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 around where 376 and the Turnpike. Then JD Martinez hit his home run, and I started worrying that I was going to get home just in time for another long extra inning slog.
It wasn’t an issue, though, because I came through the door at my parents’ house, the Pirates were starting their ninth inning rally. There were plenty of hits to go around, but it was another good example of what Fully Operational Neil Walker can do to help the Pirate lineup. Walker’s bases-loaded double was took the game from 5-3 to 7-3, and it closed out a pretty incredible three-game set in which Walker went 10-for-17 with two doubles, two homers, three runs scored, and seven RBIs. It’s hard for one offensive player to “win” three games in a row for a team and maybe Walker didn’t since the Pirates won the last two games by decent margins, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a position player do something like raise his OPS from .704 to .767 in three days in July.
I’ve talked about this a few times this year, but having Walker hitting with power the way he did last year lengthens the lineup in a way that’s been missing this year. When we all expected the Pirates to have a great lineup in March, it wasn’t because we thought that they had eight MVP candidates in the field. It was because we thought they had one MVP candidate and seven hitters that would range from above-average to really good. Walker was supposed to fall on the “really good” end of that spectrum, but before Tuesday he was below average. We’ll see how long this goes on, but this is certainly encouraging.
Since the Pirates played early last night, I finished last night watching the Cardinals and Padres on the MLB Network. That game ended with Clint Barmes dropping a ground-rule double past Jason Heyward with two outs in the 11th inning, extending the inning for a Will Middlebrooks home run. The Pirates have won three in a row, the Cardinals have lost three in a row. At least the door is still slightly open.
Image credit: Leon Halip, Getty Images
