Takeaways from Paul Skenes Best Start in Months and Cruz’s Game-Winning HR

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

This is the NS9 postgame show powered by Primanti Brothers, and I'm your host, Anthony DiNardo, and with me, we got Neil in the house.

And Neil, all I know is it's back-to-back shows where you and I are on, and therefore, it's back-to-back wins by the Pittsburgh Pirates in San Diego.

Yeah, seems like the less Jim, the better.

that's my roll of thumb in life.

So, here we are.

This team is going to do it, isn't it?

This team is going to come, like, two games away from outside of a playoffs, but aren't they?

They're going to claw their way back just enough September to get my hopes back up, aren't they?

Right.

Yeah, they get swept by the Dodgers.

They now have taken two out of three against the Padres, which, again, like, they had to win the Padres.

again, they had to win out the series-wise, but the Dodgers won.

But the Padres won a whole lot of – there's a lot of need to, win this one because of, again, like, the tiebreaker and such.

So, regardless, like, they're taking care of business right now.

It's been a hell of a series, and hell.

It's been hell.

This one was an hour – like, you mentioned, we came on here.

It was, like, about an hour and 40 minutes earlier than yesterday.

So, it was looking like it was about to go into extras, but, oh, no, Cruz took care of things.

We didn't have to worry about that anymore.

Yeah, I was convinced it was going into extras coming into the ninth.

And then once Bateman, wherever the heck his name is, got the second base out in the bottom of the ninth, I'm like, all right, well, we're going to extras again.

But the Pirates closed the door.

We're only six and a half games out of a wild card spot.

Anything is possible.

Money Mason, he shuts it down, too.

And, yeah, again, Oneil Cruz, let's just talk about that for a little bit.

there's Mason Miller up there.

And the Pirates actually got to Mason Miller a little bit last night, and we discussed that.

of course, they didn't do anything, but it was a fight.

They put up a fight against Mason Miller, a little more than I expected, especially with 789 last night.

And tonight, Mason Miller comes back in, and a 98-mile-an-hour changeup.

So, 98, we'll talk more about Skenes, but Skenes hit 98.6 today, and a lot of people are like, all right.

And Mason Miller throws a 98-mile-an-hour changeup.

And Oneil Cruz hit that, what, 19-degree launch angle?

It went out of here.

I don't know how he hit it, let alone hit it for a home run.

That's one of the filthiest pitches I've ever seen.

Like, that drops, like, three inches below the plate, below the strike zone in a heartbeat.

And Cruz just casually golfs it out.

I can't believe it.

That was, that, he has a lot of impressive home runs, but just in terms of the pitch he hit, there probably aren't many better.

That was crazy.

And the thing about it, too, is when you saw it come off the bat, I initially thought it was a double.

There's no way that's leaving the ballpark, not at that angle.

did that hit the wall, maybe, or something?

And it clears it.

It cleared it.

It was a home run, and it's such a big home run, because this offense wasn't doing much at all today.

Shout out to Michael King.

he was pitching effectively.

Both pitchers, that two seamers tonight was working for them, but especially, I felt like, for King.

But, again, yeah, this offense wasn't doing much against him at all.

And all it took was one swing of the bat, one ball to go over the fence, and luckily it was in the Pirates' favor.

It was Oneil Cruz on that pitch, like you mentioned, and that was enough to win the ball game today.

So the Pirates come out victorious on a 1-0 win, which, again, it is 12-10.

Thank you.

Thank you for winning the way you did.

Thank God.

And one thing I want to touch on that Oneil Cruz home run is, like, Mason Miller was shocked that the guy even touched it, let alone hit it at.

Like, if you watch his reaction back, like, he's doing acrobatics on the mound in disbelief that Cruz managed to even make contact with that ball.

And, yeah, this is exactly what the team needs.

Like, the offense was, I'm sure we'll get to it, offense was terrible today.

Pretty much nothing redeeming about it.

And you're going from Michael Caine shoving to Morihan into Miller, which is probably the deadliest 8-9 combination in baseball.

And walking out of that with a win before you get to extras is so good.

Yeah, absolutely.

I want to put this up here.

