The Pirates and Rays waited through a 2 hour and 27 minute rain delay Saturday and in between that played a 4 hour and 12 minute game as the Pirates fall 8-7 in 13 innings to the Rays. Anthony and Tyler were live from the concourse after about seven hours at the ballpark and they break down the game and how stupid of a game it was.
You can also listen to the guys discuss the absurd game on Spotify and Apple:
And while I’m here, here’s my three takeaways from this one:
This Team Loses Games in Brutal and Dumb Ways
Look clearly this team is better than we’ve seen a Pirates team be in a decade, but when they lose, like these past two losses—they’re in absolutely brutal ways. The rain didn’t help tonight that’s for sure. The Pirates moved the game up to 3:30PM with the forecast showing rain later in the day. Well, it almost worked. They were an inning away from an official game and a 5-inning Paul Skenes complete game. Instead, the rain hit in the bottom of the 4th inning with the Pirates up 4-0 and by the time the game started again, Skenes was out and the bullpen needed just one inning to piss away the lead quickly.
Cam Sanders came in and somehow gave up five straight two-out hits to erase a 4-0 lead. The Pirates offense came back and tied it which just prolonged the agony in extra innings. Isaac Mattson comes in the 10th inning and blanks the Rays ghost runner and all in the extra frame, setting up the Bucs for a win, right? Wrong. Suddenly no one can hit for the Pirates. So we go to the 11th inning. Yohan Ramirez time. He gets the first out on a groundout then gets the second out on a fielder’s choice when the ghost runner is thrown out at home plate. Hey, another scoreless frame, right? Wrong. Ramirez for some reason is worried about the runner at first base with two outs and throws over and throws it away down the line to no man’s land in RF and the runner scores all the way from first base. Of course he does. Why is Ramirez even throwing to first in that situation? The Pirates still find a way to tie the game in the bottom of the inning. In the 12th inning, both teams go scoreless. Once again, the Pirates can’t find a hit or a way to get the runner home from second base. And then Cedric Mullins leads off the 13th with a two-run blast. The Pirates FINALLY get a hit in extra innings on a Konnor Griffin single in the bottom of the 13th to make it a one-score game, he steals second base and Joey Bart strikes out to end one long day at the park. You have to be fundamentally sound to win extra inning games with the new rule and this team is just not very fundamentally sound.
And of course if it had never rained, Skenes likely goes 6-7 innings with a lead and the Pirates close this one out no problem, but go figure Mother Nature couldn’t play nice.
Winning Streaks are Going to be Difficult to Come By with these Mid/Long Relief Options
It’s only April 18 and the Pirates have already churned through Jose Urquidy, Hunter Barco, Cam Sanders and Evan Sisk trying to find someone to stick in middle and long relief. No one has performed well and Sanders was welcomed back to the Majors Saturday with four earned runs in 0.2 innings. I’m sure we’ll see another roster move before Sunday’s game because I’m not sure who’s even available in the pen after this circus. The Pirates have elite starting pitching, their offense can hold their own and score runs and the back end of the bullpen has been good, but one thing is for sure—I think it’s going to be hard for this team to rip off four or five straight wins with the middle and late relief options they have. It’s been a complete disaster. So who’s next? Mike Clevinger, Chris Devenski? Tom Harrington? Brandan Bidois? Carson Fulmer? Joe La Sorsa? Michael Darrell-Hicks? Anyone? Bueller…Bueller? I’m not sure the answer is in this organization right now, but I’m sure the carousel of bullpen arms will continue.
NS9 Live Tailgate
It was an incredibly long day of tailgating and then at the park. I didn’t make it through the two and half hour rain delay as my daughter had enough, but once again I’m blown away by the amount of people that showed up to show support of this little blog/podcast DiNardo and I started 11 years ago. People drove from upstate New York, flew in from California, drove from all of PA just to be at the tailgate to hang out, eat some Primanti’s sandwiches, hoist some cones and enjoy baseball talk. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out for another year of this. You folks are the best! Now for the next one let’s have no rain and a Pirates victory.
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