Morning Rundown: Pirates turn tables, score 13 on the Cubs in win
Pirates wins for just second time in 12 games against the Cubs.
The Pirates are 10 games under .500, and the next loss they have will clinch yet another losing season for the franchise.
It’s been an incredibly frustrating season at times, facing the Cubs maybe the greatest. Even with the win on Wednesday, they’ve won just twice in the 12 games they’ve played against Chicago this year.
Oddly enough, their track record against potential NL Cy Young candidates has been, good?
They chased Justin Steele in the fourth inning last night, Spencer Strider in the third and Zac Gallen in the fourth frame in their respective games.
Mitch Keller even out dueled Blake Snell in a game earlier this year, although the latter did strike out 10 then, and eventually got revenge later in the season.
It’s been an odd season.
Bullpen Closes Strong
After Keller gave up seven runs in 5.2 innings, the bullpen shut the door the rest of the way, and didn’t have to turn to David Bednar either.
The way this bullpen has come together has been something resembling glue and duct tape at times, but it has worked. The four relievers that combined to finish out the game - Ryan Borucki (minor league free agent), Carmen Mlodzinski (Cherington draft pick), Colin Holderman (trade), and Hunter Stratton (Huntington draft pick) were all acquired in a different way.
Ke’Bryan Hayes, Doubles Machine
Hayes picked up his 27th double of the season, and out of curiosity I took a look at the major league leaderboards to see where he ranked, and some of the names he’s tied with, is really encouraging.
Adolis Garcia, Cody Bellinger, Corbin Carroll, Bryce Harper, Michael Harris, Austin Riley, Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, and Ozzie Albies, among others, are all notable names with 27 doubles this year.
Of that specific group, only Harper has few at-bats this year than Hayes.
Indianapolis Indians - 14 vs Rochester Red Wings - 11
Top Hitter - Canaan Smith- Njigba: 3-5, R, 3 RBI, HR (15)
Top Pitcher - Aaron Shortridge: 5 IP, H, ER, 4 BB, 3 K
It seems crazy with as bad as this season went (after the 20-8 start) that there are only 11 days left in the season and the Pirates can't be mathematically eliminated from the wild card today. If they pulled out an extra win here or there every 40 days, we would still have a glimmer of hope for the playoffs. That probably speaks poorly on the idea of having 12 playoff teams each year when a team with a 71-81 record still has a mathematical shot at the playoffs
Fangraphs has an article up about playing the kids. Inside the article is a graph showing rookie contributions by team.
Pirates have given the 4th most plate appearances to rookies, but the 3rd worst fWAR @ -0.9. Pitching for the rookies has been a little better than the hitters @ 2.6 fWAR which is 8th best in the league.
I think there's a narrative going around that the rookies are the reason the Pirates have played well in the second half. They're not the reason. It's due to guys like Hayes, Reynolds, Suwinski, Joe, Keller, Oviedo, Bednar and the bullpen in general.