In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pittsburgh Pirates dropped a series to the St. Louis Cardinals in disappointing fashion, wasting another fantastic start by Trevor Williams in the series finale, a 2-1 Cardinals win.
The loss allowed the Cardinals to leapfrog the Pirates in the wild card standings. It also allowed the Washington Nationals — a team many left for dead as recently as seven days ago — to do the same.
To be blunt: time is ticking on the Pittsburgh Pirates’ postseason hopes. Neal Huntington did what he had to do in bringing in Keone Kela and Chris Archer to bolster the team’s chances. Now, it is up to those on the field — and that includes manager Clint Hurdle — to hold up their end of the bargain.
If you’re Hurdle, that means playing all of the hot hands, not just Adam Frazier. It means having a quicker hook on starters, smarter use of relievers and pushing all of the right buttons — fair or not.
For the players, that means not failing to bring runners home from third when there are less than two outs. The Pittsburgh Pirates did this twice in yesterday’s game. It means approaching every at-bat with a playoff like intensity. It means executing pitches, plain and simple.
Despite the 11-game win streak and despite making a big splash at the deadline, the Pittsburgh Pirates still must climb out of the hole they dug themselves with their putrid June-July stretch.
Time to start digging.
#Bucsin280
Yuck. Sobering series. #Pirates lose the rubber match to the #Cardinals 2-1. Williams pitched okay over 5, giving up 2. He gets the L. The bullpen was lockdown. But ya, hard to win when scoring 1 run. Frazier went deep. Pirates have officially come back down to earth. #BUCSin280
— Pirates Breakdown (@piratebreakdown) August 5, 2018
Locked on Pirates
The latest episode of Locked on Pirates is live! In this episode, I talk about the upcoming Colorado series and take some questions via ye olde twitter feed.
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Jason Rollison and Alex Stumpf from Bucs Dugout among others will help you through the 2018 Pittsburgh Pirates season.
You can help chart the podcast’s success by subscribing to our podcast and writing a review!
We are on every podcast app that ties into iTunes, so search for us! Or, if you’re on an Android or iOS device, please just click the links below to subscribe, and while there, why not leave a review?
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-pirates/id1349914886?mt=2
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Iezwegejmg7knp7pby7hucbppyu?t=Locked_on_Pirates
- Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/locked-on-sports/locked-on-pirates
Using something other than these three? Just search for “Locked on Pirates” in your podcast app of choice.
Baseball talk on the web
- David Laurila has a fantastic Sunday Notes column.
- The Athletics acquired reliever Shawn Kelley from the Nationals.
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