The Pirates dropped the 4th game of a series with the Chicago Cubs to split it evenly 2-2. Despite Paul Skenes pitching an excellent game with 10 strikeouts, poor defense and another bullpen blowup cost the Pirates yet again as they fell back to one game over .500. The Pirates have some soul-searching to do with injuries to Ryan O’Hearn, Nick Gonzales, and Konnor Griffin threaten to derail a positive season. Watch Dinardo and I break down the game in detail here on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros:
Here’s my 3 takeaways from this one…
The Bullpen is Not All Right
The Pirates’ quest to find competent right-handed relievers hit yet another snag in this game, as they turned a 3-2 game into a 7-2 game in the blink of an eye. Tonight’s culprit was Brandan Bidois, who got shelled in the 7th inning when called upon to keep the game close for the offense. His one inning of work saw the Cubs walk two times, record three hits, score three runs, and have Ian Happ put the game out of reach with a two-run homer. Bidois was called up to bring support to a depleted and ragged bullpen, but he has failed to establish himself as a trustworthy arm the Pirates can call upon in middle relief. The right-handed pitchers in this bullpen continue to either blow leads or put games on the ice because they cannot get batters out. Hopefully, Carmen Mlodzinski provides some stability, but at this rate the Pirates probably need at minimum three righties who can throw the ball without causing heart palpitations.
Can the Pirates Lineup Weather the Injury Storm?
It’s truly hard to criticize the Pirates offense, as they have scored the 4th most runs in the league this season. However, letting Paul Skenes get out dueled by Colin Rea is hard to stomach no matter which way you slice it. This falls upon the Pirates missing three starters: Ryan O’Hearn, Konnor Griffin, and Nick Gonzales. These three have been boosts to the offense and helped push the team into wins. Without them, the bottom half of the order starts to resemble the Pirates teams of 2021-2024. If the pitching was lights out, this would not be much of a concern. Unfortunately, with the bullpen leaking runs left and right, the Pirates are dependent on maintaining a high-powered offense that can walk the team to victory. Without O’Hearn and Griffin, especially, that asking became a much taller order. The team showed those struggles tonight, failing to register a single hit with RISP and as they fell silent to the Cubs’ pitchers. Minnesota this weekend will be a true test of this theory.
Paul Skenes was Failed Tonight
Paul Skenes was excellent tonight over his 5.1 innings of work. Despite not being the most efficient, he registered 10 strikeouts while striking out the side twice in the game. He recorded 20 whiffs and pitched well enough to finish out a full six innings, something the Pirates needed because of how bad the bullpen has been. Unfortunately, bad defense failed Paul and cost him the stat line he truly deserved. Going out for the 6th at 87 pitches, everyone felt comfortable about letting him finish the inning and keep the game close at 1-0. Unfortunately, the infield had other plans as both Tyler Callihan and Jared Triolo forgot how to properly throw the baseball, and it led to Paul being removed before the 6th was over. Poor defense has been a common theme among this team all season, and it cost the Pirates in a big way yet again.
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