Starting Tuesday night against Colorado and finishing up on Jine 6th with the Braves at home. This upcoming schedule consist of 3 at home with the Rockies, 3 at home with the Dodgers, 4 games in 3 days in Cincinnati playing a doubleheader on Memorial Day. 4 games at home with the Brewers, and finish it up with 3 at home with the Braves.
The Pirates keep in mind have about somewhere between 4-6 games in hand on teams like the Brewers, Braves and Cardinals. So if they can go either 10-7 or even 9-8 in this stretch of 13 of 17 at home that would put them at either 34-27 or 33-28 with about 100 games left in the season which would definitely as well still keep them in both division title contention and most certainly in wildcard contention and they probably will be leading the wildcard positioning.
So it’s gonna be another huge next 2 weeks at home at PNC Park to see if this Pirates team can continue to overcome these injuries and still win games and stay right in the thick of all these races.
13 of the next 17 games are at PNC Park...
Moderators: SammyKhalifa, Doc, Bobster
13 of the next 17 games are at PNC Park...
I feel about this home stand as TinTin did about the last road trip. Things seem to go just the opposite of the way they "should."
13 of the next 17 games are at PNC Park...
Gotta love the Pirates' record from the road trip.
With respect to the upcoming 17 games, the Bucs will be facing a lot of decent/good teams. Uncertain how they will do with only 2 starters who are pitching well. Also surprising that the 2 who are pitching well are the 2 that most (including me) would have e labeled our 4th and 5th starters at the beginning of the season.
As always, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.
With respect to the upcoming 17 games, the Bucs will be facing a lot of decent/good teams. Uncertain how they will do with only 2 starters who are pitching well. Also surprising that the 2 who are pitching well are the 2 that most (including me) would have e labeled our 4th and 5th starters at the beginning of the season.
As always, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.
13 of the next 17 games are at PNC Park...
Also --- who on this Board, actually anywhere, would have predicted that on May 20 the Pirate pitching staff would include the following:
Clay Holmes
Michael Feliz
Chris Stratton
Geoff Hartleib
Montana DuRapau
That Nick Kingham and Stephen Brault are on the team with injuries to 2 of the starters, but neither of the above are now viewed as good enough to be substitute starters.
And that Liriano would be such a force in the pen, and that Lyles has consistently been the team's best starter.
I know that many of the above pitchers have not been with the team all that long. That said, at the beginning of the season, the above lot would have led me to believe that the Bucs would have had a record more like the Marlins than being 4 games over .500.
Clay Holmes
Michael Feliz
Chris Stratton
Geoff Hartleib
Montana DuRapau
That Nick Kingham and Stephen Brault are on the team with injuries to 2 of the starters, but neither of the above are now viewed as good enough to be substitute starters.
And that Liriano would be such a force in the pen, and that Lyles has consistently been the team's best starter.
I know that many of the above pitchers have not been with the team all that long. That said, at the beginning of the season, the above lot would have led me to believe that the Bucs would have had a record more like the Marlins than being 4 games over .500.
-
UtahPirate
- Posts: 582
- Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2016 10:36 pm
13 of the next 17 games are at PNC Park...
Just a note that we haven't seen Stratton since the 15th in that blowout in Arizona. He stuck out 7 in 4 innings, but also gave up some long hits -- a HR and an inside-the-park HR, as well as a couple of doubles as I recall.
I bring that up because I don't think we've announced a starter for Wednesday and I'm wondering if Uncle Ray is trying to work his magic and we'll see Stratton as the starter. I was pretty sure we would see him the other night in that Opener game. With the 7 K's in AZ, he obviously has some swing-and-miss stuff. But he was also giving up solid hits. Hopefully there is something that the Bucs can tweak to help him be more effective. We could sure use another starter right now and I'm still unsure that Keller is ready.
I bring that up because I don't think we've announced a starter for Wednesday and I'm wondering if Uncle Ray is trying to work his magic and we'll see Stratton as the starter. I was pretty sure we would see him the other night in that Opener game. With the 7 K's in AZ, he obviously has some swing-and-miss stuff. But he was also giving up solid hits. Hopefully there is something that the Bucs can tweak to help him be more effective. We could sure use another starter right now and I'm still unsure that Keller is ready.
