PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – As the Cubs went 28 games over .500 lifetime at PNC Park, the 11-0 Pirates loss not only was the third in a row, but a kick in the teeth as every homestand gets bigger, especially against potential playoff teams.
Chicago got five of those runs Saturday night off ace Paul Skenes after the Bucs wasted another great start from Jared Jones on Friday in a 10-inning loss.
Skenes was dominant through four and a third striking out nine, but allowed four straight hits to give up three runs and then another two runs as Isaac Mattson allowed both of Skenes inherited runners and three more of his own to score in the sixth inning.
Most of the month of July has been discussed as an important stretch for weeks given the opponents. The Pirates did respond winning two of three in Washington, sweeping the Brewers, two of three in Cleveland, but now losses in four of five games with the trade deadline approaching.
After overcoming them initially, injuries and a couple of hitting draughts, have hampered the offense scoring TWO runs in the last three games. Brandon Lowe didn’t start on Saturday, but has driven in one run since July 7. Ryan O’Hearn has three RBIs during the same period. Bryan Reynolds has only one hit in his last six games.
The good news is it appears 1B Spencer Horwitz and C Endy Rodriguez are close to returning and Oneil Cruz is expected back in a few weeks, although that date is moved back from the original diagnosis. The trade deadline could provide a boost and this season, just when it appeared all is going south for the Pirates, they’ve responded.
“I think the team has been very resilient,” said Pirates manager Don Kelly pregame Saturday. “We’ve dealt with injuries as all teams do, especially offensively and losing Sisk, continued to compete at a high level. We need keep doing that, every single day, regardless of what happened the day before.”
It’s been three straight bad ‘day before’ performances.
Skenes believes even with the stakes being raised this time of year, his team will respond again.
“I think we do a really good job of blocking out the noise,” Skenes said postgame Saturday. “I’ll ask guys where we’re at (in the standings). Nobody really knows a lot of the time where we’re at in the standings or stuff like that. I think a lot of guys just don’t pay attention to it.”
“That’s kind of indicative if we play our game, play the way we should, we’re a playoff team. We’re going to be right where we should come October. It doesn’t really matter what anyone else does.”
Will this team pick itself up again?
Losing 3 straight including 11-0 to Cubs, reaction to 3-game losing streak
Losing 3 straight including 11-0 to Cubs, reaction to 3-game losing streak
