5/20 Game Thread Friars@Bucs...

pghpaulatl · Post by **pghpaulatl** » Sun May 20, 2018 7:22 pm

Looks like Pirates heard me Meadows & Mercer homer and the score is tied.

SteadyFreddy · Post by **SteadyFreddy** » Sun May 20, 2018 7:22 pm

Meadows first big league homer and then Jordy follows next pitch and ties it. Huge huge two at bats to tie it at 4-4. The way Meadows has looked so far at the plate this weekend I would have no problem benching Polanco when Marte comes back and having Meadows play more. Polanco needs pushed and needs a kick in the ass at this point in his career. Enough is enough.

Bobster21 · Post by **Bobster21** » Sun May 20, 2018 7:25 pm

This is Polanco's 5th season and he's never improved his game. Although he's looked less frantic in the OF this season, he still has problems catching balls that others would catch. His hitting has never materialized. He remains a .230 to .250 hitter who's had one season with more than 11 HRs. And after a good start this year with 5 HRs in the first 2 weeks, he's now settled into a more usual pattern with just 3 HRs in his last 113 ABs during which timed he's batted .212. Just exactly when is the great young Polanco supposed to show up?

If Meadows is ready (and he's looked good so far-nice HR today!) then maybe it's time to make a decision on Polanco when Marte returns. How much longer does the team have to endure a poor fielding, poor hitting outfielder waiting for unfulfilled potential?

dogknot17@yahoo.co · Post by **dogknot17@yahoo.co** » Sun May 20, 2018 8:07 pm

Mercer' last sac bunt was 9/9/16. I guess he bats 8th a lot, but that seems odd to me.

Big hole at SS if he can get a ground ball.

IABucFan · Post by **IABucFan** » Sun May 20, 2018 8:15 pm

1B363B2A2D3C2B6B68590 wrote: This is Polanco's 5th season and he's never improved his game. Although he's looked less frantic in the OF this season, he still has problems catching balls that others would catch. His hitting has never materialized. He remains a .230 to .250 hitter who's had one season with more than 11 HRs. And after a good start this year with 5 HRs in the first 2 weeks, he's now settled into a more usual pattern with just 3 HRs in his last 113 ABs during which timed he's batted .212. Just exactly when is the great young Polanco supposed to show up?

If Meadows is ready (and he's looked good so far-nice HR today!) then maybe it's time to make a decision on Polanco when Marte returns. How much longer does the team have to endure a poor fielding, poor hitting outfielder waiting for unfulfilled potential?

Polanco's gotta be pressing. Personally, I'd still stick with Polanco until the All-Star break or so. Meadows will probably need to go back down for another month to secure Super 2 status anyway. But, if Polanco is still toiling around at .225 or whatever, then yeah, I give Meadows a look in RF. Polanco wouldn't be a terrible 4th outfielder. I still hold out hope that he can reach his potential, but I've got to believe the brass is running out of patience.

SteadyFreddy · Post by **SteadyFreddy** » Sun May 20, 2018 8:42 pm

Well disaster strikes in the 9th up 5-4 as Felipe can’t manage to get one out and gives up 4 runs. This will easily be the most dissspointing loss of the season by far battling back down 4-1 and then taking the lead 5-4 only to blow it in the 9th. Hopefully this series doesn’t start a downward spiral. The Padres are a pain in the you know what and I won’t be sad to see them leave town. Very frustrating weekend.

SteadyFreddy · Post by **SteadyFreddy** » Sun May 20, 2018 9:01 pm

The Pirates character and bounce back ability will definitely be tested after dropping this game today and the last 3 games of this series. Need to get 2 of 3 in Cincy now for sure before the Cards and Cubs come in here next weekend.

JollyRoger · Post by **JollyRoger** » Sun May 20, 2018 11:10 pm

I don’t know how to explain it; but the Padres simply own the Bucs at PNC. The Reds have been playing better lately. I hope they don’t continue the Bucs losing streak!

SteadyFreddy · Post by **SteadyFreddy** » Mon May 21, 2018 1:32 pm

Still really irritated about this weekend and the Pirates losing the last 3 games of this Padres series. You can’t let Golden opportunities like this go by if you’re the Pirates. Instead of ending the weekend potentially either 10 games over .500 had they taken 3 out of 4, or 8 games over .500 if they split the series the Pirates end up only 6 games over .500 at the end of the weekend which is a huge difference even this tight division where every game counts a ton. So need to bounce back and at least win this Reds series. You blew one good opportunity to win games against a bad team this weekend, you can’t afford to do it again these next 3 games against the Reds.

dmetz · Post by **dmetz** » Mon May 21, 2018 1:46 pm

They've done a very good job of beating up on bad baseball teams. They're not going to win every series against scrub teams.

They've got to win against the good teams coming up. They've played a lot of scrubs so far and caught some good teams playing bad ball.

Cards, cubs, Cards, dodgers, Cubs, D-backs

The time is almost here