0 comments by Pat Lackey on 7/8/2015
Things are going so well for the Pirates right now that an actual thought I had today was, “Geez, if the Pirates win this game and sweep the Padres, it’ll almost feel like too much to ask for them to take three of four from the Cardinals this weekend.” Screw it. Take no prisoners. Win […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 7/7/2015
On two separate occasions, it seemed like the typical weirdness that goes with the Padres coming to PNC Park was going to catch the Pirates tonight. The first occasion came in the third inning, shortly after the Padres took a 2-0 lead right out of the rain delay. Gregory Polanco drew a walk with one […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
The Cardinals have already lost the first game of their double-header with the Cubs today, which means that no matter what happens in their nightcap, the Pirates can make up at least a half-game on the Cards with a win against the Padres tonight. My opinion is that they should do that. Francisco Liriano starts […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 7/6/2015
The most important thing that happened in this game was that Pedro Alvarez came up twice late in the game with Andrew McCutchen in scoring position, worked six pitch at-bats both times, and on two separate full counts hit the ball sharply and in a fashion that resulted in McCutchen scoring. He needed the help […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
This is a big week for the Pirates, because the universe has no regard for Josh Harrison’s torn thumb ligaments or Starling Marte’s strained oblique. The second half of the week is obviously the more exciting part, with the Pirates closing out the pre-All Star Break portion of their season with four games at PNC […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
Yikes. Snap reaction: this puts an awful lot of pressure on both Jung Ho Kang and Gregory Polanco to up their game at the plate. More later when I have time to fully digest it.
0 comments by Pat Lackey
This is the top-line: Through 81 games, the Pittsburgh Pirates are 47-34. That’s a 94-win pace, which would match their best season in a generation. That’s within percentage points of the Kansas City Royals (46-33) for baseball’s second best record. The Pirates haven’t finished with or tied for baseball’s second best record since 1992 (the […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 7/5/2015
I made the decision to come back to PA for the Fourth this weekend pretty late, so I knew when I decided to come that I’d be seeing Jeff Locke in person on Saturday. I was a bit worried about this; it’s never fun to make the trip home and then to see a baseball game […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 7/4/2015
If I had time to write a preview for yesterday’s game, I would have said that I was a bit concerned about this Pirates/Indians series as the Indians have a pitching staff that strikes hitters out like crazy and the Pirates have an offense that tends to stall out against high-strikeout pitchers by striking out […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 7/3/2015
I spent much off yesterday in the car, and was able to listen to most of the Pirates and Tigers on the second half of my drive. As Antonio Bastardo melted down, I did the thing where I was most of the way past New Castle and realized that Antonio Bastardo had been pitching since […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 7/1/2015
If you wind the clock back a couple weeks, the Pirates have not had a whole lot of easy baseball recently. They got swept by the Nationals, played some stressful baseball against the Reds and Braves, and then had last night’s 14-inning marathon. The bats have been troublingly absent on a lot of nights, the […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
Whatever else happened last night, the Pirates beat the Tigers and now have a chance to get a series win over a good baseball team. AJ Burnett is making his last start before All-Star rosters are announced, so this is his last chance to make his case for his first career All-Star appearance. Alfredo Simon […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
Victor Martinez was displeased with being hit by Gerrit Cole last night (from MLive.com): “I mean, I have no respect for no one on that team, including Cole and their coaching staff,” said Martinez, who was adamant that Cole intentionally hit him. This is approximately the 97th time in the last three years that the […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
Somehow, a game that Gerrit Cole left in the seventh inning with a 4-2 lead turned into a story about Deolis Guerra and Gorkys Hernandez. Actually, “somehow” is the wrong word because we know exactly how it happened: a two-run JD Martinez home run off of Tony Watson in the seventh inning. Regardless, on to […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 6/30/2015
I think I speak for almost every Pirate fan when I say that I know that there were a lot of little things that went into Gerrit Cole’s ugly start against the Reds that weren’t necessarily his fault but that life would seem much sunnier if he turned in an Eff You Gerrit Cole start […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 6/29/2015
Sorry for the lack of WHYGAVS this weekend: I spent the weekend out in the mountains and then when I got back on Sunday, I was far too exhausted to do much of anything other than sit around. Taking the weekend as a whole instead of breaking down into three individual one-game units makes for […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 6/26/2015
What can you say about a blown 4-2 seventh inning lead that turns into game-winning Brandon Phillips homer in the 13th? The Pirates are 2-7 against the Reds. The Pirates are eight games behind the Cardinals. This sucks. Image credit: Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye. Which you should read if you haven’t. Maybe I’ll […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 6/25/2015
It was exactly one week ago that we were all giddy that the Pirates had finally winnowed their NL Central deficit down to four games. The Pirates have lost five of six since then, and are now seven games behind the Cardinals. The grand effect of these losses is that much of the ground they […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
Sorry for the late recap, I’m having some computer issues at the moment. The long and short of this game is that it turned on a sequence of six pitches that flipped the first inning from a scoreless inning into a 4-0 Reds lead, and once that happened the game was pretty much done. The […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 6/24/2015
There’s little to say on nights when Gerrit Cole takes the mound other than that it’s a night that Gerrit Cole is taking the mound and thus it’s worth your while to watch him pitch. The Reds are a mess right now, and the Pirates could use the wins. Mike Leake starts for the Reds, […]