So, shout-out to SteelCityDW for the $10 super to more or less let us know this as well.

So, during the post-game interview, Hannah said O'Neal told her, and I quote, by him.

So, paraphrasing.

This is the Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Michael Scott quote here.

I'm quoting here.

Pay attention.

I'm about to hit a home run right before he's going up to bat against Miller.

So, apparently, he gave Ruth it.

He called his shot.

He was going to hit a home run, and boy, did he.

That's so cool.

So, you have house money.

It's like Mason Miller.

No one really expects you to do anything, regardless of who you are.

that's...

It's like a free game.

You're calling it against Mason Miller.

That's some confidence right there.

Yeah.

But also, you come back to the dugout with the strikeout.

You're like, well, it's Mason Miller.

But also, now you get to brag to everyone for the next week about what you just called.

Right.

Another $5 super from SilasTV.

He goes, asked AI before.

All right.

Asked AI before yesterday's game what our playoff odds would jump to if we miraculously swept the Padres and Redbirds.

It said we'd go from 1% to 25%.

We'll see.

the thing about this is they sweep the next two.

That makes them 6 of 9 in this road series.

And the thing before this road series was they more or less have to go two out of three every series going forward.

So, that's the thing.

Like, they have to sweep the Padres.

They have to sweep the Cardinals to come out of this winning 6 of 9 to still be in that stance of we still have to win two-thirds of our games going forward to pretty much put ourselves in that chance to make the playoffs.

Hey, two games.

They've won them.

Yeah.

it's a tall ass to go on a six-game win streak.

But, like, man, I do still feel like they're more talented than the Cardinals.

So, I think it's within the realm of possibility.

I know going to Bush for three games is never, like, the easiest thing in the world.

But if you're able to sweep the red-hot Padres like this, and the Padres have been playing really good baseball recently, that should give you a little bit of a confidence boost that you can go into St. Louis and kick them around for three games.

Right.

Yeah.

to get ourselves ahead of ourselves here.

We're talking about two sweeps.

It's two games in the first one.

But, right, that's, like, what this Pirates team is certainly going to do, right?

They're going to engage us in further in that sense.

Another $10 super from Bob Lawn, 81.50.

With the way the bats slow down in the second half, the narrative about a top-10 rotation at the beginning of the season, I was hoping to have more games where we won in despite of the zero.

Of the O, sorry.

Of the O.

So, we have talked a little bit about the offense here as far as, like, Cruz and stuff.

So, let's rewind.

Let's go ahead and talk about the start of this game because it was Paul Skenes.

Paul Skenes, everyone who's listening right now knows what's surrounding with Paul Skenes and his ineffectiveness this whole year.

Not the whole year, since into May, you know.

The last time he gave up a zero and his start was May 12th, and he did so tonight.

He goes six innings, and I want to hear your take on this, too, but I'm not saying this is vintage Paul because vintage Paul is hitting 100-plus consistently, right?

But he does hit 98 consistently tonight.

He looked so much better tonight than I've seen him in a long time.

I'm going to attribute everything to Alex as soon as he publishes his article about Skenes mechanics.

Suddenly, he's hopping back up to 98, 99 on a consistent basis and said, I haven't looked at the video, but I'm just going to assume that they saw Paul or Bill or whoever saw that and said, hey, maybe listen to this guy.

I just want to believe that's true because I think that'd be really funny.

But, no, this wasn't vintage Paul Skenes, but this was where good Paul Skenes is still a top-10 pitcher in baseball.

Where, like, it was almost like an effort, not a whole lot of strikeouts, but it felt like an effortless six scoreless.

It looked very easy, very casual.

He didn't look labored.

Like, it's even when he's not even throwing his absolute best, he can still be great.

And he was great tonight.

It felt, it, I don't want to go the whole psychological aspect of what we've done with Mitch Keller, but I think it's fair to say he looked more confident on the mound today also.

And, of course, if you're pitching well, it probably comes out that way.

But, like, this is how I worded and this is how I looked at it.

When you saw the tongue coming out when he turns around, I was like, oh, okay, he's feeling himself now.

Like, it's, he's starting to believe a little more in himself tonight.

This looked more like Paul.

He's feeling himself.

