Game 111: Diamondbacks 6 Pirates 3
Sorry for the delay in the recap here; yesterday's weird start time meant that the Pirates' game didn't end until I was inside of Durham Bulls Athletic Park last night and I haven't really had a chance to sit down and figure out what happened until this morning.
It's pretty straightforward, though; if you give up three home runs with a guy on base, you're probably going to lose. This is actually something Pirate fans know pretty well after the team's homer-happy romp through June and July, I'd assume. The Reds lost and the Cardinals won yesterday, so the Pirates find themselves smack in the middle of the five games that separate those two teams.
In any case, a split against the Diamondbacks isn't an awful result in a four-game series, but the Pirates do need to rack up some wins against the Padres this weekend to fully capitalize on the Reds' five-game losing streak, I think.
At home, the place where they've been playing well above .500, a split with a .500 team is not a positive. This team needs to be playing significantly *above* .500 if they want to win the division - and probably if they even want to make it to the one-game initial round to the playoffs.
It is quite frustrating to watch this team right now, because I feel like their pitching is doing worse (Burnett aside) and their hitting is definitely not what it was two months ago.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not a hater, and I know everyone is trying their hardest. It's just frustrating.
