they technically, went down this road trip by 0.5%.

So, they didn't do enough.

This road trip, obviously the Dodgers, the Dodgers series, they had buried them.

Yeah.

They had some chances.

They had to at least get one of them.

That buried them.

You look back to that and you say you should have won two out of those three Dodgers games.

And then if you would have done that, you would have had a six and three road trip.

We'd be sitting here at 500, be a different story.

but no, they didn't do enough.

So, but they did do enough today, which means let's give away some sandwiches, Doug.

Absolutely.

Let's do that.

Hashtag raise it in there.

Hashtag raise it.

Make sure you get that in.

I'll give you a couple more minutes while you're getting those in.

make sure you like the video too.

Again, that's just good karma.

You're not going to win the sandwiches unless you like the video.

Like it's just, you're not going to be rewarded for not liking the video.

I don't know what to tell you.

Carve out some time for Bucco Brew tomorrow.

We got offbeat tomorrow.

We got Bucco Brew tomorrow.

Alex Tom's been on fire lately.

He's been putting out some really good content.

So some bangers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a great way to start.

All right.

Let's go and give out some sandwiches.

So we're going to pick up two winners to get two sandwiches each.

make sure you email us, when you win, we're in need your email address associated with your per many brothers account.

but first winner is Quinn Mosby Quinn.

Again, North shore, nine, all words, no numbers, North shore, nine, N I N E at gmail.com.

Email us the email address associated with your per many brothers account.

And we'll get those to you.

Winner number two for the two per many brother sandwiches is, Michaela Stevens, Michaela

Stevens.

Congratulations.

Congratulations, Michaela.

All right, Doug.

Well, pirates win five, four.

Vandal has them still.

They're over under wind total on the season at 79 and a half.

What's your prediction?

my prediction is 76 and 86.

That'd be three out of four years with 76 wins.

and Ben will be up there dumping his chest saying, we're winning more games.

The starting pitching is an issue.

It really is.

So we'll see how it goes, but, we're in September now.

No more games in August.

We're in September.

Rosters expand.

So we'll get a couple extra players here soon.

but yeah, make sure you check us out tomorrow.

Like the video, subscribe.

If you haven't, yeah, anything else to add here, Doug?

No, Hey, look, they took two out of three at St. Louis, took two out of three at San Diego.

It was, it was a good week needed it to be better.

Right.

We probably needed to win one more of those games.

And at least one of those Dodgers games, whatever they're still swinging.

They gotta, they gotta go five and one this week and, maybe six and oh.

Yeah.

at this point they gotta basically, they gotta win every game.

They just gotta win every game.

All right.

There's no, yeah, but, just make it fun.

Like, keep us engaged.

All right.

Let's play some good.

Let's just play some good baseball in September.

Let's forget about the post season.

Let's just play some good ball.

Absolutely.

Finish strong.

See what happens.

You can only control, that's all they control is the game that they're playing.

So that's it.

All right, everybody.

I'll see you tomorrow at 7 a.m.

Peace out.

This was North shore nine.

Catch you later.

All right.

That wraps up this episode of North shore nine.

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