OnlyBucs

1.  Great work all around in this series.  Clutch hits, good base running, good defense for the most part, timely hitting.  Outstanding work from the bullpen.  Basically, the utter antithesis of our season thus far.



2.  Didn't get to watch yesterday's game live, but I saw highlights.  That was the Cole we rode in 2015.  If that Cole shows up each time he takes the hill, you can all but pencil those games in as wins, I don't care who we're playing.  Absolute shutdown...probably would have given up zero runs without Cervelli's throwing error.



3.  Speaking of Cervelli, great series from him.  I still think Diaz is our best catcher, but Cervellis played great, I thought.



4.  Wonderful to see our young guys performing, whether it's Taillon, Kuhl, Bell, Frazier, Moroff, or Williams.



5.  I'm amazed by the resiliency of this team.  We came from behind in all six wins.  Three walk-offs, two when trailing entering the ninth inning.  That's crazy.



6.  I'm going to temper my enthusiasm just a bit.  I still see plenty of cause for concern.  Notably, baseball is a streaky game.  The Brewers were 8-1 in their last nine before dropping five in a row.  After all that, we're STILL three games out due to the hole we dug for ourselves.  If it's true that you're never as good as your best, and never as bad as your worst, this is probably a .500 team, right where a lot of us predicted.  And, what I said above...six come from behind wins, three walk-offs, two when trailing entering the ninth.  That's not sustainable.



7.  How is it that the Brewers have played four more games than the Cubs?  They must have had some rainouts or something.  Total games played:

Brewers-98

Pirates-96

Cards-95

Reds-95

Cubs-94



8.  Felipe freaking Rivero...man is this guy good or what?  If there's a better reliever in baseball, I'd be shocked, and yes, that includes Chapman, Betances, Jansen, Miller, Britton, the whole lot of them.  Having him back there means it's an eight inning game.  All you need to see are opposing batters walking back and just shaking their heads.  I think most guys probably go up there just hoping to make contact.



9.  Baseball is fun again.



10.  Upcoming schedules:



Brewers: 3 at Phils, 3 at Gnats, 3 vs. Cubs, 3 vs. Cards

Cubs: 3 vs. Cards, 4 vs/at White Sox, 3 at Brewers, 3 vs. D-Backs

Cards: 3 at Cubs, 3 vs. Rockies, 4 vs. D-Backs, 3 at Brewers

Pirates: 3 at Rockies, 3 at Giants, 3 at Padres, 3 vs. Reds



Schedule lines up rather favorably for us over the next two weeks.  Normally, I hate looking ahead at the schedule, but you can't help but do it here.  Teams in front of us play each other a lot over that time.  If we take care of business, we're going to gain on SOMEONE.

This is a critical weekend. Brewers play the hapless Phils so you gotta believe they are going to get 2 wins for sure, probably 3.



Pirates absolutely cannot afford to get swept if the Brewers are winning 2 or 3 games. Colorado is good, and good at home. Honestly if the Pirates can get 1 of 3, and the Brewers just 2 of 3, and the Pirates leave Denver 4 games out, I would be happy and I'd sign up for that right now.



Then they can get to SF and SD and hopefully make up some ground.

The biggest red flag for me is runs scored per game. We are 25th out of 30 right now for the season. That HAS to improve if we are to be legit contenders.

3F3A3D3B3339203D3427212C550 wrote: The biggest red flag for me is runs scored per game.  We are 25th out of 30 right now for the season.  That HAS to improve if we are to be legit contenders.


I noticed this on bb-ref though, per month

Run Differential

April RS90/RA 100 (RD -20)

May 122/140 (-18)

June 129/126 (+3)

July 61/45 (+16)



So either it is turning around, or we haven't played enough July yet for it to go down to around 0.  Just one or two blowout losses would do it.

The Pitching has been that great. Even with the Pirates 14 runs against the Cubs, they are ranked that low.



It is time for McCutchen, Marte, Polanco, and Bell to start carrying the offense. Hopefully, Marte brings that spark.

6F646C6065647F3A3C4B726A6364642568640B0 wrote: The Pitching has been that great.  Even with the Pirates 14 runs against the Cubs, they are ranked that low. 



It is time for McCutchen, Marte, Polanco, and Bell to start carrying the offense.  Hopefully, Marte brings that spark.




I agree with Pitching. In 13-15 it felt like if our starting pitchers got in trouble, they might give up a run, but did a great job of wriggling off the hook. It also felt like our relievers (Hughes a lot of the time), stranded guys.

Needless to say that this didn't happen as much in 2016 and the first half of 2017.

It does seem that over this streak, the guys are doing a good job of not giving up the big inning (exception being the Shaw HR) and stranding guys (especially guys in scoring position with less than two outs).



My only complaint, is that with the exception of the ninth inning or later, we don't seem to be hitting well with runners on base. We scored 24 runs during this series. 7 were scored in the ninth or later.

That's because the Brewers choked away the series. This series was probably worse for them than it was good for us.

797172455376515E300 wrote:



......



9.  Baseball is fun again.



10.  Upcoming schedules:



Brewers: 3 at Phils, 3 at Gnats, 3 vs. Cubs, 3 vs. Cards

Cubs: 3 vs. Cards, 4 vs/at White Sox, 3 at Brewers, 3 vs. D-Backs

Cards: 3 at Cubs, 3 vs. Rockies, 4 vs. D-Backs, 3 at Brewers

Pirates: 3 at Rockies, 3 at Giants, 3 at Padres, 3 vs. Reds



Schedule lines up rather favorably for us over the next two weeks.  Normally, I hate looking ahead at the schedule, but you can't help but do it here.  Teams in front of us play each other a lot over that time.  If we take care of business, we're going to gain on SOMEONE.


Fun again. Yep. A big reason is the Pirates haven't resembled the Three Stooges for a good while. But I also decided to make the 7 game home stand have meaning: this was the last chance for the Pirates to get into the race. If was fun to watch meaningful baseball.



The schedule - theBrewers loss today to the Phillies could be a sign that they are getting ready to drop out of the race. Their schedule is brutal after this weekend. The schedule absolutely favors the Pirates. Two weeks from now I think the Pirates will be leading the division by 2 games, over the Cubs.