Official Game Thread - 8/4 - Bucs vs Dbacks

[Bobster]

Holderman since June 23.
IP: 14.1
H: 21
ER: 12
BB: 9
HR: 5
ERA: 7.54
WHIP: 2.094
W-L: 0-3
BS: 3

[Surgnbuck]

Three gut punch losses in the last 4 games. Two of them coming after early 4-0 leads, the other after coming all the way back to take the lead after falling behind early 5-0.

The first one, against the Astros, Holderman takes the loss.
The next one, against the Dbacks Friday night, Holderman takes the loss.
Today, Holderman takes the loss.

What I don't understand is why Holderman is pitching to Joc Pederson. Every time I think Shelty is done massaging egos in the bullpen, he goes right back to managing via "vote of confidence." Beeks has to come in there, it's useless to bring him in after the fact.

Oneil Cruz has to get that run home from third.

[Surgnbuck]

BTW, if we tie the game, we had the chance of possibly seeing a pitcher bat again, because Bart would have had to go to catch, and the Bucs lose the DH.

[icantwatch2]

This is the perfect example of the difference between winners and losers.
A) holderman clearly doesn’t have it. Winners yank. Losers play it out.
B) winners get the bunt down. Losers pop it up
C) winners hit a fly ball. Loses strike out

Face it gents, these guys are losers.

[Surgnbuck]

Pirates now are on the wrong side of tiebreakers with Arizona, San Francisco, Mets, Cardinals, Braves.

Crusher seeing IKF not get the bunt down. But Reynolds picks him up, only for Cruz to whiff, and De la Cruz to pop out

[Surgnbuck]

Chuck from Uniontown pointed out something weeks ago. He mentioned you can go over everything you want about the players, the manager, the coaches. But unless you start winning at home, you're not going anywhere.

Bucs are 27-28 at home after today's loss.

[Wildwoodcoach]

I really don't know what has happened to Holderman. He was lights
out earlier in the season.
Assuming the bucs don't make the playoffs, I would look back to
today's game as the back breaker. Yes we can blame Holderman etc, but after the 2nd inning,
the bucs didn't score until the 9th.
a playoff team doesn't play below .500 at home

[Bobster]

I think Holderman may have simply been overrated. His minor league numbers were not great. Most of his time there was in A-ball where he pitched 90.2 innings over 3 seasons. He never pitched more than 21 innings at any other level. He was a 26-year-old rookie in 2022 when he finally made it to AAA after being signed at age 20 and was recalled by the Mets after just 11 games at Syracuse. Traded to the Bucs in July, they sent him to Indy but recalled him after 3 games there. He made a great first impression with the Pirates, giving up no runs in his first 5 appearances. But then he was scored upon in 3 of his remaining 4 games that year, with an ERA of 21.60 over those last 4 games.

He had a very inconsistent 2023 with stretches of both effectiveness and ineffectiveness. His 2023 ERA of 3.86 was fairly mediocre. This year he's been awful. We keep waiting for him to get himself together but the fact is that after his first 5 games as a Pirate in 2022, he hasn't been special. He's been capable of occasionally stringing a few scoreless appearances together but too often has poor outings. I don't think he's going to flip a switch and become a reliable late inning reliever.

[PooperScooper !]

What the heck ? When I left,the Pirates were up 4-2 and Cruzin. Cooked some burgers at Moms , she is about yawls age.

And you guys can`t hold the lead for me And then I had to watch home remodel show that she always watches.

Time to infuse more young hitting talent.

[Wildwoodcoach]

Shelton is being ripped by the news media for his decisions in yesterdays
loss to Arizona. Some of those have already been mentioned here. The one not
mentioned was with runners on 1st and third and one out in the 7th, why didn't
Reynolds steal 2nd? Arizona wouldn't have thrown down to second. Then Cruz hits into
a inning ending DP.