PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – What a missed opportunity. The Pirates had Pittsburgh sports fans in their grasp. Big crowds for the weekend series and an opportunity with a good homestand to climb in the Wild Card race. Instead they stumbled.
Not only did the Pirates lose games, but four times in a six-game series they lost seventh inning leads. In four of the five losses they gave up at least a run in the ninth inning. That’s nearly impossible, especially when you go into the year thinking your bullpen will be a strength and then add Aroldis Chapman, who has really round into form.
“We know we gotta win those games,” said first-year Pirates catcher Joey Bart. “When it comes down to it, those one-run games are huge (Pirates are 19-22 in one-run games). There's a lot of one-run games won every year by good clubs. We've won one-run games but lately we haven't.”
“I mean we got to execute,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “I mean, for these last three or four or five games, it's executing pitches at the end of the game. That is what we have not done. Offensively we've done a good job, and we've put ourselves in a position to win games. We battle back and we're down 4-0 (Thursday) and continue to battle back. Joey hits the big home run.”
“We have good at-bats. We have good at-bats with two strikes. We got to execute pitches late in the game, and we're not doing that right now."
Now the Pirates go to Los Angeles with LA 17 games over .500 and 35-22 at home. Then, with no off day, it’s straight to San Diego to face the team that just swept them. Pirates will return home to face a Mariners team battling for an American League Wild Card spot.
This was going to be the time the Pirates solidified a playoff spot, continued the momentum that baseball in Pittsburgh doesn’t end when the Steelers report to camp. Now they’ve got six teams between themselves and the top Wild Card slot with the Cubs and Reds right on their tail.
“We're in a situation where we've got to keep grinding,” Shelton said. “It doesn't get any easier. We're going out west and we play the Dodgers and we play these guys again. We're doing a good job of continuing to battle back. I mean again, we have the winning run or the tying run on base again (Thursday). The fact that we've had leads in four of those games on this homestand in the seventh or later, yeah, it's extremely frustrating.”
“Not to beat a dead horse, but we've got to figure out a way to finish them because we have the lead and we have to be able to execute to finish games out. We're playing good teams that are executing right now."
“Just flush it,” said closer David Bednar. “I can’t do anything about it now. It sucks, but it is what it is and I’ve just got to move on.”
“We'll be better,” said catcher Joey Bart. “We'll find ways to win. We'll get something going at some point and we just gotta have faith we'll find a way through it.”
Pirates do start Mitch Keller, Paul Skenes and Bailey Falter the next three games. It’s been said they would be tough to face in a playoff series, let’s see this weekend. It starts on the Fan with the North Shore Tavern Leadoff Show at 9p.