The pitches, again, his command was excellent.

Putting the two seam, putting the comments here, the two seam looked good, and I absolutely agree.

Again, both pitchers tonight, their two seamers were working quite well.

But, yes, like, the strikeouts weren't there, like you mentioned, but the whiffs still were.

a 28% whiff rate, he had 13 whiffs on the day.

It wasn't as if it was just, like, pitching to contact.

He was still missing bats.

But, man, he just looked so much better.

He was hitting his spots.

that's the one thing, too, that we talk about the velocity, but, like, it wasn't just velocity being down that's been the problem.

He is just not pitching well.

Like, the command hasn't been there.

He's missing arm side quite a bit.

Just, that's what we're talking so much about.

Is it mechanics?

Is it, what is it, you know?

So many things could be off of him.

And tonight, it seemed like he put a lot of that to rest.

No, he's not vintage, but I would say this.

If you're going to see vintage Paul Skenes again, this is the path to get there.

This is how it starts.

This looks like if he's going to be that person once again, something was recognized, something was changed, and this is how you're going to see vintage Paul Skenes once again.

So, it is just one start.

I'm not here to tell you that it's coming back and Paul's fix, whatever.

But this was certainly a step in that correct direction.

Yeah, and it's interesting if it's like a mechanical choice, or I know there's a whole quote about how he was intentionally not throwing as hard.

And maybe he just, and that's not to psychoanalyze anyway.

Maybe he just got fed up with the Black Western results and said, fine, I'll throw harder again.

And, no, it worked great.

And the big thing, I think, especially in the month of August, is that Skenes has walked a lot of guys, which is usually not his MO.

Like, I think there's at least two of the starts where he's walked at least four guys in the month of August.

And he doesn't walk anyone tonight.

And he doesn't really give up a whole lot of hard contact.

Only four strikeouts.

But he didn't need to strike everyone out.

Like, this is, I think, if you could cook up a Paul Skenes start that Doug loves in the lab, this would be it.

This would be Doug's preferred ideal start, where he could have gone to seventh inning if they so desired.

But, no, excellent stuff.

Yeah, no, to bring it up, it was 85 pitches.

I think you could have, and make the argument, like, do you think pulling him out right there was fine?

Do you have any issue with it?

Would you like to see him go one more?

I don't have an opinion, really, because I think you can go both ways with it, where you don't want.

Yeah, I know he's Paul Skenes, but, like, you still want to give him that confidence boost, or he just finished six shutout innings.

It's his best start in months.

And you just want him to take that.

But I could also understand, like, your bullpen just went six innings last night.

Maybe give him some rest.

I don't think there's a wrong answer there.

I think the bullpen's been good enough that you can trust them.

But I also think Paul could have easily gone another scoreless seventh inning if they wanted him to.

Yeah, like, I'm indifferent.

This felt the vibe of, let's get you on a good note.

Like, you've done six.

And, again, we have this good bullpen now, by the way.

So, it's not as if we need Paul to give us seven or eight now, or, hell, nine innings.

Like, they needed two back in April and early May for them to get the win, right?

Like, maybe we can go ahead.

We got it from here, Paul.

You've done six.

Let's get you on the high note.

But the other side of me also says, this isn't Bubba Chandler coming up here for his first run in the major leagues.

Like, this is a former rookie of the year.

It's a former Cy Young.

This is your horse.

I'll put this out there.

And this is why I'm also okay with it.

We talked about the velocity.

He was averaging, 97 pretty much all game.

In the fifth inning, he averaged 97 on his four-seamer.

He averaged 97.3, 97.6 on the four-seamer, two-seam.

In the sixth, it went down to a 96.1 and a 95.4.

The velocity did dip.

Maybe it was just a good time to get him out in that close of a game.

And, again, because you do have the luxury of this bullpen now that you do it, you do trust.

You need nine more outs at that point in time.

You do trust this bullpen.

So, I'm okay with him going 85 pitches, six innings in today's game.

And, yes, maybe also as part of it of, like, okay, let's get some of that confidence back.

It was six really good innings.

Let's take it.

Yeah, I agree.

Posting in the seventh, and now it's a 1-0 or 2-0 deficit.

