2019 Pittsburgh Pirates --- everyone else in the division is in drive, we're in neutral

Nice start from Mahle. Wish he could have gone another inning ortwo

God damn, Schebler is such a fuckface. 

Once again, Reds players don't have a clutch gene in their body. 

I was glad I was at my Reds fan friend's place to watch it with a bunch of beer. Made that display of groundouts and nice-sounding fly balls that fell short of doing anything a lot more fun than it'd be to watch it alone.

And it's only been six games for the Reds and my friend already wants to kill David Bell for his rapid fire "I'm a chess master!" changes. Peralta gets two quick outs, so put in Lorenzen to give up three straight hits. Barnhart has two hits, including a double, and is one of the few guys on the team actually hitting the ball, so pinch-hit sub-.100 hitting Kemp for him in the clutch. I guess I might have egged him on a bit, reminding him about how the season opener got a lot more stressful in the 9th than it should have been because he took Garrett out for Hernandez for, uh, reasons, and the Pirates nearly came back against him.

And yeah, S&L, he's also at the point of HATING Schebler. Would rather have Ervin on the 25-man instead of him (no clue if Ervin even plays CF and I'm pretty sure he doesn't even care -- he's just sick of watching Schebler flail impotently at any high fastball thrown to him.)

Best record in the NL and tied for best overall in the "it's only about 10% of the way through the season" update.

Pleasantly surprised; getting some good pitching.

posted by Heretic

What if you're in sell-mode by that point because, no matter how good the pitching is, averaging 1.2 runs per game isn't gonna win that many?

Or the Pirates are in first place, dam

posted by Heretic

Best record in the NL and tied for best overall in the "it's only about 10% of the way through the season" update.

And after I post this, two straight losses and one relief pitcher's arm might have imploded. Why do I never learn...

Sweet fucking jebus, they might never win again...

Fade to black …

I'm not sure what makes me happier: Getting a series win over Oakland after getting destroyed in the first game, or getting rid of Shuck and his really, really, really, really, REALLY low talent ceiling.

Starting to develop a legit disliking of Clint Hurdle.

Leading Texas 6-2 in the eighth inning, he brings in Feliz. He goes: out, walk, out and then walks two straight to load the bases. Hurdle does nothing. He gives up a grand slam and still doesn't get taken out until walking another batter. Team winds up giving up 3 more in the ninth to lose.

I mean, I know Reds fans get annoyed by the quick-fire subbing Bell does, but this is the opposite. Keep in the struggling guy until he fucks shit up beyond recall. Find a happy medium, assholes!

I read that ^^^^^^ and decide to quit bitching about the Indians for a little while.

Geez.

Due to having injury issues with the starting pitching and no fucking depth (Keller is one of the team's top prospects, but has only started to get success at AAA; Brubaker is probably the current best AAA pitcher, but I think has been out injured for a bit; the rest at that level are more or less organizational depth or not ready for the bigs), the team has been going with bullpen games.

The first one worked out well. The opener went two shutout innings and the rest of the pen followed suit for a good win. Since then, they did two bullpen games over the past week and the openers combined for 8 runs in 1 inning, including shitty Feliz' shitty 1/3 inning/5 run outing yesterday. Uhhhhh...back to the drawing board?

Life as a Pirates fan:

1. The team got a rare national TV game yesterday on Fox against the Dodgers. I was happy.

2. The game was rain-delayed for two hours, so Fox moved to another game — with the fucking "always on TV" Cardinals against the Braves.

3. When the delay ended, Fox just stayed with that game until it ended and then quickly went to their 10 p.m. news.

4. Meanwhile, the team actually made Ryu look human, but couldn't really capitalize since they were leaving guys on base like crazy in the early innings. And then their starting pitcher imploded in the fifth and a 2-2 tie wound up a 7-2 loss.

In short, a let-down in every way possible. And there I was, after a long week of work, actually happy to be at home on Saturday to watch the damn game, lol.

Keller does get his first start today. Hopefully, it's a better start than those provided by virtually everyone else (low bar to clear!) over the past week or so.

Man, they might get back to .500 if they can keep scoring like the last two days, putting 24 up on Houston (including 6 in 2/3 inning against a light-hitting back-up infielder, lol!) after getting held to 1 in the first game of the series. Showing power, getting good pitching and other stuff they haven't done a lot of this year (other than Bell with the power).

Last night was fun. Put 18 up on the bitch-ass Cubs, Bell hits three homers, Frazier ties a major league record with four doubles and Moran has five hits. I mean, it would have been nicer if they'd used a little of that offense against the Brewers over the weekend, but anytime you can humiliate the Cubs, it's a good day.

posted by Heretic

Last night was fun. Put 18 up on the bitch-ass Cubs, Bell hits three homers, Frazier ties a major league record with four doubles and Moran has five hits. I mean, it would have been nicer if they'd used a little of that offense against the Brewers over the weekend, but anytime you can humiliate the Cubs, it's a good day.

not a Pirates fan by any stretch, but THIS!!!

posted by QuakerOats

 

Fade to black …

Ok; I’ll take it back.

Josh Bell on a higher plane right now; wow.