Pittsburgh Pirates Notebook: Fans and their Negativity
By Matt Shetler
If the playoffs started today.
Yeah those famous words don’t mean much, but if the playoffs started today, the Pittsburgh Pirates would be in the postseason as a wild card team.
But you wouldn’t know that by listening to the negativity of most Pittsburgh Pirates fans. It’s funny to me how some fans (and you all know who you are) feel the need to jump ship after a three game losing streak, something that hasn’t happened to this team since early June.
All the negativity and the abandonment after three games?
Judging by that reasoning, no team in baseball is playoff worthy. Certainly not the Yankees or Rangers, who have had bad three game stretches at one point on another this season. Definitely the first-place Cincinnati Reds aren’t playoff worthy, they just lost four in a row.
However, some Pirates fans think a three-game losing streak is the end of the world here in Pittsburgh.
While losing a pair of games to the San Diego Padres certainly wasn’t in the game plan this homestand, its baseball and things like that happen.
Had I told you before the season that the Pirates would be 14 games over .500 on August 13 and be in the thick of the National League playoff chase, I’m 100 percent certain that everyone would have been happy with that before the season. But now that’s where the Bucs are. How come no one is happy with that?
They always say the baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint, so treat it that way the rest of the season.
There are still 58 games left in this season for the Pirates to decide their fate. Never in the history of baseball have there been a must-win game early in August and the San Diego series in no exception. Had the Bucs dropped a pair to the Padres late in September, maybe then there would be reason to panic, but not early in August.
So keep jumping off the bandwagon, it took you way too long to support this team in the first place. When you want back on, we know who you are.
Notes
– So I keep hearing from the masses that Michael McKenry should start ahead of Rod Barajas. I love what the Fort is doing with the bat, but the bottom line is that he doesn’t handle the pitching staff well and the Pirates don’t win when he is behind the dish. The Pirates are only 21-21 when McKenry starts and allow on average more than four runs per game. A majority of the games in which the Bucs give up more than five runs come with The Fort behind the plate.
With the veteran Barajas catching, the Bucs are a 43-29 and allow closer to three runs per game. Something has to be said for that.
– Minor league pitcher Zach Dodson was suspended for 50 games for his second failed test for banned substances.
– Just last week, Clint Hurdle said that Triple-A left-hander Just Wilson would be moving to the bullpen. Instead he started and threw an eight inning rain-shortened no-hitter.
– From Elias: Neil Walker went 5-for-5 with a home run to lead the Pirates over the Padres on Sunday, after he went 5-for-5 with a homer against the Giants on July 8. Since 1900, no other Pirates player had a pair of such games in one season and only two players had two games of that kind for the Bucs in their careers: Hall of Famers Arky Vaughan (1933 and 1939) and Willie Stargell (1966 and 1968).
– This will be a tough series as the Dodgers have won 12 of their past 14 games against the Bucs.
– Finally, anyone hoping that Gerrit Cole will be a September call-up should forget about that thought now as general manager Neal Huntington said Cole won’t be brought up in September.