The Pirates latest bullpen collapse came Friday night in an absurd 11-9 loss to the Phillies on rivalry weekend. The Pirates scored six runs in the 3rd inning and led 6-0 and 8-3 in this one before blowing it late and losing in 10 innings as Kyle Schwarber terrorized the Bucs all game. Gregory Soto gave up three runs for his blown save and then Dennis Santana doubled down and gave up three in the 10th inning without even recording an out. As DiNardo said on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros., “This game is trash.” Indeed it was. Jim and DiNardo broke it all down here and you can watch/listen below.
Here’s my three takeaways from this frustrating game.
I’m Not Sure It’s Going to Happen for the Pirates This Season
I’ll start by saying this team is obviously their most talented team since maybe 2015 and even with that talent and excitement when they win and are playing over .500 baseball, it’s hard to believe in this team when you get games like this one. Games you have to close out when you take a 6-0 lead in the 3rd inning. And we’ve had about 7-8 of these games already this season. But between this loss and that ridiculous Cardinals series where they walked into your city and punched you in the face for four games, it’s hard to believe they’re going anywhere this season.
I was hoping they were good enough this season to make the playoffs and give us a nice pennant race this season, but I’m just not sure it’s going to happen this year. We may be one year too early here. The team has some uber talent on its roster and the future is promising for this young rotation and Konnor Griffin, but it just might be too early for them this year. I mean Brandon Lowe now has three, 2-home run games this year already and the Pirates are 0-3 in those games. That shouldn’t happen. That can’t happen. Teams are going to blow saves, of course that’s going to happen in baseball. But Friday night was this team’s 12th blown save of the season in just 45 games. Twelve blown saves leads MLB by the way tied with the Nationals, who have a horrendous bullpen. You can’t keep losing games like this and end up making the playoffs. And the other issue with this is there’s likely no fixing this bullpen until the deadline so we have about two and a half more months of this.
What Happened to Dennis Santana?
The entire bullpen as a whole has been struggling recently, but none more than Dennis Santana who has completely lost it on the mound. With three runs allowed in this loss (two earned because of the ghost runner in extras), his ERA balloons to 4.42 after having a sub 2 ERA in his time since joining the Pirates in 2024. Santana even started off this season with seven scoreless innings and allowed just one hit in those seven outings. He gave up one run in Chicago and then had another five innings of no earned runs and his ERA sat at 0.69 on April 25. Since that point, he has a 13.50 ERA in his last seven outings.
I don’t get it. I’m stubborn and have a hard time believing he’s suddenly washed. I know he hasn’t been a strikeout guy, but where’s my DOPE President Mr Efficient Dennis Santana? The one that throws nine pitches and gets a 1-2-3 scoreless frame. I’m no pitching guru, but Bill Murphy supposedly is and hopefully he can work with Santana to find some semblance of the pitcher he was. Because right now, the Pirates severely need someone in the pen to right the ship.
Pirates Offense is Kinda Awesome
The vibes were high, folks. Marcell Ozuna belted a two-run home run into the bullpen that Yohan Ramirez literally caught with a cone! Ozuna’s cone dinger made it 6-0 and the park was rocking. They added on too. Lowe hit his second home run of the game and his team-leading 12th blast. I still can’t believe the power they were able to add this offseason:
Lowe has 12 HRs
O’Hearn 7 HRs
Ozuna 5 HRs
Those three have contributed 48.9% of your power this season. Oneil Cruz is better, Bryan Reynolds is having a bounce back season, Spencer Horwitz is doing his thing (he had another two hits vs the Phillies), Konnor Griffin is here and looking solid at the plate. This offense plated eight runs Friday night and it should have been enough to win this one.
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