The Pirates aren’t going to score 15 runs every night. The Pirates aren’t going to score 11 runs every night. Hell, the Pirates probably won’t score five runs every night. That doesn’t mean that each night the offense has an off-night has to be a bad night for the Pirates.
Obviously I’d rather the Pirates win every night, but Ross Ohlendorf did turn in one of his better starts of the season by holding the Brewers to five hits and one run over six innings, while striking out six. Besides his ugly start against Houston last week, his K/BB ratio is starting shape pretty nicely up in his last few starts. Even though he doesn’t have the wins to show for it, he is pitching better than he did in his first few starts off of the disabled list.
This is the weird part about rooting for a young team after they’ve been eliminated from contention for all intents and purposes. If you assume that the Cardinals will win in the neighborhood of 95 games this year, the Pirates would have to go 61-6 from here on out to contend. That’s so ludicrous it feels stupid to even type it out. Ross Ohlendorf pitched well, Neil Walker got two more hits and even drew a walk, so it was a good night regardless of final score, right?
That’s probably the most important thing to remember as this season winds on; it’s awesome when the Pirates pound the ball and win games the way they have been the last few days, but it’s not a complete loss on nights they don’t so long as they’re games like this one. Some day we’ll beyond taking player progress as a moral victory, but we’re just not there yet.
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