Pittsburgh Pirates playoff chances April 3, 2016 – September 6, 2016 (dates may be subjective)
Ladies and gentlemen, we gather here today to pay our respects to the 157 days worth of pipe dreams known as the Pittsburgh Pirates playoff chances this season which though mathematically did not end on this Tuesday night in September, were for all purposes silenced by a familiar foe.
It was the big brother known as the St Louis Cardinals which slayed these Pittsburgh Pirates once again by a 9-7 score.
Beating the big brother is very satisfying and while it happens, usually in the most meaningful of stages it does not and this final set back sealed this team’s fate in the proverbial morgue.
Let’s face facts, even when the Pirates have been winning the past few years the Cardinals have always been a step ahead.
It was the Cardinals who won a playoff series against the Pirates and clinched a National League Central division title at PNC Park last season.
Fast forward to 2016 and Cardinals hold the coveted final golden ticket, a spot in the playoffs which is slipping away more and more by the day for the black and gold.
Though separated by 5.5 games at this point, the distance between these two teams seems triple that.
Once this Pirates team lost Tuesday it gave them eight losses, their longest losing streak since 2011.
The blame for this season’s failures goes all around.
First the management.
This off-season was terrible. The bench was great but the rotation needed help and you gave fans Jonathon Niese and Juan Nicasio.
One is healing an injury after getting traded back to New York and the other has been an inconsistent long relief option.
You entrusted Jeff Locke with some tweaks to go back out there and fill a starting rotation spot. He had some success but by the second half and taken one too many bad outings for the team.
Not to mention you passed on J.A. Happ and Doug Fister.
Whoops.
None of the current starting five in the rotation are the same as the April version. Of course injuries happen but a lot of it is players just not getting it done.
General Manager Neal Huntington even expressed frustration saying the club will improve as the relievers were struggling.
Then the deadline came.
Ivan Nova has been a great addition but the bullpen has significantly regressed during this losing streak and save for Tuesday’s game the offense has been M.I.A.
Instead of worrying about the team though, there was more concern regarding controlling the narrative of the trade deadline.
Perhaps the preseason mindset of this season being a punt for 2017 had more legs to it than anyone ever realized, though those who bashed the off-season from day one likely knew this weeks if not months ago.
This team was lost and nowhere to be found, which makes this death all the more upsetting.
Clint Hurdle has not had a perfect season either.
In fact be accelerated this death by abusing the bullpen in Milwaukee trying to sweep that series at all costs.
The team, Locke in particular, is still paying for it.
He was hung out to dry in a recent August loss at Wrigley Field because everyone else that could have been used in extra innings was unavailable.
Neftali Feliz has looked awful of late before injuries and had either high pitch counts, runs allowed or both, a far cry from the April version.
Tony Watson has not been closer material by any means. It has been a down season for him even before the Mark Melancon trade, but the normally steady lefty has been shaky at best as closer. Too many pitches are finishing up in the zone and the team has paid the price of late.
Tuesday he paid the ultimate price, three home runs allowed, all with two outs. Not to mention the first came to pinch-hitter Matt Carpenter with one strike standing between a Pirates victory.
Hurdle’s loyalty to players has been a recipe for success with the Pirates but this action has had many consequential results.
That number three by the way happens to be the same amount of home runs Watson allowed all of last season.
Jared Hughes put Hurdle in a tough spot. He was injured and came back in a time where the relief pitching was abysmal. Hughes never looked quite right and his purpose of keeping inherited runners scoring proved to have less than a 50 percent success rate.
Is now the right time to mention that Locke and Nicasio are tied for the most wins this season with Niese, who is no longer even on the team one victory behind them?
Despite these obstacles, the players certainly are not immune either.
Andrew McCutchen falls in this category. He has been a disappointment beyond belief, the John Jaso OBP movement halted almost as quickly as it began and Jung Ho Kang struggled around the time he was accused of sexual assault in Chicago.
It is worth remembering April when a patient Pirates team saw pitch after pitch making starters depart much earlier than planned.
This was why the offense was successful but now hitters are consistently swinging at first pitches and early in the count. You can see how that worked out.
When a team succeeds, it deserves respect and praise but when a team crashes and burns as this Pirates team has, it is up to those who saw it to discuss what went wrong.
On this night of the Pirates demise, PNC Park’s crowd of 20,369 all quietly sat. It was as if they knew.
This was the last night they saw a contending team.
