The Pirates are 4-2 since I have been away and could have been 6-0. A mismanagement of the bullpen and a controversial batting substitution affected the outcomes of both losses. I do not have a big problem with Don Kelly pinch hitting for Brandon Lowe with Nick Yorke. Lowe is horrible against lefties. I know he did hit a homer against a lefty earlier in the game but I am not going to 2nd guess him just because it did not workout. The bullpen mismanagement has been consistently a big problem. I put this on the entire Pirate management team. First they put basically two starting pitchers in the bullpen, Hunter Barco and Jose Urquidy. They finally sent Barco down to stretch him out. They should do the same thing with Urquidy. Carmen Mlodzinski pitched an outstanding 6 innings last night as the bulk guy, and should remain in the rotation. The Pirates are concerned about the inning load of their young starters, Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler. I don’t have a big problem with that either. What better way to solve that problem than to go to a 6 man rotation. You could use Barco or Urguidy. In the wings is Jared Jones. You could continue to pitch Paul Skenes every 5 days and work the other 5 or 6 starters around him. The Pirates have tremendous depth at starting pitching. The question remains will they use it in the best way. So far they have not.
They wrap up the series with the Nationals today. They need a win today to take the series. They finish this home stand with the Tampa Bay Rays. It would be nice to see them win the next 3 out of 4. The Pirates are tied for first with an 11-7 record. Everyone is really fired up about the Pirates. The problem is they could be 14-4 if it were not for management blunders. We can only hope this will not cost them in the long run. Hopefully they will learn from these mistakes. The Morning Report will return in full force on Sunday the 19th.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 