UMFan83

Welp 4 innings from the pen needed. How many of them can be from Ben Brown?

When did Cuas go down?

Also just watching the replay of the game, what the hell is it with all the outs on the bases (Bellinger in the 10th)? Many of these are somewhat explainable in a vacuum, albeit still a mistake (for example Bellinger expected a play at the plate and instead it was cut off) but when you put them all together you have a team that leads the league in outs on the bases (20), and 4 more outs than any other team in baseball outside of the Nationals (who have 19). What do you chalk up all these outs to? Just bad luck? I don’t know if you can blame managing for many of the outs, you can maybe criticize all the outs at home on contact plays (though again individually most of them are the right call), but Bellinger for instance is pretty consistently rated as an above average baserunner in his career. He’s no Anthony Rizzo by any means.

It’s crazy it seems like a large majority of the games lately are tight throughout. 10 of our last 14 games have been decided by 1 or 2 runs. Feels like there just aren’t a ton of situations where he can pitch in a very low leverage situation like he did on Friday.

I wasn't able to watch today and wasn't able to really follow most of the game until the end. Obviously I see Kyle's numbers which seem very encouraging and hopefully at least temporarily calms down the talk of firing him into the sun, but did he actually look as good as his numbers suggest? I'm watching the expanded highlights now, looks like a few hard hit balls early but the HR was pretty ridiculous and he seemed to have good command of his fastball. Encouraging? Also holy horsefeathers watching the highlights, this must have been a super annoying game with all the ridiculous defensive plays from the Pirates to prevent runs from scoring, plus a couple of Pirates beating IF singles out by inches, one leading to a run scored. And Neris once again is Rod Beck incarnate, managing to get 1 pitch from losing the game but getting out of it. I eventually got behind guys like Beck and Borowski and felt some level of comfort in their pitching despite consistently getting into trouble, but I'm nowhere close to feeling that way about Neris despite him managing to get out of nearly every jam he's created.

Lopez is going for the Braves right? That's the probable I saw yesterday at least. If so, he's have a spectacular year so far in his first 6 starts CWS - 6 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 ER NYM - 6 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 0 ER HOU - 6 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 0 ER MIA - 7 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 1 ER SEA - 5 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 3 ER BOS - 5.1 IP, 6 H, 4 BB, 1 ER Overall - 35.1 IP, 1.53 ERA, 1.13 WHIP Very odd as he hasn't started regularly since 2020 and made 68 relief appearances last year but the Braves have some sort of devil magic going on lately so whatever.

I just assumed that without Michael Busch in the lineup today this title meant he was on the IL

Thank God we added on in the top of the inning.

It’s crazy how often the bullpen blows leads in the first inning they come in the game. I suppose it’s better than blowing it in the 9th like they were doing earlier.

Outside of Dansby that’s pretty much our A lineup. edit: whoops I missed Wisdom in there for Busch. It’s got the Belli, Seiya, Morel grouping though

He’s had 6 complete games, most recently in 2021

Probably not a bad idea, though I swore I read the other day that this is a particularly bad year for goalie prospects.

Always happens when someone starts an injury thread. I learned my lesson in 2004. Initially we got nothing but good news once someone started it this year but apparently it was just setting us up for wave 2 of the injuries

Apparently Kyle Hendricks is starting tomorrow.... Edit: nevermind already mentioned

Plus it was blown in the 5th inning, so while frustrating the Cubs couldnt do anything on offense until the 9th, it wasn't the gut punching late inning type of loss that we've had several times this year.

Can't believe I'm doing this (everyone at NSBB is rolling their eyes) but wallowing in the misery helps me feel better after losses like this so, I'd say the following losses this year are worse than today's loss: 1. 3/28 - Opening Day, you get a gift run to take the lead in the 9th and immediately blow it 2. 4/8 - What will forever be known as "The Padres loss" 3. 4/16 - Down 4-1, roar back to take 5-4 lead. Then immediately give up 4 runs to trail 8-5, then score 6 runs in the 7th to take an 11-8 lead but give up single runs in the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th (including a 2 out solo HR that barely got out in the 9th to tie it) to lose to Arizona 4. 4/20 - Leading 2-1 in the 9th, Adbert gives up a 2 run HR to lose to Miami 5. 4/27 - Maybe not quite as painful because it quickly became a "wash our hands of this one" loss early on but losing 17-0 is pretty brutal even if position players pitching was a big part of that 6. 5/2 - This is borderline even with today but blow a 4-0 lead to the Mets, take a 6-5 lead in the 11th with a runner on 2nd and 0 outs, that runner gets thrown out at the plate and it only takes 2 batters in the bottom of the inning to give up 2 runs and lose So I'll call this the 7th worst loss of the year. Games that were close but ultimately kept behind today include: 4/28 - Cubs rally to tie Boston in the 9th only to get walked off on a weird bloop that might have been an inning ending double play if caught because the runner at 3rd wasn't tagging 4/30 - Adbert gives up a 3 run HR to DJ Stewart to break a 1-1 tie in the 6th 5/3 - Adbert blows a 1-0 lead in the 8th by allowing a series of increasingly harder hit singles to allow 3 runs and lose to the Brewers 5/8 - Definitely a tip your cap game with Cease going but getting 1 hit is pretty annoying. Thats 11 of our 17 losses and yes I know I'm weird.

I hear ya. I still think the Padres loss was worse. 8 run lead in the 6th inning is just insane to lose. As is the 6 run lead they blew to the Rockies in the 8th though they managed to win that one. Everyone is going to have their “favorite” inexplicable loss though since there are so many to choose from so that’s a perfectly fine one to choose

They have what 17 losses? Maybe 10 of them fall into that category. Wild

Nice little fake rally to twist the knife even farther

I was really worried that Jed didn’t focus enough on the bullpen this offseason but I never in a million years thought it would have affected this many games this early in the season. Wild stuff

Any more Pirates pitchers out there willing to walk a half dozen batters without even coming close to throwing strikes?

Just realized the Cubs get the heart of the Braves rotation this week too Lopez, Sale and Morton This is an unreal run of starting pitchers we’re in the middle of facing.

The Pirates have not scored more than 5 runs in any game since April 14th. Well until today that is. They've averaged 2.1 runs per game over that 23 game stretch.

For who though? We’re so depleted from injuries and bad pitchers that somehow Jose Cuas is back on the roster.

I think I know why Keegan Thompson has been stuck in Iowa for much of the last 2 seasons.