Saturday, May 10, 2014

This is more like it

If you are like me and still clinging to the vain hope that the Pirates did not play themselves out of the playoffs in April, then this is what you need to see.  The Pirates putting together a four game win streak, and 5 of 6.  More importantly the Brewers helped out by losing 3 in a row and 7 out of 10 before their win tonight against the Yankees.  This puts the Pirates 6.5 games back, which is do-able.

What is even more encouraging is that they are doing this when they are not at their best.  No longer do they appear to be unable to come up with the timely hit or fall a little short, now they are making the plays even if the game as a whole had been ugly.  Marte makes the dash for home and wins the game despite a low offensive output game.  The Pirates win tonight despite no McCutchen and a shaky game from Volquez on the mound.  And they were able to do it off a key Alvarez base hit.  Yup, Alvarez won a game with a base hit rather than a homer.

The rotation is starting to take shape.  Lirano is not going to be as dominate as last year and his hope of 20 wins is gone.  But, he does appear to be a guy that is going to pitch alright.  Gerrit Cole is looking great.  If he does not tire at the end of the season he is going to be the stopper on this staff.  Maybe Wandy gets back and does okay, but if not Crumpton looks good and Locke is still around too.  Volquez is going to struggle, but will have some good games mixed in.  The big question is Morton.  He looked good in his last start going 8, but overall he is not missing bats like he used to do.  He is a ground ball pitcher, but he needs some more strikeouts to be effective.  He is down basically an extra strikeout a game and is up walk.  His last couple of games have been especially low in strikeouts.  I think he had three in the 8 innings.  That is well below his normal.  If Morton can come around, the Pirates have a good chance to run down some teams and make a play for the Wild Card, but if Morton is unable to provide 3rd starter stuff, the Pirates are going to have to fight for .500.


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