Bryan Reynolds is awesome. Paul Skenes is awesomer. And that one squeaker the Pirates pulled out the other day, though I can't remember which, man, that might've been the absolute awesomest of all.
There ... how'd I do?
Not awesome enough?
OK, hang on, I'll try again ...
BRYAN REYNOLDS IS ON FIRE
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) June 23, 2024
HOME RUN TO TIE THE GAME!
90.4 MPH exit velocity, 364 feet, HR in 20/30 ballparks pic.twitter.com/1QjJuo8L2c
That's Reynolds, "our best player," as Derek Shelton would accurately remind later, launching a home run on this sweltering Sunday at PNC Park, his third in four days, after already extending his hitting streak to 20, the franchise's longest since Jason Kendall had one that long in 2004.
Legit awesomeness.
I asked the author of this awesomeness, in fact, what's making him so awesome that he's loving life at a .350 clip -- 28 for 80 -- since the streak started June 1.
"I mean, I don't know if I'm awesome," he'd reply with a small smile when I for-real and for-fun asked that very thing. "Just swinging the bat well. That happens. Feeling good."
Not good. Awesome.
Though not as awesome as this ...
Paul Skenes this afternoon:
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) June 23, 2024
7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO, 1 HR
98 pitches, 69 strikes, 13 whiffs
He now has a 2.14 ERA. Phenom. pic.twitter.com/1AWO2k6ldG
Oh, my. So much awesomer.
In all sincerity, too. The kid put up seven more superlative innings, conceding a run, six hits and a walk while striking out eight, registering 13 swings and misses, recording 69 strikes among his 98 pitches, and pushing that 98th pitch past poor Alex Jackson at, uh, 101.5 mph:
"I'M SORRY, MR. JACKSON. PAUL SKENES IS FOR REAL."
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) June 23, 2024
101.5 MPH fastball to finish the day pic.twitter.com/C67u5AkSTR
According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, that pitch was the fourth-hardest strikeout by a starter in the seventh inning or later in the pitch-tracking era that began in 2008. The three hardest were all from -- who else? -- Justin Verlander.
Loved that little grin there at the end, too.
"Yeah," Skenes would say of the reaction, "I kind of surprised myself a little bit. I was feeling good deep into the outing. I usually feel good deep into the outing. But I wasn't expecting that, especially since I hadn't seen anything that hard earlier in the game."
Not even sure what to say anymore, and not sure I have to. This was Skenes' eighth career start, and he's yet to allow more than three earned runs in any of them. He's got a 2.14 ERA that, if he were qualified for the National League leaders, would be second-best behind the Phillies' ridiculous lefty, Ranger Suárez, at 1.75. And don't dare omit from any discussion his strikeouts, his total of 61 making him the second pitcher in Major League Baseball's modern era -- 1900-onward -- with that many strikeouts and fewer than 10 walks in his first eight starts, second-most behind the 66 of the Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka in 2014.
This is nothing less than a phenomenon being witnessed in our city, and specifically on this occasion by the 29,026 paying customers who stood and roared both before and after that final pitch. Probably worth the ticket all by itself.
"He was really good," Shelton would reply to my question on Skenes, whose only blemishes were a first-pitch home run by Yandy Diaz and a couple other early dents without damage. "They came out with a plan to attack the fastball, but he went with some of his other pitches, as we've seen him do, and got the job done. He threw the ball really well."
Awesomer than anyone we've ever seen around here, maybe.
Want to know what wasn't awesome?
Rays 3, Pirates 1 ... and three whole hits for the home side.
Well, that and waiting 20 paragraphs to share the final score, violating pretty much every tenet of sports writing in the process.
But hey, honestly, I get the sense from some -- not all -- who follow this team that this is all they want. Not from me but from the team. From the management. From Bob Nutting. From Travis Williams. From Ben Cherington. And from Shelton, too. Everything's proceeding per the plan, from that perspective, and anyone who doesn't accept that simply doesn't grasp the genius, the nuance that radiates from every move made out of 115 Federal.
Or, sillier yet, they suspect that anyone expressing so much as a modicum of criticism ... I don't know, hates the Pirates or something.
Whatever it is, all I have to say is this: Go nuts. Soak it all up. Enjoy every W, even if it's just one every series, even if there haven't been more than two in a row since early May. Everyone's entitled to their own outlook.
