Morning Rundown: Pirates drop season finale, AL postseason matchups set up
Pirates lose in season finale, finish with same amount of wins as 2023. AL playoff matchups all set.
Before I start the recap, I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone for following along this season. This was the first full season of Bucs on Deck, and everyone's support has been incredible.
While everyone in the Pirates’ organization is done playing, that doesn’t mean we are packing it in here. You’ll get the usual three articles per day through the playoffs, with a Morning Rundown, daily feature, and gameday thread.
Once the playoffs are done, we will kick it down to two daily, the rundown and feature.
We have a week until the AFL kicks off, which is perfect timing because I will be out of town visiting family this week. Big shoutout to Nola, Ryan, and WTM for chipping in and sending in some content for the features, so they will be taking control for most of the week.
While I'm out, I’ll still be doing the Morning Rundown and Gameday thread and will also be dropping one paid feature.
Thanks again for everything. Let’s have a great off-season!
The Pittsburgh Pirates could not complete the sweep of the New York Yankees on Sunday, which also prevented them from topping last year’s win total.
Bailey Falter allowed four runs on three walks and four hits across three innings. Isaac Mattson followed him up and pitched two shutout innings, walking one and striking out three.
Joey Bart picked up two hits, a run, and RBI, while Joshua Palacios drove in two of his own. Nick Yorke went 0-2 but walked twice. Billy Cook hit his second double of the season.
The loss gives the Pirates a final record of 76-86, identical to what they finished with in 2023.
The playoff matchups for the American League are all set after Sunday’s games. The Yankees and Cleveland Guardians will get byes, with the former getting home-field throughout the AL side.
The Kansas City Royals will face the Baltimore Orioles in one wildcard matchup, with the Houston Astros and Detroit Tigers in the other.
The wildcard round will begin on Tuesday, with the timeslots yet to be determined.
On the National League side, the Mets and Braves have a doubleheader on Monday to decide the final two wildcard spots.
Whoever wins game one is automatically in the playoffs. If someone sweeps both games, the losing team is out, and the Arizona Diamondbacks are in. Both teams make the playoffs, and Arizona will be left out if they split on Monday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies earned byes into the divisional round. The Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres await how things break down on Monday to see who they play in the best-of-three wildcard rounds.
Game one on Monday between the Mets and Dodgers will start at 1:10 pm ET, with Spencer Schwellenbach the only listed pitcher between both teams.
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Top Exit Velocity
Billy Cook - 108.9 mph - Double
Joey Bart - 108.2 mph - Single
Bryan Reynolds - 104.2 mph - Groundout
Joshua Palacios - 102.6 mph - Double
Jared Triolo - 101.8 mph - Sacrifice Fly
Top Pitch Velocity
Colin Holderman - 97.1 mph
Carmen Mlodzinski - 96.7 mph
Carmen Mlodzinski - 96.5 mph
Colin Holderman - 96.4 mph
Carmen Mlodzinski - 96.3 mph
Most Whiffs
Isaac Mattson - 6
Colin Holderman - 5
Bailey Falter - 4
Carmen Mlodzinski - 2
Joey Wentz - 2
It's high tide for backseat driving into the off-season!!
Much thanks to you and the staff that made this season interesting and endurable. This team has needs which we hope senior management will recognize so that we can properly support the pitching that jumped 9 spots from 23rd overall in 2023 to 14th overall in 2024. We need at least one or two more professional hitters added to the starting lineup. We also need management to recognize the need to move beyond our present Manager of the last 5 years and beyond our Hitting Coach of the last 3 years.
We need to find professional batters who WANT to be playing for the "new" Pirates moving into 2025.