In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the baseball day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.
Collapse 2016
Last night the Pittsburgh Pirates lost 6-2 to the Philadelphia Phillies. The loss was the Pirates 12th in their past 14 games. It’s no longer fair to call this a September swoon, this is a collapse. It’s been really difficult to watch this team over the last couple of weeks. They aren’t just losing games, they look listless and the effort is extremely poor. I will once again remind you, the Pirates definitely care and want to win. They wouldn’t be as frustrated during in-game moments if they didn’t care. The effort is not matching their desire as evidenced by their last two games where they have been out-scored 14-2.
I am likely one of the biggest optimists in regards to the Pirates but there is no excuse for their effort over the past few weeks. If teams are defined in September, the 2016 Pirates should be ashamed of themselves. When the pennant race got hot, the team folded faster than an over-caffeinated origami artist. It’s been difficult to watch and wildly disappointing.
When the team loses in such a shameful fashion, it’s difficult to name a player of the game. So we thank anyone that voted in yesterday’s twitter poll. The game didn’t feature many worthy candidates.
The Pirates lose 6-2 to the Phillies. Who is your player of the game? Once again, we do this after every game.
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) September 13, 2016
Welcome back, Ace
The big story from last night was the return of Gerrit Cole to the pitching mound. Cole recorded a base hit in his first at-bat of the night and that was the highlight. He only lasted two innings, allowed five runs on four hits and walked four. It was a disappointing effort for a pitcher making his first start since August 24th.
Because Gerrit Cole didn’t pitch well, Twitter was full of people questioning his status as “ace.” Cole is having a tough season in 2016. However, recency bias is making a lot of people think he’s worse than he is. Cole is still a very good pitcher and the team’s number one when healthy. He is absolutely having an underwhelming 2016 season but he’s also a bounce back candidate for 2017. I am not sure if the Pirates will shut Cole down for the rest of the season but if they do, I imagine he’ll enter 2017 with a huge chip on his shoulder and that should be very good for him and the Pirates.
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