0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/16/2014
There are no off-days between now and the end of the 2014 season for the Pirates. There are 13 games to be played in the next 13 days, and then it’s over. The Pirates begin this final stretch 1 1/2 games up on the Brewers for the second wild card and 3 1/2 behind the […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
I have to admit, I was a little surprised over the weekend when the Pirates announced Charlie Morton would be making a start against the Boston Red Sox tonight. Morton’s whole season has been up-and-down as he’s dealt with his sports hernia, but he was in the midst of a really bad stretch before said […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/15/2014
It is amazing how different baseball can feel from Monday to Monday. Two Mondays ago, the Pirates were 71-65, two games out of first place and two games out of the second wild card (the Brewers are Cardinals were tied) and facing a week against the Cubs and Cardinals. The Pirates had a strange week […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/14/2014
Before we get into today’s preview game, let’s take a minute and talk about last night’s loss. It is, of course, true that the Pirates can’t win every game between now and the end of the season. Coming into this nine-game homestand, taking six of the nine games was going to be a good result for […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/13/2014
If a week ago it seemed that nobody wanted to win the National League’s second wild card, suddenly the situation looks a little bit different on the season’s third-to-last Saturday. The Pirates have been slicing through the Cubs and Phillies like a hot knife through butter with seven wins in eight games, but they only […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/12/2014
Take a deep breath. It’s September 12th, and the Pirates have nine scheduled games left at PNC Park in 2014. They are 1 1/2 games up in the wild card race on the Brewers, and the last three of these nine games will be against the Brewers. They’re only 2 1/2 back of the Cardinals, […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/11/2014
What a difference a week makes, huh? With tonight’s win, the Pirates have won six of seven, they maintain their 1 1/2 game lead on the Brewers in the NL’s second wild card race, and they pull themselves within 2 1/2 of the Cardinals in the NL Central, which is officially “striking distance” with 16 […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
In the ever-growing pantheon of “biggest games of the year,” the Pittsburgh Pirates have a huge opportunity tonight in Philadelphia. The Cardinals lost to the Reds this afternoon and the Braves are off, while the Brewers play the Marlins again. At the very least a win shrinks the Cardinals’ division lead to 2 1/2 games (which […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/10/2014
In the first five at-bats of tonight’s game, the Pirates were hit by two pitches, hit two singles, and had a 2-0 lead with runners on first and second and one out. It looked a lot like the Pirates were going to get to Jerome Williams in the exact fashion that you’d think that they […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
I swear that at least once a year I come across Jerome Williams’ name in a box score or he pitches against the Pirates and I have to do a double-take and ask myself, “Wait, THAT Jerome Williams? He’s still pitching in Major League Baseball?” The answer is always, “Yes. That Jerome Williams. He’s still […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
Sorry for the lateness of this recap; I missed most of the game last night due to a softball game and kind of zonked out once I saw the Pirates lost, never quite recovering enough energy to sit down and type something out. The long and short of it is that the Pirates weren’t going […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/9/2014
It seems hard to believe, but the Pirates haven’t managed to string together five wins at any point yet in the 2014 season. There’s no better time for them to hit that mark for the first time this season than tonight, as the four wins that the Pirates have picked up in their last four […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
I’m not sure if this game was closer than it needed to be, or an easier victory for the Pirates than it really should have been. For most of the game, Jeff Locke pitched really well, the Pirates left runners on base against Kyle Kendrick, and not many runs at all were scored. Locke gave […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/8/2014
The Pirates’ sweep over the Cubs was a great thing to see. Even though the Pirates didn’t play all that poorly in getting swept by the Cardinals last week, the result was a devastating one that more or less ended their shot at winning the NL Central. Coupled with the Cubs playing good baseball prior to the […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
I watched yesterday’s game right up to Jordy Mercer’s home run. I had plans to go to a concert and do some tailgating ahead of time, and Mercer’s homer to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead was pretty much perfectly timed with when I was planning on leaving. Two hitters before Mercer, though, I saw […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/7/2014
It’s funny how simple things can be sometimes, isn’t it? The Pirates have played roller coaster baseball the entire second half, and it seems like almost every single time they’re able to string a few wins together, they find themselves back in a playoff spot, no matter how ugly things looked a few days before. […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/6/2014
The Pirates won the resumption of yesterday afternoon’s suspended game against the Cubs in dramatic fashion today, taking the series opener in Wrigley by a 5-3 score. Tony Watson and Mark Melancon both pitched two scoreless innings, and Josh Harrison and Tony Sanchez drove in runs in the top of the 11th to provide the […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/5/2014
If the Pirates are going to somehow win the National League’s second wild card (they enter today 1 1/2 games behind the Braves and Brewers, both of whom are playing awfully lately), the easiest route to it would seem to be to beat up on the Cubs and Phillies, two teams with lousy records that […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/3/2014
In the immediate aftermath of this loss, my first reaction was to compare it with Game 4 of last year’s NLDS. That game, too, was a pitcher’s duel that the Pirates lost to the Cardinals though maybe the Pirates had more chances to win today. Sort of similar to today’s game, that game didn’t quite […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
This feels insane to say out loud, but the Pirates are less than 70 hours removed from what was arguably one of their high points in the 2014 season. Partway through Sunday afternoons games, the Pirates lead the Reds 2-0 and the Cubs lead the Cardinals 5-0. With the Brewers struggling badly, it seemed like […]
