The Pirates fell behind twice tonight to Minnesota, and managed to rally back to take the lead twice. The night was capped off with a 2-run walk off home run from Bryan Reynolds. Despite Jared Jones struggling mightily in his return to the big leagues, the offense picks up the pitching yet again and wins a major game. The Pirates manage to stave off falling to .500 and continue to stay in the Wild Card chase. The Pirates have also hit the 30-win mark, and it took the 2025 Pirates until June 21st last year to hit the same win total. Watch Jim and Tyler breakdown the win here on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros:
Bryan Reynolds is Underappreciated
Can Bryan Reynolds make you facepalm repeatedly with his defensive antics? Yes. Was 2025 a disaster year for him? Also, yes. But those who want to claim that he has been a waste of money should be ignored because he continues to deliver for this team. Reynolds was already productive before winning the game, walking twice and scoring two runs. Despite the offense doing nothing against a poor Twins bullpen, Bryan Reynolds proved to be a winner and delivered the winning blow. His OPS now sits at a pretty .834, with a 136 wRC+. Bryan deserves his flowers not only for his performance in this one and this year, but also for sticking with this project and wanting to be here. Reynolds has lost a ton of baseball games here in Pittsburgh, but he has stayed and is starting to reap the benefits from such a decision. The constant criticism online of Reynolds needs to stop, because he is a Pittsburgh Pirate through and through and is going to be a major part of the first playoff push in nearly a decade.
Home Runs Are Good, Actually
Going into the season, the constant (correct) narrative is that the Pirates just need to be hovering around average. Coming into Friday, the Pirates were 13th in baseball in home runs hit. Even the playoff teams of old were usually bottom 10 in this stat, and being above average has been massive for this current team. The Pirates needed every bit of power they could get their hands on, as the last three runs to win the game came off of moonshots from Oneir Cruz and Bryan Reynolds. Continuing to hit the ball over the fence needs to keep happening, because with the bullpen collapse always imminent, home runs can be the difference between winning and losing by singular runs. The Pirates are aiming to have six players hit at least 15 home runs, which is a luxury the Pittsburgh faithful are not used to seeing.
Wilber Dotel Might Be Too Good for the Bullpen Soon
Wilber Dotel had pedestrian numbers in AAA as a starter, and has been called up to help save the right-handed arms in the bullpen. He has responded by being a shutdown arm capable of going 3–4 innings when the pen is in desperate need of a rest. Tonight, he steadied the ship and dealt three shutout innings where he only allowed one baseman runner and struck out four. Dotel is someone who needs to remain in the bullpen this year, but if he keeps having outings like this, he will be knocking on the door of the rotation next season. His four-pitch mix was making Minnesota batters look foolish, and he was especially effective with his cutter tonight. With a gaggle of right-handed pitchers continuing to leak runs in the bullpen, Dotel ensured the Pirates remained in the game. I wonder if he’s going to be asked to make more frequent appearances for 1-2 innings a piece, so the Pirates get to pitch him in more games. Mlodzinski and Dotel could be the answers to our prayers that fix the bullpen problems.
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