The good news, if i you can call it that, is that the Pirates just played a game on Sunday in which they had a big lead, their bullpen blew said big lead, and the offense bailed everyone out, and so we already know how to feel about last night’s way-too-close-for-comfort 9-8 win over the Rockies: all wins count the same, and wins in games where you play poorly are important, we Pirate fans know this because this year was preceded by two bad stats that contributed to the Cardinals winning the division and the Pirates losing the Wild Card Game.
The part that’s harder to take is that, damn, for the second time four days, the Pirates blew a big lead and Neftali Feliz and Tony Watson had a huge hand in it. It’s one thing to process when Jeff Locke doesn’t have a great start or Kyle Lobstein comes in and gives up a bunch of runs, because those are the edges we expected to be rough, and those are spots the Pirates are presumably looking at and hoping to improve upon. If guys like Watson and Feliz can’t get on track, it’s going to be much harder for the Pirates to put together a strong bullpen. Let’s hope that we can chalk this week up to bad stadiums for pitchers and move on.
A few more details: the Pirates put together a 7-0 lead by scoring in a 1-3-3 fashion in the second, third, and fourth innings. By the end of the fourth, every Pirate had a hit, an RBI, or both. It was fun to watch because it was so different than Tuesday night’s homer-fest; instead the Pirates wore Jon Gray out by taking a ton of pitches and hitting singles and doubles all over the place. Jon Niese gave up some hard-hit balls but looked OK through three, then gave up homers to Trevor Story and Nolan Arenado to start the fourth. The Rockies kept rallying that inning, and it felt lucky when it ended with the Pirates up 7-4. Niese got through the fifth, but loaded the bases in the sixth with three straight singles. Ryan Vogelsong came in and got out of the jam with some nifty defense from Jordy Mercer on a fielder’s choice that held the Rockies to one run in the inning. In the top of the seventh, Gregory Polanco launched his second homer of the road trip and 8-5 felt safe enough, despite the brewing Rockies’ comeback. It wasn’t, as Neftali Feliz gave up a two-run homer to Mark Reynolds in the seventh and Tony Watson gave up a solo shot to Gerardo Parra in the eighth. Luckily at that point, Kyle Lobstein held the Rockies in check for three innings until the Pirates could score again on a Polanco walk and a Jordy Mercer double in the 12th, then Mark Melancon closed out the win despite two walks.
The Pirates are 13-9. This road trip is almost over, and they assured themselves of a winning record on it last night. Hopefully that’s all that will matter in the end.
Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
