Solaxys

Pirates just feed AL East elite pitching,

Hell ya ump!

Hell ya the Kikuchi technique.

There's 1/8 in 4 pitches

Gotta stay positive. They made our pitcher work for 20 pitches, lets see how many we make Baz work for.

cool beans.

I get it but if it was a normal 3-day series instead of a 5-game series in 4 days, it'd've probably been different. Like Kirk was played in 2 of the 3 games against the Sox, so they definitely know his value against division rivals. Kirk DH'd 1 game, caught 2 games against the Rays, they are probably resting him so he's ready to catch Manoah tomorrow. Every time it feels bad, just remember that they did the exact same thing with Kawhi and he carried us to the trophy by being available for every single postseason game

I do not mind the load management they are doing for Springer. He is en route to have the 2nd most PAs this year in his career. He is an injury risk and I appreciate they are making sure he stays healthy for the entire season. Unfortunately, Vlad is also suffering from a nagging wrist issue and so he needs regular DH time until it heals up. And the only other true DH candidates have been Gurriel (who has been injured quite a bit - shins from foul balls, hit on the hand twice) and Teo (who could be nursing his oblique still - he finally got more aggressive when fielding), and remember Kirk got pretty banged up over the last few weeks - hit like three times (two times on the hand) + the bat backswing hitting him on the hand during the Brewers game. If this wasn't a thing, I presume Kirk sees more DH time whenever he isn't catching. They are trying to keep the lineup healthy, and that's okay in my books, and probably a very smart decision for 162 games + postseason. The decision really comes down to whether Kirk should DH over the others and they just take a full rest day instead of DHing, and Kirk takes a day of rest amid 2 games of catching and 2 games of DH. Shrugs, they have better data on that than we'll ever have.

This still does not make sense. Why give him the 'chance' against the division rival? If this was the plan, then you could've just as well (again) pitched Hatch yesterday in the 9-2 game to close out the 3 innings (if he did well, hurray, bring him back up for a start in Oakland or some s***), sent him back down for Bando, start Castillo game 2. Doesn't matter how well he has done in AAA in May/June, Castillo pitched at MLB and showed he could handle it (has much better stats in AAA than Hatch), the f*** would you risk it against a division/WC race rival? And even if that was the plan (i.e. throw Hatch at the wall and see if it sticks), why not use him against McClanahan then? Of the two games, that was the least (probabilistically) winnable so see what he can do in the majors there. If he keeps us in the game, great we have depth we can look into and possibly win the game as well. If he doesn't, oh f***ing well, Shane is Shane (add us to his accolade of pitching 1.09 ERA in the last 5 starts, 2 of which were against Yankees) and we take the L to a good pitcher. Its just weird af why we threw away the winnable of the two games. --- W.e lets win the game today.

We lost all ground we gained in the WC race, we might give back the lead to Boston - like f***. Throwing these games instead of generating lead and creating distance is so aggravating - especially against a battered Rays team, just giving them free rope to wait for their entire team to come back 100% and take over again.

Again. You burn Hatch in the 9-2 game to go two innings, or f***ing just let Romo go two innings 'cause he pitches 83 mph fastballs. You set up the exact same gameplan but with Castillo/Casey - who have both looked much better in AAA and/or MLB. IF Casey was burned game 1, you do exactly what you do right now but then we put our best effort forward - like these choices are baffling as f***.

Hatch had no business being in the conversation AT ALL if this is what he can bring to the table. I mean 12 games in AAA and he has looked garbage, how did they actually think this was a smart idea to give this guy even 1 inning in a contention year?

Genuine question, who actually does this s*** - what organization in professional sports still in the VERY MIX of a race just throws a game? Because its a double-header and we have more games down the stretch? What, do the Rays not care about their already depleted roster to put their best lineup out there every day? Like throw the f***ing game against Oakland, who gives a s***; just get your entire AAA roster to play on the MLB field for one day for fun - why throw a game to a DIVISION RIVAL?! They used Castillo for NO reason yesterday. Could've just burned Hatch yesterday and saved Casey & Castillo for today - both of whom were having excellent AAA and Castillo pitched well against Milwaukee whose offense is VERY comparable to Rays atm. Like who drew this s*** up and thought "yes this is gonna be a good idea"? Unreal, this just straight up pisses me off about this organization. If we miss a game to playoffs, this ******** right here. Bullpen construction, hitting with RISP, that's all whatever - hit/miss but this bs? Where they just straight up throwing/hoping for a miracle? f*** right off.

I just don't get why you would risk a game on a pitcher who has not looked well in AAA when you had a guy who looked good in MLB, like the f***? Use Hatch as long relief or some s*** if you REALLY needed pitching, why start him Just keep throwing games man

What a worthless decision to pitch this guy instead of f***in Castillo.

Perfect.

That's what four warning track balls by Biggio?

All things considered that was good, sheesh.

Awesome stuff hatch

Safe; ugh what a start.

You knew it was coming lol Really wish we didn't sit out Gurriel since we lost game 1 and he's super hot. Also Bo DH, who woulda thunk.

These are the risks Rays take and try and turn them around. So hope it works out. Of course they take risks by signing into minors but he has some interesting stuff and 0 options + cheap, so maybe can find something for him whenever we have a blowout. --- Also RE: Rays Yes they do have good pitching scouting, but if you think about it - we have really good bat scouting/development (that they don't have, three injuries and their entire offense is in the drain, incredibly thin), and we got Espinal (a prospect not even on the top 100 for sox when we traded Pearce for him) and look how he's turning out. --- I also hope we don't trade Tiedemann, his stuff looks Shane McClanahan-esque.

How do you beat someone like Shane though - do you just pray for a bad day?

we are using Castillo again? wtf.

tbh, Shane is good but there have been quite a few pitches left middle of the plate; maybe should've sat on those changeups