A Week in Pirates Baseball
Well, that was something. Coming off a 6-game winning streak that had some of us foolishly optimistic that this team might have turned a corner, the would go on to remind us exactly who we thought they were with a 1-8 road trip that ended mercifully on Sunday with a win against the Twins.
Let’s break down this week of pain, shall we?
Road Trip From Hell
The Pirates came into the week having already dropped 2 games to the Mariners. They’d go on to complete the sweep and lose the series finale on Sunday, get swept again by the Royals, and drop the first 2 to the Twins before finally eking out a win on Sunday.
The most frustrating part? The pitching was solid once again. Take away Monday’s 9-3 loss to the Royals and Saturday’s 12-4 beatdown by the Twins, and you’ve got a pitching staff that kept the team in each game. Burrows and Heaney combined to give up 9 runs in those two bad ones. The starting pitchers overall surrendered 18 runs, with half of those coming in just those two starts.
The problem remaines the same as it has been all season, all last season, and for most of Ben Cherington’s tenure: a lack of offense.
The Offense By The Numbers
Here are the offensive numbers from this past week:
- 16 runs scored in 9 games
- .201 batting average
- 5 home runs
- .249 OBP
- .299 SLG
- .548 OPS
But wait, there’s more! Of the 47 hits they managed, 34 were singles. As always, it’s going to be tough to score runs and win baseball games if you can’t get beyond first base.
Speaking of scoring runs, here are their numbers with runners in scoring position:
0/3, 2/4, 0/6, 2/9, 1/8, 2/12, 1/8
That’s 8 for 50 with RISP over the 9 games.
2025 Draft: Day 1
On Sunday, the Pirates made their day 1 draft picks. They went with high school pitchers Seth Hernandez and Angel Cervantes, along with college position players Murf Gray and Easton Carmichael.
I won’t act like I know much about any of these players, but from what I’ve read about them since being drafted, these are good picks by the Pirates. Hard to argue them taking the two of the highest upside pitchers in the draft, especially with they way they’ve been able to develop pitchers. And then they followed it up with a couple of decent college position players.
All-Star Week
Oneil Cruz will participate in the Home Run Derby, and Paul Skenes will start the All-Star Game for the National League for the second year in a row.
Cruz participating in the derby is cool. I am looking forward to seeing him launch home runs in Atlanta. And Skenes starting the All-Star Game again just reinforces how good he is and how much this organization needs to capitalize on it.
Looking Ahead
This is a much needed break for the team. And I’m looking forward to the break as well. Hopefully some time off will help them figure a few things out, though I’m not holding my breath. The Pirates did manage to end the losing streak with that win over the Twins before the break, and it would be nice to see them build on that. Either way, we’ll all be back here next week wondering why we do this to ourselves.