Keep the faith brother. There is ACTUALLY a team worse than the irates.
The amazing thing is that if the Pirates and D-Backs were in the same division, Pittsburgh would be like 10 games in front of them. Which means they'll likely get swept by them in their series that starts tonight.
They actually had me believing they'd get their first series sweep of the season against the Mets. Had a 6-0 lead in the first inning thanks in part to the Mets pulling a play as stupid as any of the stupid plays they've pulled this year, but wound up blowing it and losing the damn thing. Because this is the year where I can't even get to celebrate small victories.
It's the 2021 Fire Sale!
With the big surprise being that the Yankees gave away two prospects who seem to actually have MLB potential (one is batting over .300 with decent production numbers in AAA and the other is doing pretty good at AA, although neither are ranked high in prospect databases) in return for shitty fucking Clay Holmes.
Well, I see we've reached the time of the year where all I can do is give a golf clap while sarcastically saying "Good job, great effort" while watching one lopsided loss after the next.
For the 14th time this year and the third straight series, Pittsburgh will attempt to go for a series sweep. They haven't succeeded yet, but they keep trying! I will give them credit; last night's win would have been inspiring if not for the minor detail of how they're infinity games out of it.
I have to admit I'm impressed. They are now (I think) 0-15 in chances to sweep a series. For a team as far below .500 as they are to have had 15 times where they won the first two games in a series (3 in one four-game series, if I remember correctly) is impressive. The fact they've done this for four straight series is just amazingly improbable, considering how they are. And the simple fact they are incapable of winning that final game is just bizarre.
And they've failed in that final game in some great ways. Earlier in the year, they led the Mets 6-0 after the first inning and wound up losing either 7-6 or 8-7. And yesterday, they battled back to take a 4-3 lead over the Marlins. They gave up the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth. They scored once in the top of the 10th thanks to the stupid-ass "man on second" rule. And then, in the bottom of the inning...PROMPT 2-RUN HOMER; YOU LOSE, GUYS!!!!!
They might be shitty, but this is just some sort of incredible Ironman Trivia Question shit they have going on!
To make the year even better, Shane Baz made his MLB debut and pitched five innings of two-hit, two-run ball in getting the win for Tampa Bay over Toronto.
Who is Shane Baz, you ask? Pittsburgh's first-round pic from a handful of years back (for the site's Reds fans, it was the same year they picked Hunter Greene). Who was part of their infamously horrible trade where they sent Baz, Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow to Tampa in return for Chris Archer. Whose highlight as a Pirate was the time they were playing in that game played at Williamsport for the Little League WS kids in 2019. Archer was on the DL and was interviewing kids for ESPN. And was greeted by one of them as, "You're that guy who gives up all the home runs!".