Last night’s loss in the National League Wild Card game has left a bitter taste in the mouths of Pirates fans after a solid 88-74 campaign in 2014, but should it have been expected?
The Pirates were facing Madison Bumgarner — one of the best pitchers in the game this season — who dominated the game from first pitch to last out in a complete-game effort. Edinson Volquez could have thrown a gem and they still would have lost.
The Pirates finally ran into a good team and couldn’t stick with them.
Yes, they posted a solid September going 17-9, but that was against opponents who were either in the midst of a collapse — the Brewers and Braves — or had sub-.500 records — the Cubs, Reds, Phillies and Red Sox — and even then, they still struggled to get the victory.
The only real contender they faced in the month were the Cardinals and they got swept, which ended up deciding the division title.
The Pirates played 14 games in September that were decided by two runs or less — they went 7-7 in those games —and had it not been for Russell Martin’s heroics against the Brewers and a lucky bounce in the ninth inning of a game against the Red Sox, that record would have been worse and the blackout at PNC Park and maybe even the playoffs don’t happen.
The division was still up for grabs going into the final weekend of the season against a struggling and injured Reds team. After a win on Friday kept them a game back of the Cardinals, a blown lead by the bullpen in the Saturday game erased the golden chance to be tied going into the final game of the season and it forced manager Clint Hurdle to throw Gerrit Cole even with the chance that they still miss out with a win.
The move to start Cole on Sunday is justified, but had they have taken care of business earlier, this move wouldn’t have been so big.
Many had counted the Pirates out after their seven-game losing streak to the Braves, Tigers and Nationals — all good teams at the time — but the more favorable schedule of 26 out of 35 games against struggling or sub-.500 teams helped them recover and mask the problem.
That problem resurfaced on Wednesday night in front of the biggest audience with a crushing 8-0 defeat to end their season.
Good teams beat the ones below them. Great teams compete with everyone.
The Pirates aren’t great quite yet.
(Photo Credit: Jason Miller/Getty Images)