That said, for those among us not suffering from the baseball equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome, it couldn't be clearer not only that more needs to be done but also, and far more relevant to any criticism, that it already needed to be done.
MLB
Last I checked, those results up there count the same as those in July, August and September. Every win, every loss.
And the Pirates have stayed stuck in that pack for nearly half the season now, while also lugging around a minus-33 scoring differential that's the most proven predictor in sports -- any sport -- of future performance. As such, their 'expected' record, as it's known, is 35-42, which one had better believe would be the barometer being bandied about among Cherington's staff, rather than the real one.
They know full well who they are. And I couldn't be more convinced that this is part of why Cherington's yet to lift more than a pinky finger to help an offense that's now 28th of 30 in the majors in OPS at .654 and that, within this just-completed 3-3 homestand, mustered all of 14 runs. This GM wouldn't cross the Sixth Street Bridge until his analytics people informed him of the chance he'd fall through.
So, rather than move on anything, he sits. And waits. And hopes. And waits some more.
Bob Nutting acknowledged to reporters this past Friday what I'd exclusively reported earlier that day in Insider, saying of potential trades, "I think we should be prepared to move early," and then saying, "We need more offense. We’re a bottom-performing team in offensive production. We know the areas where we need to improve. ... How much of it comes from within the organization, from outside the organization is exactly what Ben’s working on.”
To which Cherington spoke to reporters the very next day, regarding the trade market at the moment, "It's a process and, at this particular time, in the league, it's an interesting year. There are so many teams that are still in it. Those teams are as motivated as we are to stay in it, and find ways to improve. So, the pool of players that are realistically available right now is seemingly small, and the list of teams interested in those players is pretty long."
I can't categorically argue that, of course. I don't see Cherington's texts. I don't see other GM's texts.
I do have access to the Yankees' press releases, though:
The New York Yankees today announced that they have acquired infielder J.D. Davis and cash considerations from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for infielder Jordan Groshans.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 23, 2024
To make room on the 40-man roster, the Yankees have transferred RHP Nick Burdi to the 60-day injured…
No, J.D. Davis wouldn't excite me, either. He's a 31-year-old third baseman slashing .236/.304/.366, and there's too much of that here already. But trades do happen in late June. And one could happen involving the Pirates, as well, if only they'd summon up the tiniest strand of aggressiveness and try to pull away from that pack sooner rather than later.
Why should the Pirates be more aggressive than others?
Well, aside from the obvious image seared into the local consciousness of Kent Tekulve throwing the last meaningful pitch in franchise history, there's also the not-so-small matter of operating within a unique circumstance.
I'm not a fan of media citing other media, but John Smoltz isn't just media. He's a Hall of Fame pitcher who was part of one of the great trios ever in Atlanta, along with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, and he's thus as qualified as anyone to speak to this situation, which he did the other day on Rich Eisen's show on The Roku Channel:
In being asked to predict which could be surprise team this fall, he spoke, "I think this team management will have to change their philosophy in a drastic way and start adding, for a change. The Pittsburgh Pirates are the most intriguing team in the National League with the power arms at the front of their rotation, and they have a chance to spoil a lot of people's dreams if they make the dance. But they've got to add. They've got to stop doing what they've been doing and recoiling every time they get in a good position."
Beautiful. Wish I'd thought of 'recoiling' myself in all these many columns.
Those pitchers are here. It's Skenes, it's Mitch Keller, it's Jared Jones, and it's Bailey Falter, plus the back of the bullpen.
They, almost by themselves, can beat anyone, just as those Atlanta guys did for a decade plus.
But almost doesn't cut it. A Reynolds solo home run accounting for all of the Pirates' offense in two of the past five games doesn't cut it. Savoring everything about Skenes doesn't cut it. Pumping up 15 split series in a row doesn't cut it. Turning 17 starts of six-plus innings into losses doesn't cut it. One series sweep all year doesn't cut it. Patting each other on the back over being mired in mediocrity doesn't cut it.
They're not in a position to suggest or even think that things are going along swimmingly when all they're doing is treading water.
Be awesomer.
• Thanks for reading my baseball coverage. I'll fly to Atlanta later this week for more. Maybe Smoltz can un-retire to three-hit these guys himself.