Yeah, and, like, I don't know.

Like, I know he's the former Cy Young.

Like, obviously, like, he's never – he's really much never failed in his pitching career.

Like, and so – but, he's still a human being.

And so, he still can take confidence boosters.

So, I have no problem with just, taking the money and running.

Six start-out innings, fantastic stuff.

Let's get after it in the next five days.

I forget who we play when he pitches next.

But it's something to build off of even though – to build off is already building off just an elite pitcher who's been – had a rough few months.

Like, you know.

He has.

Everyone in the baseball world is questioning Paul Skenes, and everyone has an answer.

Everyone has one.

So, you're right.

To go back to the whole walk thing, too, I just want to point this out.

Because, like you said, he went six innings today, three hits, no walks, four strikeouts.

You're right.

So, the past few games, the amount of walks.

Again, today was zero.

The game before that, four, one, four, two, and two.

The last time he has had a game where he's given up zero walks, go back to the May 12 start when he had his last shutout.

Which is just like – it's the one thing I was maybe actually concerned about Skenes this year.

Because I genuinely do think that, like, he's been really unlucky with a lot of the runs given up with poor defense or his untimely stuff.

But what made him so great was how he had this elite stuff.

He had so many good pitches, and he just didn't walk people.

And so, seeing him slip into that in July and August was the one concerning thing that I was really good.

And so, being able to rectify that, I think that bodes really well for the rest of the season.

Hopefully.

Absolutely.

Right.

Like, this was the guy.

Paul Skenes averaged – I'm trying to read the numbers of her – two walks per nine in 2025, 2.17 in 2024, and this year it's up to 2.65.

And also, too, again, like, April, he was – you take away that opener, the Mets, where, again, it was the defense mostly.

Like, he wasn't on his A game for sure, but he doesn't get out of the first because the defense behind him.

The walks are certainly up there.

And, again, the lack of command he's had on his pitches all year long, and it seems that he's quite a few times.

He gets these guys into three and two counts, and he can't finish them off, and he either ends in a hit or ends in a walk.

So, yes, today, a much better start.

Certainly the step in the right direction for Paul Skenes.

I'm encouraged.

Now, I want to see the next one.

Like, what do you do with the next one?

Don't make this a one-game thing, and then we're back to, okay, we're still worried.

If this team has any playoff aspirations and continues to go and go and go, like, they should.

It's fine.

I think a lot of us see the writing on the wall.

The biggest thing is how does Paul Skenes – and all these players, right?

But, like, how are they going to end this season?

Is Paul Skenes going to find something to come back to his older, former self to make you feel better about the future instead of going into offseason still wondering and worrying what version of Paul Skenes are going to get next year?

Or do you see this type of Paul Skenes and say, okay, you know what?

We're fine.

Paul is still Paul Skenes.

He had a blip on the map here.

Even that blip on the map.

his ERA right now is like a three, what, three, six, eight?

Is that what it is right now?

I think it's lower.

Sorry, three, seven, three, seven, nine right now.

Yeah.

This is what we're talking about.

The guy who's well below league average as far as ERA.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's just like, I don't know, like, when you think about the great pitchers, they all have slip-ups or, like, several months where they just don't do well.

Zach Wheeler's going through it right now.

If you go back and, like, see Kurt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, Max Scherzer, like, all of these guys, like, they have blips where they go one or two months where they're not on it.

And I think it's a shame that people have really turned on schemes because of that, because you get to watch games like this, and it's a special talent.

And I really hope we don't take it for granted.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel like you could say many fans have just because he's come up and done what he's done.

And it wouldn't be fair that he continues that.

And you can expect that, but still, like, a mid-twos, high twos, around a threes and stuff.

Well, again, this is – you don't want to see sub-two and then, he's hitting four and plus that.

So, at any rate, though, seeing Paul Skenes have the start tonight is definitely very encouraging.

Let's see how this continues for him.

But a lot of good signs from Paul Skenes tonight.

Outside of that, again, let's keep it on pitching.

we've been talking about this bullpen and how well it is.

Also, like, shout-out to Camilo Doval.

I know there was a lot of concerns on that trade from, some fans and such.

