The Pirates haven’t lost a game that conclusively in about three weeks.
While watching the 7-2 loss to the Nationals on Sunday, I had plenty of time to think about how rare these types of games have been this year.
The Pirates lost 7-0 to Houston on April 12th, although a lot of those runs were scored late. They haven’t had a loss like today’s since April 10th, when Houston went up 7-2 after four innings, before adding one more run in their win.
Today, Washington put up seven runs against Johan Oviedo on nine hits in 2.1 innings. Oviedo allowed multiple hits and runs in each of the three innings he pitched, and was pulled for Dauri Moreta in the third.
Credit to the bullpen today. After getting a bit of a break yesterday, they backed up Oviedo with 5.2 shutout innings today.
Moreta pitched 1.2, and he was followed by Rule 5 lefty Jose Hernandez, who threw two shutout innings, lowering his season ERA to 0.77. Yohan Ramirez and Duane Underwood Jr. both added shutout innings.
The offense couldn’t get going today, after scoring 22 runs in two games yesterday. The Pirates had six hits today, in a game that was delayed for two hours and 26 minutes by rain. Bryan Reynolds and Tucupita Marcano had two hits each, while having the lone RBIs.
The Pirates are now 20-9 on the season, still a game and a half ahead of the Brewers in first place in the NL Central.
I’ll be covering the next three games against the Rays from St. Pete. What a treat it will be to get an early preview of the 2023 World Series.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Pirates lead all of baseball in non-fastballs thrown.
Nationals were sitting on sliders yesterday. At that point, I think you throw that 98 and make them a little more honest. But, when you can’t locate, it probably doesn’t matter.
Oviedo lacked command. He couldn’t locate the ball on the four corners, or edges of the strike zone. He was pitching from behind, threw too many pitches, and was forced to ‘challenge’ hitters by throwing to the heart of the strike zone. Consequently, he got hammered. It happens. Next thing he needs to learn is how to pitch when he doesn’t have his best stuff, i.e., limit the damage and keep your team in the game.
Oviedo was terrible. Seemed like he was throwing his slider too much and they were sitting on it, and not swinging at anything outside the zone.
Lost in all the excitement over how well the team is playing is that Jose Hernandez is looking like he might be one hell of a rule 5 pickup. No way Cherington is letting him go back to the Dodgers now. I know this isn’t how the process works and it’s not an either/or situation anyway but if the end result of the rule 5 draft is losing Sabol and gaining Hernandez I’d take that tradeoff 1000 times out of 1000.
Where would Sabol play in Pittsburgh?
OF – No.
DH – No.
C – No.
I hope he does well, but there just wasn’t enough room for him here.
I almost created a gambling account to put money on the Pirates for the World Series… odds gotta still be good, no?
If you don’t gamble much but want to make that bet just go to the casino and do it. Don’t make an account that you have access to 24/7 on your phone, it’s a slippery slope.
Also if you’re gonna make a bet for them to win the WS you should probably put a small wager on them to win the Central and to win the National League. That way if they do win it all you win at least two maybe all three, if they make the WS but don’t win it all you win at least one maybe 2 and if they win the division but don’t make it to the WS you still win one. Only ways you lose all three is if they don’t make the playoffs or if they are a wild card and don’t reach the WS.
Oh lawd , this is genius all the way around.
This discussion was unheard of around here two months ago.
Lord willing, I’ll wake up tomorrow, May 1st, and the Pirates will be in 1st place with the best record in the NL, a full 10 games ahead of the last place Cardinals! And as a bonus, the Yankees will be in last place 8 games behind the Rays.
I wonder how many of the Pirates vs Rays games will be televised nationally?
I’ll put the over/under at 0.5. Whereas, if the Cardinals were playing the Yankees and they were the two best teams instead of two last place teams, ESPN & MLB Network would be tripping over themselves to televise those games.
ESPN is all about the $
Cardinals vs Yankees has way more TV viewers than Pitt vs TB
M.O.B
At your age, I’m just hoping you wake up!
Keep waking up and you’ll get here, too.
Check the obits for your name, too?
Love your optimism. Would love to see them win two out of three! Happy with the pitching matchups.