The Pirates were in cruise control for 95% of Monday’s series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals, but a Dennis Santana meltdown saw four runs score and the Pirates fall to 16-13. The bullpen put forth a valiant effort, retiring the first 20 Cardinals hitters they faced and holding them to one hit and zero runs for eight innings. Unfortunately, the Bucs made enough mistakes to cost themselves the win as they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. DiNardo and I recapped this one on the NS9 Postgame Show which you can watch or listen to below.
Here are my three takeaways from this heart-wrenching loss.
Dennis Santana is Still One of Baseball’s Best
Dennis Santana was horrendous, and there is no way around that. He gave up 2 home runs on his way to a 4-run inning that sunk the Pirates hopes of winning. However, the think pieces around this blown save are bordering on absurd. He has been compared to Will Crowe; there are demands that he be removed from the closer role as if we haven’t seen 2 full years of elite stuff from Santana. Dennis has almost 150 innings over his three seasons in Pittsburgh, and he has never finished with an ERA over 3, and his ERA+ has never been under 170. Every single reliever will have outings like this one; it is deeply unfortunate that it happened to come against our bitter rivals from St. Louis. Santana has not had a performance like this since the meltdown at Coors Field last summer, which means we have seen incredible consistency over 3-4 months of performances from the Pirates closer. All of this to say, it really sucks that Santana was responsible for this gut punch. However, I still believe that he is one of the best relievers in baseball, and I will stand by that until he proves me wrong.
Henry Davis Deserves His Flowers
One of the more surprising developments about this game is that the Pirates lost a Henry Davis start. The bat has been a complete letdown, no matter how you slice it. However, there is usually a reason the best pitcher in baseball wants to exclusively pitch to you and no one else. Davis provides stability to this entire pitching staff, and we can see that in games like this. Besides Santana imploding in the 9th, Davis called a bullpen game for 6 pitchers over 8 innings to a complete shutdown of the Cardinals offense. The bats were so silent that 20 Cardinals hitters came up to bat in a row and were all sent right back to the bench. He also helped rookie pitcher Wilber Dotel pitch a dominant 4 perfect innings, to the point that the entire fanbase was clamoring for him to come back out for a 5th. Pitcher’s ERA is far lower when Henry catches as opposed to Joey Bart, and the Pirates win far more games when Davis starts behind the dish. He will never be seen as not disappointing until his bat picks up, but it is clear he is a vital cog in the Pirates machine and should be playing as many games as possible.
Marcell Ozuna… Tick Tock
Marcell Ozuna is sitting at a -0.8 WAR and a wRC+ of 32 to start off this early season. With his .475 OPS, Ozuna is the least qualified hitter in the entire league. He enjoys the privilege of batting in the heart of the order almost every night, and you can start to feel the strain it causes the offense as Lowe, O’Hearn, and Cruz stop batting like Aaron Judge. Nick Gonzales went 3/4 tonight, and unfortunately, he never had anyone to knock in, in no small part due to Ozuna going 0/4 yet again tonight. The worst part about this situation is there are no positives to look at from a numbers perspective or from the eye test. Ozuna looks largely uncompetitive in his at-bats this year, and he isn’t hitting the ball hard enough to make you believe he can turn this around. He was always a risk with age; however, Marcell being unable to come close to his 2025 season is disturbing. Age 36 Ozuna with a bum hip is far better than Ozuna in his age 37 season. The Pirates are going to need a Tommy Pham or Rowdy Tellez-like resurgence in the middle of the season, or else he is going to be one of the chief reasons why the Pirates might not make a playoff spot this year.
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