Up and down. Good and bad. On again, off again. Not that good yet not too bad. Mediocre at best. Was that frustrating to read? If so, that is exactly how the Pirates have been recently--frustratingly teeter-tottering between greatness and disappointment. The result is mediocrity and slightly better than .500 baseball. Teams typically will fair much better in their home ballpark than they do on the road, especially when they play 3 time zones away across the country. However, the Bucs seemingly have had played in totally opposite fashion from how conventional wisdom would lead us to be believe they would play. After finishing up a 5-1 road trip in Los Angeles and San Fransisco against two playoff ball clubs, they lay an egg with a 1-5 home stand against two teams, Miami and Houston, who are currently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. It's truly mind boggling how that can happen.
One hypothesis I have is a common thread for all Pittsburgh professional sports teams: they play to the level of their competition. Time and time again I have watched the Steelers barely escape with a win against Browns, a team they should beat handily 10 times out of 10. With the Penguins, they could be the hottest team in the league and still manage to get shutout by the Devils or whichever team happens to be struggling that given year. The more likely reason, in my opinion, is that they have simply had bad timing. On Sunday and Monday, Vogelsong and Taillon put up back to back solid starts, ones good enough that the offense should be able to muster enough runs to get them a win. However, on both days the offense decided it would stay home, so the Pirates suffered two losses. Tuesday was a gem and a rarity. The bats put the Bucs up early and with the help of an Ivan Nova complete game, the Pirates won courtesy of a well played game in each and every facet. In the finale, the ghost of Gerrit Cole put the Bucs in the hole early, and as it would turn out, it was a hole they couldn't climb out of. I say the ghost of Gerrit Cole because he hasn't shown up in the month of August, posting a 6.08 ERA. We can attribute this to a number of things including bad luck or getting away from his strength (a powerful, fastball pitcher) with increased reliance on his slower, two-seam fastball, but as I have recently watched some of his starts, I have noticed that Cole seems to simply have lost his fastball control. Too often he has had a decent start going then a couple hard hit ground balls or one lazy, down-the-pipe fastball poked over the fence ruins it. It truly is frustrating to watch the cornerstone of your rotation crumble down the stretch when his team needs him the most. After two gutsy wins to start their trip to Milwaukee, will the Pirates use the road to their advantage down the stretch and hopefully in the playoffs? Only time will tell.
