Three Game Series Against The Phillies
A little intrastate battle for the second to last series of the year
Where Things Stand
Well, honestly they stand almost exactly where they stood in yesterday’s newsletter. That’s what happens when there is a day off. Not much really changed. The Pirates will be recalling Nick Gonzalez for this series. So there was a bit of news, I guess. Otherwise, there isn’t much happening. The Steelers won again on Sunday night. We won’t dive into that one, though. We’re not aiming to become North Shore Eleven. It was still nice to see. Back-to-back wins. This is the spot where I would generally fill the space with some random stuff, but I really don’t have anything today. I’ve really enjoyed doing this newsletter all season, but I’m experiencing something akin to senioritis in school where I know the end of the season is super close and I’m kind of ready for a bit of a break. It will be easier tomorrow with some game action to talk about.
So what happens after Friday’s newsletter? Well, like I said I’m going to take a bit of a break. Probably around two weeks. After that, we’ll start recapping the season. We aren’t going to just do one big recap. Instead, we’re going to break it down to more micro-level performances. We’ll take a look at some individual performances as well as overall performances at certain positions and this will all be stretched out over several newsletters. I doubt there will be more than one or two a week. There are just some big stories to dive deeper in-depth into. One of the biggest would be Ke’Bryan Hayes’ season. I’m not going to go through every single player. There is zero reason to spill pixels on a deep dive of Vinny Capra’s season for instance. But there are interesting stories to look into. We’ll look at some of the rookies that struggled this season. Andrew McCutchen and what his late-season injury means for his future. We have a decent amount of things to dig through.
Up Next
The Bucs will kick off a three-game series in Philadelphia tonight at 6:40 P.M. EDT. The Phillies are currently 87-69 and sitting comfortably in the first National League Wild Card spot. They are currently on a five-game win streak and winners of eight of their last ten. This will be a tough series and not one where the Pirates can really have much effect on the Wild Card race outcome. It would still be nice to find a couple of wins and keep the late-season hot streak going. Let’s have a look at the projected pitching matchups for the series. We all know how these go for the Pirates. Everyone say it with me… TBD, TBD, TBD.
Tuesday, September 26
TBD vs Aaron Nola RHP (12-9 4.57 ERA)
Wednesday, September 27
TBD vs Ranger Suárez LHP (4-6 3.89 ERA)
Thursday, September 28
TBD vs Zack Wheeler RHP (13-6 3.64 ERA)
I kind of expect that we’ll be seeing Keller and Oviedo here in these first two games. It would be their turn in the rotation. Unless, of course, they are looking to shut one or both of them down. I’m sure we’ll find out at some point today. Can the Bucs stay hot against a playoff team that is also currently playing very well? Will the bats stay hot against some better pitching than they’ve seen recently? Let me know what you think in the comments.
Quick Hit
Yeah, that’s singular. There just isn’t a lot of news to link to in Quick Hits with only a week left in the season, so this week the content down here will likely be pretty light. In fact, what you’ll get today isn’t even news or Pirates related. Instead, I’ll just share a song that I’ve had in heavy rotation lately. I know I said above that I didn’t have any filler content ready, but I’m just trying to make this look like an actual normal newsletter. So I’m pulling something out of thin air to serve that purpose. This song is actually a year old. Well, it’s pretty close to a year old. It was released as a single on October 14, 2022. It’s not really new to me, but newish. I think I found the song somewhere around mid-summer and while it was catchy, it really didn’t grow on me in a big way until the last month or so. Anyway, this is Stick Season by Noah Kahan. You guys have probably already heard it, but if a couple of you learn something new this will all have been worth it. Enjoy.
Alright, that wraps us up for today. We’ll be back here again tomorrow with some actual baseball to talk about. Have a wonderful day. As always, #LetsGoBucs!