Like, he's not the same pitcher he was, but, of course, the home splits in New York are terrible.

Way is actually really good.

Like, what version of him are you getting?

He's been using the slider more with the Pirates, and he's looked really well.

He's looked really good since coming over the trade.

And tonight, he was excellent one inning.

He did have the walk with two strikeouts.

No, and, like, it was a free hit.

Like, the Pirates' bullpen at the trade deadline was so bad and such disarray.

Like, Doval was always going to probably be an upgrade, even if he's not the closer type.

But he's just taken the seventh inning position by the horns by the second he got into town.

And there's no one really there to unseat him, I feel like.

He's been nails the whole time.

I'm pretty sure his ERA is close to one as a Pirate since incoming over.

And I think those are the type of moves that Ben Cherington needs to continue to make on a limited payroll.

You've got the Yankees to fit the bill for most of his salary this year.

Like, more of this, please.

Because Doval looks fantastic.

He looked fantastic tonight.

And he's a big reason why the bullpen has fixed itself.

He really has been an anchor there in the sixth or seventh inning for us.

Yeah.

Well, and again, too, about, he was polarizing at the time.

I liked the trade.

And, again, for a lot of the reasons you did, this team, they needed a guy.

And that was, obviously, Weaver at one point.

Like, they needed a guy.

But it wasn't like they needed, like, three or four guys.

People that come over that you probably haven't even really heard of, like a blocker.

like, those were going to be certainly improvements.

You need to stabilize this bullpen.

Dotel certainly was a name.

He wasn't performing to the name that he once was.

But he was a guy that I felt like they could certainly improve this bullpen.

And, of course, the first time he comes over, he gives up that home run.

And, of course, everyone's, here we go.

Here we go.

This is the version of Dotel involves who we got.

But, like you mentioned, since then, he has.

As a pirate, he has a 150 ERA right now.

That's in 12 innings.

He gave up two earned runs.

So, he gave up that home run.

He also gave up another run against Boston.

That was it.

So, in those 12 innings, 14 strikeouts.

Now, he does have nine walks.

Like, that's a bit of a problem.

What helps that, though, is people aren't getting hits off of him.

Yeah.

you can walk people if no one can put the ball in play.

it's a fair tradeoff.

He's a free agent after this year, isn't he?

Is he a rental?

No.

He has.

He goes one more year of ARB.

Excellent.

All right.

Love to hear it.

He can keep him if they choose to, which is the way he's pitching right now.

It seems like that's an easy call.

Agreed.

No, that's fantastic.

Like, it, you feel much, and obviously down the stretch, you feel much better with this whole thing.

You can go to a Duval.

You can go to Soto, who we'll get to, but Soto looks like a new man.

You can go to Montgomery, you can go to Weaver, and compared to, like, where we were in May and June, where it was Soto and Santana and Evan Sisk, it's a massive upgrade.

It's a huge upgrade, and it's, I'm glad they fixed something.

Yeah, for sure.

And you mentioned Soto, and again, putting Soto in a role that's probably better suited for him, I think, helps.

It was nice that he does come over.

He does have closer experience, so, they're probably going to do a mix and match earlier on the season that didn't really come to light because of the way Santana ended up pitching, so he was thrusted into this closer role, and he succeeded at first, and I

think he was just overexposed, and now he's put into, again, like you mentioned, like a better role of such, and yes, he comes in today.

He doesn't make every time he come out look pleasant.

I'll put it that way, but he has gotten the job done, and tonight he goes one inning, doesn't have any strikeouts, but no hits, no walks, moves over, continues this.

At this point, of course, it was still scoreless, and moves on over to get into the ninth.

Yeah, I don't know if there's a single reliever I've watched as a fan of this team that is, like, consistently good, but also, like, excruciating the watch from the bullpen quite like Soto.

I don't think tonight is necessarily that case, but yeah, like, most of you can think of someone else.

Like, there's very few pitchers who have maintained, like, the ability to get outs while also, like, stuffing the base pass every single time they come up, but I also just think it's nice that he doesn't have to worry about being the only guy in the bullpen who has a pulse.