-
OrlandoMerced
13 of the next 17 games are at PNC Park...
They have seemed on the brink of collapse ever since the 8 game losing streak started. The offense has has stabilized with Polanco's return and Kang's exile. Dickerson could provide a boost and Frazier will either get better or face competition for playing time.
They have patched some massive holes in the bullpen, but the rotation is bad, and the more starts that Brault and Kingham get, the more strain on teh bullpen arms, and the more likely Liriano or Crick get burned out, and then they have no late inning guys beyond Vazquez.
They have patched some massive holes in the bullpen, but the rotation is bad, and the more starts that Brault and Kingham get, the more strain on teh bullpen arms, and the more likely Liriano or Crick get burned out, and then they have no late inning guys beyond Vazquez.
-
rucker59@gmail.com
13 of the next 17 games are at PNC Park...
The fact this team is hanging in with the rest of the division despite the absolute disintegration of both the rotation and the pen is not just amazing, it demonstrates this team can be very very good if they ever get healthy. The Pirates have a lot of potential upside; no one in the division should take this team for granted.
-
Bobster21
13 of the next 17 games are at PNC Park...
Much of the Pirates' resilience is due to Bell. It's been a very long time since they had a power hitter who was consistent enough to be a factor from 1 game to the next. Alvarez had power but his chronically low BAs were proof that his contributions were too infrequent to make enough of a difference. Bell is currently leading the NL in RBIs and is 3rd in HRs. And his .333 BA shows what a consistent contributor he is.
The Pirates have only 42 HRs this year. That's 14th in the 15-team NL. His 14 HRs represent a third of that total. Bell enables them to score 1 or more runs on 1 swing instead of the 3+ hits per inning it would otherwise take to score 1 or more runs. In 5 wins in which he homered, his RBIs were the difference in the game. That's the difference between their 24-20 record and a possible 19-25.
The pitching is at times very good and at other times nowhere near what we thought it would be. Injuries have been devastating. Cabrera and Reynolds have done very well. But the team is near the bottom of the NL in runs, hits, RBIs, 2Bs, BBs, OBP and SLG. But because of Bell, they are winning some close games they would otherwise be losing. It doesn't bode well for future success when so much is dependent on one player. And maybe others will step up and others will return from injuries to be productive. But Bell is keeping then above water right now. The longer he has to carry the burden alone, the less chance there is that they will continue to win more than they lose.
The Pirates have only 42 HRs this year. That's 14th in the 15-team NL. His 14 HRs represent a third of that total. Bell enables them to score 1 or more runs on 1 swing instead of the 3+ hits per inning it would otherwise take to score 1 or more runs. In 5 wins in which he homered, his RBIs were the difference in the game. That's the difference between their 24-20 record and a possible 19-25.
The pitching is at times very good and at other times nowhere near what we thought it would be. Injuries have been devastating. Cabrera and Reynolds have done very well. But the team is near the bottom of the NL in runs, hits, RBIs, 2Bs, BBs, OBP and SLG. But because of Bell, they are winning some close games they would otherwise be losing. It doesn't bode well for future success when so much is dependent on one player. And maybe others will step up and others will return from injuries to be productive. But Bell is keeping then above water right now. The longer he has to carry the burden alone, the less chance there is that they will continue to win more than they lose.
-
SteadyFreddy
13 of the next 17 games are at PNC Park...
Well so far the Pirates are 4-10 in this stretch of 13 out of 17 games at home and what’s even worse is they are 2-8 at PNC Park during that stretch. They have gone from 4 games over .500 to 2 games under .500 in a 12-13 day span. Starting this Friday June 7th until Monday July 1st the Pirates will play 16 of their next 21 games on the road with 13 of those 16 road games consisting of 6 games at the Brewers in Milwaukee, 4 games at the Braves in Atlanta and 3 games at Houston against the Astros. So needless to say if things don’t improve and don’t improve rather quickly this season as far as playing meaningful games are concerned could be over before we reach the month of July.