The Pirates have failed to make an impact against the upper echelons of the National League. Tuesday night they dropped their 4th straight game, and all four have been at the hands of the other division leaders in the NL. The game was a close one where Paul Skenes looked excellent, until the Dodgers scored 10 runs in the 7th inning and put the game to bed. The Pirates are injured, thin in the bullpen, and are being exposed by the Dodgers and Braves. Watch Doug and Jim break down the game in depth here:
If I were Don Kelly I’d Consider Quitting
What on earth is this coaching staff supposed to do with the bullpen at this rate? The bullpen surrendered 10 runs in the 7th inning of this game, making it an embarrassing blowout. The culprits in blowing this game were the rookies Wilber Dotel and Brandan Bidois, who have been called up in hopes of fixing this dilapidated bullpen. Dotel in particular has been excellent since coming up to the majors, but the defending champions proved too much for him, and he surrendered six runs. He didn’t manage to record a single out, and Bidois didn’t fare much better. The Pirates still do not possess a single reliable right-handed arm in the bullpen, and even lefties like Montgomery and Soto have struggled recently as of late. This team is in serious danger of blowing a top 10 rotation and lineup because of an atrocious bullpen. Changes need to happen fast. I cannot fathom how anyone can lay blame at the feet of Don Kelly when he has zero reliable relievers in the pen at any given time. It’s a complete failure of the front office to have assembled such a bad bullpen.
Marcell Ozuna Should Be Gone
There has been absolutely nothing redeemable about Marcell Ozuna‘s time in Pittsburgh. He can’t even beat out a throw made 30 feet into left field for a single because he’s so slow. I don’t care that he knocked in a run in the 9th; he is an abysmal player with an abysmal personal record, and we are paying him 12 million to be a glorified bench coach. Ozuna is hitting sub-. 200 in his last 18 games, showing he isn’t even getting hot like Tellez and Pham did the last two years. He isn’t hitting the ball hard, he isn’t making good contact, and he looks like he couldn’t be bothered to try to play baseball at this point of his career. Once the Pirates get healthy with their offensive players, Ozuna should be on the chopping block because he has no business being on a Major League roster with how he has been playing.
The Pirates Throwing Away Games Make This Loss Hurt Worse
In a vacuum, there’s no real problem with a four-game losing streak at the hands of the Dodgers and Braves. Both teams have been playing out of their minds and are World Series contenders. Teams go through rough patches, and this team’s true talent is hovering around .500 anyway. However, this is what makes losing games like the Astros meltdown feel so bad. The National League is a bloodbath, and every game is going to count in September. Instead of being 1 game over .500, the Pirates could still be 4-5 games over if they simply took care of business in games they should’ve won. The team is not bad because they hit a rough patch against good teams, but like I said in point number one, the bullpen is going to cost the team a playoff spot. They are not allowing the team to have the natural cold streaks that every team in baseball has, and unless there are major changes, this team is projecting to miss the playoffs by throwing away winnable games.
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