Morning Rundown: Never say die Pirates complete historic comeback
Erase nine run deficit, win 13-12
The Pirates could have entered this final stretch going through the motions, on the cusp of another losing season, and no one probably would have even noticed.
But instead, they continue to fully embrace doing whatever they can to throw a wrench in a pair of divisional rivals wild card plans.
Overcoming a 9-0 deficit by scoring 13 unanswered runs, eventually winning 13-12.
Things went from bad to worst quick, as they found themselves down 9-0 - with Bailey Falter getting tagged for eight runs in 2+ innings.
Then Jared Triolo picked up four hits, scoring three runs in the process.
Alfonso Rivas drove in five runs, Ji-Hwan Bae another three. Bryan Reynolds hit a three-run home run.
Capped off by Carmen Mlodzinski earned his first major league save.
They improve to 74-81, and even if they lose another game to clinch another losing season, you can’t help but be impressed with the mentality that they have taken going into the final stretch.
Mlodzinski the new 8th inning guy?
Even before Colin Holderman got put on the injured list, it kind of felt like things were starting to shift in favor of Mlodzinski to be the primary set up guy in front of David Bednar.
At least from a production standpoint.
He’s gotten the opportunity with Holderman out, and he’s running with it, pitching the eighth on Friday, and picking up his first major league save Saturday.
The fastball is very analytically friendly, and he’s having a lot of success with it up in the zone.
Nothing should be a given going into next year, but it feels like he’s gaining the inside track.
Quick site update
I had really meant to take a look at changing the background color of the site, but a comment reminded me to do so. I also changed the layout of the home page, let me know in the comments what you think on both.
Sunday is the last day of the Triple-A season, and this week we are going to start rolling out some end of year awards that the writers here voted on, plus some more recaps from WTM and potentially another article from Ethan.
I’m trying to get organized so that we have content throughout the offseason, and figuring out the best way to present it all. The ideas are there, just got to find what works best layout wise.
One last quick Sunday update, the Gameday article will go up around 10/1030 am, with the feature following at 12 pm. I’m going to set it up, but I will be offline most of the day celebrating the big ole 35th birthday.
So, the lineups may not be updated, unless they get posted before I head out for the day.
Thank you to all who’ve really helped this site take off, we down the home stretch, time to finish strong!
Indianapolis Indians - 4 vs Rochester Red Wings - 7
Top Hitter - Canaan Smith-Njigba: 1-2, 3 BB, R, RBI, 2B, SB
Top Pitcher - Noe Toribio: 4 IP, H, ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Me thinking that they should make a move either today or tomorrow for another arm, has to be one in the 40 (sorry Jones), maybe not start Kranick today in AAA and bring him up? Bido? Maybe even Wolf?
Best wishes. Outstanding content day after day.