The Pirates Bane and hope

Another series on the road and another sweep out of town. These past few games are exactly what is wrong about the Pirates and good example of why they could be very good next year.

Take for example, last night. Zack Duke pitches 7.1 innings of 2 run baseball. He gave the lead (3 to 2) to the bullpen, but they blew the save. In fact they blew two saves last night which takes some skill. Today Kevin Hart pitches six innings of two run ball, and leaves the game down 2 to 1. The bullpen gives up one more run and the Pirates lose 3 to 1. The game before that was by a call up, Daniel McCutchen. That was a 6 to 2 loss. Before that was Paul Malhom’s master piece where he blanked the Astros and Capps gave up a run, but still got the save for a 2 to 1 win. Ross Ohlendorf pitches okay, but under his usual in the Pirates 4 to 2 loss to the Astros. Ohlendorf has had a 2.74 ERA since the All Star break when they made a change in his windup. The night before that Charlie Morton actually got a quality start by giving up three run in six innings, but the Pirates lost that one too.

The point is the pitching, starting pitching has been solid. Morton is weak, but even his last outing was not awful. Daniel McCutchen is just starting. But, Malholm, Duke, and Ohlendorf have the ability to constantly keep you in a game and put up a lot of quality starts. Kevin Hart has the potential to join that group. That makes it all the more frustrating that the Pirates cannot score runs and the bullpen is garbage. Right now there is no real threat in the Pirates line up. Doumit is having an awful and injury plagued year. Andrew McCutchen is not a power threat and cannot do it by himself. Garret Jones is a power threat, but is not good enough with people on base.

But there in lies the hope for next season. McCutchen will get a little more power in his next few seasons. Jones hopefully will get better with people on base. Doumit cannot possibly be this bad again. Add in Pedro Alvarez who ought to be a legitimate power threat and good hitter to the line up and things start to change. If Clement is a wash, the Pirates can still be good by moving Jones to First Base and opening the outfield spot to someone like Tabata. If Clement is good then Tabata can spend some more time in Triple A while Jones plays the outfield. The starting pitching is there, and the hitting is on its way. The bullpen is what needs drastic attention.