They had a seven-run inning to beat Arizona 9-6 yesterday. Mainly noteworthy because April 22 was the last day they had seven runs in a game, let alone an inning. Be nice if that outburst got them on some sort of streak that isn't a losing streak. 

After beating Miami last night, they're (I think) 17-16 with Don Kelly as manager. At the least, that win moved them above .500 with him as the manager. 

Makes me wonder what this season would be like if Sheldon's worthless ass had gotten canned after last year, or if they at least didn't wait as long as they did this year to remove him. I mean, under Kelly, it's not like their offense suddenly did a 180 and is now putting up 10 runs a game. They did last night, but most of their games, win or lose, seem to be really close where the difference is there's a better chance of quality execution when it's needed. 

Took in the game today…my son got to play the National Anthem

That's awesome!

So, not only is Oneil Cruz is one hell of a massive month-long slump with the bat, but he also seems to have checked out mentally. A week or two ago, he had an almost comical (ie: comical to anyone not a Pirate fan) defensive blunder where he completely misplayed a routine ball into center field and then just stood there and watched it go to the wall. Last night, he got removed from the game because he "lost track of outs" and didn't run out a double play grounder. 

This team can't have anything positive. 

Six straight wins is a weird feeling. Three straight shutouts also is unexpected. And the team having strong offensive showings in five of the six (all but Skenes' start because he's not allowed to have support) is very, very insane. It's like 10-15 players got Invasion of the Body Snatchers'd and their alien substitutes are WAY better at the sports thing than the inferior human originals. 

Heretic wrote:

Six straight wins is a weird feeling. Three straight shutouts also is unexpected. And the team having strong offensive showings in five of the six (all but Skenes' start because he's not allowed to have support) is very, very insane. It's like 10-15 players got Invasion of the Body Snatchers'd and their alien substitutes are WAY better at the sports thing than the inferior human originals. 

4 straight wins by 7+ runs….only the 3rd time in MLB history

Well, they followed that up with a shit ton of nothing over the last two days!

What a shock! Zero runs with Skenes starting. That never happens!!!

4-7, 1.94 ERA. Nice.

Heretic wrote:

What a shock! Zero runs with Skenes starting. That never happens!!!

Brutal

justincredible wrote:

4-7, 1.94 ERA. Nice.

And now it's 4-8 with a 2.01 ERA. Because giving up two runs in five innings (with 78 pitches because they're managing his work load for reasons) is way too much for this offense to overcome.

Every day Ben Cherington is the team's GM is a wasted day. Dude has been incompetent at building a team, it's year 6 and they're worse than they were when he started, they have no offense and he's a fucking analytics nerd who'd rather put money in that department than into the actual team. Just the concept that a dude who's fucked up everything he's touched so far with the team could possibly be in charge of the draft and this month's inevitable fire sale/tearing it down/trying again spectacular is depressing because you know he's going to completely botch everything up because he has some giant hard on for some player who grades out to be another Spencer Horwitz -- an average-at-best guy whose WAR number will be anywhere from +.3 to -.5. 

"Hey, let's dump Keller, Reynolds, Bednar, Cruz, everyone....to get 8 light-hitting nobodies who can play five positions. Oh, and 2-3 mediocre-at-best pitchers who can fit any role from spot starter to middle relief to mop-up guy." Dude's gonna make us suck more than the Rockies and White Sox while insisting he made the right moves and they just didn't pan out for some reason. Under his GM-ship, every aspect of this franchise has turned to shit besides all the promising young arms that he'll probably fuck up just because that's what he does. 

It's just amazing how seemingly every power hitting prospect just falls apart at the big league level. Suwinski went from a guy who wasn't great, but could hit .220ish with 20-30 homers to a guy who can't hit, period. Cruz has power and speed and a .205 average -- dude's probably gonna strike out at the home run derby. Henry Davis shows flashes, but is still a .200 hitter who happens to have some pop. 

Just firing Cherington isn't enough. Firing him out of a cannon into the sun wouldn't be enough. Starting up gladiator games and throwing him to a starving lion...now that might be a start, but I think we'd need some sort of magic that allows him to die a thousand deaths to just scratch the surface of what he deserves. 

Hard to disagree.  The fans and great ballpark deserve better, not to mention the greats who came before.

Welp, today's game lasted until the bottom of the second, when Burrows has just imploded. Down 5-0; pack it up and try again tomorrow, guys! No way in hell you'll get that many runs without having 4-5 days to put the work in. 

QuakerOats wrote:

Hard to disagree.  The fans and great ballpark deserve better, not to mention the greats who came before.

And the saddest thing is, I thought there was legit reason for hope after last season. 76-86 finish with the best young pitcher in the game, a few other good young arms and a respectable, if not great, offense. Make a few moves to shore up some weak spots and I figured they could easily compete for a wild card.

Instead, most of the offense has regressed (in particular, Reynolds, Cruz and Bart) and not enough guys have stepped up to even be as good as "sub-par". When it comes to bright spots, I can only give actual props to Cutch, Gonzales, Kiner-Falafa and Pham for the recent period when he actually did something about his contacts so he could see the ball. And of those guys, Gonzales is the only guy who might be part of the team's future, as Cutch is nearing the end of his career and both K-F and Pham are short-term guys who'd I'd expect to see moved by the deadline.