Mitch Keller‘s struggles this season and in Atlanta continued as he was hit hard for six runs on seven hits in just 4.2 innings as the Pirates lost to the Braves 6-3. The Pirates had a lead at one point when they got to Martin Perez in the 3rd inning for three runs thanks to RBI singles from Nick Gonzales and Marcell Ozuna. But besides that three-run inning, the Pirates bats were cold in the loss. DiNardo and I recap this one and celebrate our 10-year anniversary of the podcast on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros.
Here’s my 3 takeaways from this loss…
Keller’s Struggles are Going to Hurt This Team in More Than One Way
Mitch Keller was hit hard Friday night in Atlanta. He’s now allowed 24 runs in his last five starts and this was his second straight start where he failed to make it at least five innings. Not only are these performances hurting the team on the field, but Keller is supposed to be your main horse. Him and Paul Skenes were going to eat innings and do their thing while the team could monitor innings for the other three young pitchers: Braxton Ashcraft, Bubba Chandler and Jared Jones. You have Mlodzinski and Dotel in the pen doing well and fans have been saying “skip a Skenes start and let him rest” and “IL Keller and give Dotel a chance.” The problem with that sentiment is your bullpen stinks and you need those arms in the pen. But if Keller is going to continue to struggle and not be efficient and eat innings, this team has a very serious problem on their hands. What was supposed to be the strength of their team, the starting pitching is looking very human (besides Ashcraft) and most of them are young and will need their usage monitored.
There’s no easy answers here until the trade deadline picks up, but I don’t think the Pirates should just be looking for relief arms, I believe they’ll need to pick up a veteran SP that can eat innings, one that they didn’t bother to pick up in the offseason but is looking more and more like it’s necessary with the way Keller and other starters are trending.
Weird Night for the Offense
At times Friday night it looked like the Pirates offense of the past 5 or so years—just nothing happening. Martin Perez and the Braves bullpen combined for seven 1-2-3 innings which is almost unheard of. Most of these innings, there was no pushback from the Pirates lineup and it led to a very boring game. But then in the third inning, they strung together a bunch of hits and scored three runs to take a 3-1 lead. And then in the 9th inning even with this 6-3 game seeming so out of reach, the Pirates offense had a chance to tie it with one swing. In that 9th inning, Bryan Reynolds walked, Ozuna singled, Oneil Cruz came up with a chance to tie it with no outs. He worked a good at-bat, but ulimately struck out against Braves closer Raisel Iglesias. Ryan O’Hearn then came up with plenty of pop in his bat, but he grounded into a game-ending double play. It was not to be for the Pirates in this one. And in that 3rd inning when they scored three runs off of Perez, they had three hits and two walks. But besides that, nada. Their 11-game home run streak came to an end in this one too. Just a weird night overall where they did get to Perez briefly, but then were comatose for the majority of the innings.
Ten Years of NS9
During spring training of the 2016 season, DiNardo and I started a website called the North Shore Nine and we wrote for three months about the team with the plan to start a podcast at the All-Star break. Well, we made it till June 5. And that was when we hit record on the debut episode of the North Shore Nine—exactly 10 years ago today. It’s been a wild ride the past 10 years of shows and then Facebook Live, YouTube, postgame shows, winter meetings, spring training, etc. We’ve come a long way and there’s been a ton of growth which we have you to thank for that. Our followers who read our articles, listen to the pod, like our posts on FB and Instagram and watch our shows to vent and cheer with us after each game, you are all awesome for the support you’ve given us over the years. We appreciate you and that is my third takeaway of the day. I’ll leave you with our post on Twitter about our 10th anniversary and if you click the link, there’s a quick audio clip from our debut episode. Thank you all for enjoying the ride with us as we follow this crazy organization.
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