0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/8/2015
I haven’t been writing a whole ton about the Pirates’ awful run against the Reds and Brewers because the basic reality is this: I lack the computing capacity to process it. I figured that at some point in the season, the Pirates would start beating these two teams. They have not. I don’t understand why. […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/7/2015
Look: the Pirates just thumped the Unequivocally-Best-In-Baseball-Cardinals 20-8 over three days in St. Louis. The Reds are bad. There’s no reason to keep on losing to teams like this, at home, on the road, on Pluto, wherever. Actually, hold on, here’s a reason: Jeff Locke starts for the Pirates today, Travis Snider makes his first […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
I said before this series started on Friday that there would be no moral victories for the Pirates this weekend, but that was probably an overly dramatic statement. The Pirates did not sweep the Cardinals, of course, and that means that they’re 5 1/2 games out with 27 to play and only three left against […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/6/2015
With yesterday afternoon’s loss, the Pirates’ main task in the season’s final 28 games is to get Gerrit Cole back on track and to ensure that he’s lined up to pitch the Wild Card Game. Cole’s more or less on line already if they keep him pitching every fifth day, so what’s left is straighten […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/4/2015
0 comments by Pat Lackey
Here is a partial list of what from last night’s game drives me crazy: Seeing Jung Ho Kang sit every third day without fail because someone worse than him has to get playing time. Pretending like Kang’s in a slump now because he’s hitting worse now that he isn’t playing every day. Seeing Andrew McCutchen […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/3/2015
Editor’s note: sorry for all these late recaps lately, I’ve got a super-busy fall in front of me as I’m trying to finally finish up grad school. Look: I can’t explain why the Pirates are so bad against the bottom of NL Central this year. This team spent August tearing through the Mets, Dodgers, and […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/2/2015
The Pirates lost last night, which I guess is fine so long as they don’t do that again in this series against the Brewers. Jeff Locke starts for the Pirates, while Zach Davies makes his big league debut for the Brewers. The Pirate lineup tonight is the same lineup they were mostly using before everyone […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
There is a weird level of acceptance that comes from understanding on September 1st that your favorite baseball team is good enough to win 100 games and also that they will probably end up in a one-game playoff against a dominating starting pitcher. If the Pirates can’t catch the Cardinals (which they can, but is […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 9/1/2015
On June 1st, the Pirates woke up seven games out of first place in the NL Central. The Pirates went 17-9 in June. The Cardinals went 18-8, and actually gained a game on the Pirates. The Bucs went 17-9 in July, and made up 2 1/2 games as the Cardinals went 15-12. The Pirates went […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 8/30/2015
For much of the first half of baseball’s season, I tend to obsess over what the Pirates’ wins and losses look like. Are the Pirates winning close games against bad teams and getting blown out by good ones? Are they blowing leads late in games they could otherwise win? Are their wins blowouts and their […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 8/28/2015
The drill for this series is much the same as the last: the Pirates are playing bad teams at a point in the season where wins are at a premium. There is no reason for the Pirates to not win two or three games against the Rockies at PNC Park this weekend, and if they’re […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
For much of 2015 the answer to the question, “Is Pedro Alvarez’s offense good enough to make up for his defense,” has been obvious: the answer was no. Alvarez is having a historically bad season at first base, if you go by advanced defensive metrics. His UZR this year is -10.1, while the next closest […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
This whole Marlin series was nothing spectacular — just a nice study in the way things should be for the Pirates. Gerrit Cole turned in his second strong start in a row after a spell of less-than-spectacular ones, pitching into the eighth inning and getting a ton of weak ground balls from the Marlins, holding […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 8/27/2015
The Pirates haven’t had quite as much trouble with lefties as they did early in the season, but it was a bit of a relief to watch them jump all over Chris Narveson one night after being shut down by Brad Hand. The Pirates hung six on Narveson in a hurry in the second inning in […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 8/26/2015
With JA Happ pitching well and AJ Burnett throwing sim games conspicuously scheduled for the same day as one of his starts, Jeff Locke has to know that his starting job is (once again) on the line as we head towards the final month of the 2015 season. He hasn’t completed the sixth inning in a […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 8/25/2015
With Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer back in the lineup, we’re getting a little bit of a different look from the Pirates against Marlin lefty Brad Hand. Harrison is at second in place of Neil Walker, and Aramis Ramirez gets the start at third tonight. Sitting Mercer down and getting Mercer at-bats against lefties makes […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
With two outs in the third inning last night, something happened that Pirate fans have been dreaming about for three years. Gregory Polanco and Starling Marte both laced hard-hit singles off of Marlin starter Tom Koehler, then Andrew McCutchen brought them home with a double. The Pirates didn’t look back en route to a 5-2 […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 8/24/2015
It’s only the Marlins, but JA Happ’s Pirate resurgence continued tonight with six shutout innings, scattering four hits, striking out six, and issuing just one walk. Happ actually gave up half of those hits in the first inning, and he only allowed one base runner after the third. Happ’s now only allowed one run in […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
After three weeks of games against the best teams in the National League, the Pirates are headed to Miami tonight to play the Marlins. The Marlins are, frankly, terrible. They just lost three games in a row to the Phillies and are now tied with the Phils and (statistically) the Rockies for baseball’s worst record. […]