I wonder if that was, like, really getting to him and, like, the pressure to perform because he knows that he might have to hand the ball off to Dennis Santana or Hunter Stratton or whoever the heck, whatever, people we had in the bullpen earlier this year, and

it seems like this is a more relaxed role is really suiting him.

For sure.

And again, he looked pretty good today.

He had three whiffs, so again, they didn't have any strikeouts, but he was missing some bats in them, and they were connecting him, but they got, easy outs.

And then you turn it over to, again, Money Mason Montgomery, man, what he has turned himself into.

Like, at the time of the trade, it was Brandon Lowe.

Everyone knew of Brandon Lowe.

Jake Mangum was interesting.

Now, it was a very late development, and he's also a unique type of player.

Like you said, he's probably going to make a lot of fans frustrated because he's probably going to have nights where he goes over four, and it's because it's like four infield outs that were made or whatnot.

But he swings a lot.

He makes a lot of contact.

Good things didn't happen.

He's been a nice addition.

But the thing about Mason Montgomery was he was the reliever that had the five VRA that, a lot of fans look at, and I'm like, oh, boy.

But there's interesting stuff there.

It's the hardest throwing lefty.

If they can hone something, if he can stop, walking so many guys like you mentioned before, you can get away with it if guys aren't making contact.

If he can stop walking, guys, that would help him out a lot.

it's slowly been getting there, and like since the whole, he started getting to that closer role.

I felt like at him, like it was a confidence builder as well, and he just looks like a whole new man.

Yeah, it's been, what, three months of this?

Like he's been this dude for a very long time at this rate, and he's fun to watch.

Like he, his stuff is truly electric.

he labored a little bit today, made it a little interesting in the ninth there.

But another two strikeouts.

He has harnessed the command.

That's the big thing.

It's like in Tampa, he had the stuff.

He kept walking everyone, his yard went through the roof.

And we saw that earlier in the year in April and May.

We were like, well, at least we got Brandon Lowe.

But it seems like Montgomery might be a little bit of a miss.

And now you might have traded not only for Brandon Lowe, but also for your future closer.

Like you may, you may have gotten your future closer out of this deal, who is pre-arb, who is going to be here for a while.

And when it's all said and done, if they don't bring back Brandon Lowe, puts up more war over time than Brandon Lowe does at his time as a pirate.

And all you gave up was Mike Burroughs, who is currently in AAA.

Like, yes, it's a great deal, no matter how you slice it.

It was a great trade at the time.

And it is looking even better because.

Knocking on everything I can right now, Brandon Lowe hasn't really been injured this year.

he had the injury concern.

Can he play a full season?

The defense is better than advertised, which you expected Jake Mangum.

Again, he was the 29-year-old rookie.

Like, what are you really going to get out of him?

Is he going to be that same guy that he was last year?

And then again, with Montgomery, like, can they, can they help improve this guy?

Can they hone in and get the guy that you can see that's in there somewhere.

And all three of them have hit.

And, Montgomery here, since June 6th, 30 innings pitched.

He has a 180 ERA, a .9 whip, 55 strikeouts, 11 walks, 30 innings, 55 strikeouts, 11 walks.

Like you said, that's the big thing right there.

The 11 walks part.

Yeah, that's huge.

Like that's unheard of.

It was like, even in the minors, Mason Montgomery was known for just walking everyone.

Everyone knew he had the stuff, but like he had no command.

And so, Bill Burfield probably lightfully so has taken a lot of heat for how the pitching staff has gone this year.

But it seems like he's found something with Mason.

It seems like whatever he's been doing with him and has been working.

Absolutely.

So he mentioned, he's been nails.

We got some supers.

So shout out to Michael B for the $5.

Mason Montgomery, in my opinion, has turned into one of the best closers in the game.

He's throwing 99, 102 miles per hour, hitting his spots effortlessly.

He's going to be the closer for years.

he certainly is looking that way.

He absolutely has that potential.

$2 from Silas TV.

Just wait September schemes back to triple digits.

I would love to see that.

And then the $5 from Sean Hooper.

Again, appreciate everyone.

Someone give me directions to the nearest store with a broom near Petco.

My wife says we can't bring the ones at our campsite tomorrow.

You talking sweet?

