The Pirates gave away the fourth and final game of a home series vs. the Cardinals, where they were swept. The Pirates poor pitching this series continued to haunt them, as the Cardinals pulled away in the 8th inning after the Bucs tried to stage another comeback. The Pirates are now on a 5-game losing streak and have fallen to 16-16 on the season, good for last in the NL Central. The Pirates will look to rebound against divisional rivals the Cincinnati Reds tomorrow at home for a three-game set. Cody and Doug attempted to lay their thoughts out on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros. You can watch or listen to the show below…
Here are our 3 takeaways from today’s loss.
The Pirates Got Beat Today, But Threw Away 2 of These Games
When Paul Skenes gives up five runs like he did today, it is hard to expect the team to come out with a victory. However, Monday and Wednesday nights were games that the Pirates should have won and won them comfortably. Dennis Santana giving up four runs in the 9th inning on Monday was a tragic collapse that shouldn’t happen. Wednesday, the Buccos gave the Cardinals the game by leaving 12 men on base and going 1-12 with RISP. When the team has the chance in all three of the last innings to take the lead and never come away with it, it is a sign the team threw that game away as well.
The Pirates are a solid team; however, they will never be able to reach a playoff spot if they continue to hand away these winnable games so that today’s loss doesn’t feel like such a gut punch. It has been hard to complain about results up until now despite them consistently claiming defeat from the jaws of victory, but now being under .500 is looming and they need to clean things up now. This clubhouse has a lot of soul searching to do before the Reds come into town Friday.
Defense is Optional Here
Everyone knew the defense would be rough this season, and so far the offensive output has been good enough to deal with defensive mishaps. However, today Bryan Reynolds managed to out do this despite his contributions to the offense. Reynolds did have two doubles, knocked in two runs, and scored one himself in this game. His defense was a disaster, directly leading to helping chase Skenes early with his noodle arm. He continued to struggle with his glove and officially helped the game be put to bed after he missed a ball in the 7th, and Nathan Church knocked home two more runs to push the deficit to three runs. No one is expecting this team to be good defensively, but until the team (and in particular, the outfielders) fix the basic mistakes that keep happening, they are going to lose games they shouldn’t. The Pirates had a legitimate shot to win today’s game and gave away four runs because of sloppy play in the outfield.
We Still Are Not at Panic Time
This series was a really hard watch; getting swept by the Cardinals, of all teams, is a miserable experience to sit through as a Pirates fan. It confirmed most of the flaws this team had all put into one series against a bitter rival. However, the Pirates are still in a solid spot and have shown with the stats that their early season success is something that can be sustained. The Pirates lost two games in no small part to bullpen blowups from two of their more reliable arms (Santana and Mattson). The offense has continued to put up numbers despite not always being the most efficient with RISP this series. The Pirates are top 10 in terms of WAR produced for their team as well and are in the top half of the league in both pitching and hitting value. I also think that if you asked any Pirates fan before the season, they would be .500 after April, there wouldn’t be a single fan who wouldn’t say yes. They have to rebound and end this 5-game skid, no doubt, but the 2015 Pirates team did start 18-22 after 40 games. There is still time to turn the ship back around, even as defeated as I feel after that series sweep.
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