Monday, September 18, 2017

Pirates September Sleepwalk Continues 3-0

Maybe you've read the script before: strand guys early, give up a homer to break up a scoreless tie, TOOTBLAN on the bases, leave a play in the field and let a pitcher (Brent Suter) who hasn't gotten past three innings this month go five frames...hey, welcome to the September Pittsburgh Pirates. It went like so:

Leave a couple on in the first, leave a couple on in the third. Watch Jamo's first mistake of the night leave the yard as Ryan Braun homers in the fourth. Neil Walker singles in an insurance run in the sixth, chasing JT, but the gate is shut by AJ Schugel. Edgar Santana pitches a nice seventh; Eli was thrown out trying to stretch a one-out double by a base; can't blame Joey Cora, either, as Diaz never bothered looking for his aid. George Kontos gave up a run in the eighth; after two ground ball singles, he got a DP bouncer hit to Jordy. He lifted his glove, the ball scooted under it and instead of the inning ending, another run crossed. To add a little salt to the wound, it was ruled a hit. Johnny Barbato left a Brewer at third; Gregory got tossed out trying to stretch a two-out single, with the score 3-0 in the ninth, into a double.

Cutch was worth the price of admission tonight (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

This would strike us as a good time to install a little discipline, like maybe sitting down guys who go off on suicide runs around the bases or commit other equally little-league infractions. Maybe let the kids play to pump a little energy into the unit; they miss the J-Hay/Cervy vibes and surely Max Moroff couldn't do much worse than S-Rod (who, btw, we think is a fine pickup, but another guy who is maybe pushing their body a little faster than need be.) Most of all, give the team a little direction instead of divvying up playing time by grab bag.

Notes:
  • Cutch had three hits; no one else reached base more than once tonight.
  • Pittsburgh is 68-83. They've lost 11-of-12 and scored 15 runs in the losses.
  • The steady losing is showing up in the Bucco pocketbook: The team averaged almost 31,000 tickets sold per game in 2015 but are down to the 24,000 range this yer, per KDKA-TV. And that's just tickets sold, not actual attendance with its peripheral financial spinoffs. Today's attendance was 16,283.

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