You talking sweet with the Padre, Sean?

I'm not talking about it.

I'm just going to enjoy the ride.

Outside of that, again, the offense was non-existent.

It's until Cruz showed up for the home run, which is enough to win the game.

The offense hasn't been good.

It has not been good since the All-Star break.

I also just, I do want to say, like, I don't want to dismiss how good King looked tonight as well.

Like, this wasn't just the offense didn't show up.

King looked really good tonight.

Again, that two-seamer from him, he was absolutely hitting his spots with that one.

So, it was a great pitching performance by both tonight.

But, yes, the offense just, obviously, was not there.

Yeah, it's easier to tip your cap to the opposing pitcher when the offense hasn't been garbage for a month.

But I think just, like, you've been watching us to your eyes.

We were talking about it last night.

The offense hasn't been good.

They somehow got a decent amount of base runners on against King, but, like, so stringed out that they weren't really able to get runners in scoring position.

I think that was the big, like, real hurdle they couldn't string hits together.

Well, they were, yeah, they were 0 for 2 tonight with runners in scoring position.

Yeah.

Darn, I checked that.

I checked that stat in, like, the 6th inning.

I didn't even realize it didn't even change after that.

It did not.

No, but if there is any hope of, like, clawing back our way into this wildcard chase, the offense has to be better.

The bullpen has arrived.

Ashcraft and Skenes have found second wind.

Now it's time for the offense to really come together and actually start hitting the baseball.

Because if you do, you can at least put yourself in a position where you can dream a little bit.

Right.

Yes, sir.

So is it time to give away some sandwiches?

Yeah, let's give away some sandwiches.

Let's do it.

I'm going to bring it up.

Let everyone know what they got to do.

They got to get their emails over to North Shore Nine at gmail.com with their email associated with their Primanti Brothers account.

And that's it.

There it is.

So let's go ahead and raffle off our very first winner.

Like Neil said, if you win, email us at North Shore Nine at gmail.com.

Let us know the email address is associated with your Primanti Brothers app, and we'll give those sandwiches out to you digitally.

Our very first winner is Smitty, 309-56.

Congratulations, Smitty.

Again, email, North Shore Nine, all letters, at gmail.com.

And for our second winner, Harrison Boyd, Harrison Boyd, sorry, Harrison Boyd, 3156.

Congrats to you two.

You guys got some Primanti Brothers sandwiches coming to you.

Congratulations to you both.

Thanks for staying up with us.

Luckily, it's only 1240.

It's not 230.

Thank God.

Yeah, we don't have a Steel City DW last night making those corny dad jokes.

230.

Yeah, I saw that.

I saw that.

Anyways, so tomorrow, the Padres and the Pirates finishes up.

Padres is TBD right now.

Bubba is taking the mound for the Pirates.

And according to FanDuel, Pirates are plus 108.

Padres, who are TBD, FanDuel is like, eh, we're still favoring them.

They're minus 126.

So Pirates are not favorite to win tomorrow.

Take that for what it is.

I like the odds.

Bubba's looked, he's had moments where he's looked really good.

Tomorrow is going to need to be one of those moments, most likely.

Yep, all hands on deck.

We need everyone to be elite.

We saw it from Ashcraft.

We saw it from Skenes.

Now it's, now it's Chandler's turn.

There it is.

All right.

Well, with that said, we'll see you guys tomorrow.

We appreciate it.

We love you all for joining and watching us at 1240 at night.

But we'll be back again tomorrow.

For another post-game show.

And download the app.

Like, subscribe, follow along.

We'll see you guys later.

Bye-bye.

All right.

That wraps up this episode of North Shore Nine.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

Whether you're listening on the podcast or catching us on YouTube, if you enjoyed the show, please give this video a thumbs up.

And don't forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already.

It really helps us grow.

And if you're listening on the podcast, a quick review goes a long way in helping others find the show.

Plus, be sure to tell a friend about us.

There's always room for more here in the NS9 community.

And for those looking to support us a little more, consider joining our Patreon.

Become an MVP member and get exclusive perks while helping us continue to bring you more of the Pirates content you love.

Thanks again for all your support, and let's go Bucs.

Thank you.