ATLANTA -- One of those nights?
Yeah, probably.
Martin Pérez made it back onto a mound for the first time in a month, and it showed in being mauled for a half-dozen runs in the Pirates' 6-1 blah-fest of a beating by the Braves on this miserably muggy Friday evening at Truist Park. He didn't have much fresh off an IL stint for a strained groin, and that's almost certainly what was expected.
And when I say blah-fest ...
I mean B-L-A-H.
I asked Pérez if he might've been rusty, not having pitched at all since his groin was strained May 26.
"No," he replied. "Sometimes you throw the pitch and they're just ready to hit. I think a lot of soft contact, like I said, and I was throwing good pitches in and they were on it. That's the game. That's what happens when you face good hitters and these guys can hit the ball. They won tonight, so we have to give credit to them. Just going to be ready for the next one."
Can't argue that.
The late, great Chuck Tanner, the last man to lead this franchise to any approaching the ultimate goal, had this all sorted out long ago. It was true of every team every summer, he'd say, that there are 54 games that'll be won, 54 more that'll be lost and, as he'd emphasize with that extra jolt of baseball passion only he could commonly summon, it's what's done with those other 54 that defines the whole thing.
Well, guess which one this was, from the moment this misfired Pérez changeup was belted over the center-field fence in the second inning by Austin Riley:
Bases cleared, courtesy of Big Bear 🔥#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/hMfrNNW3vC
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) June 29, 2024
Five more runs flowed the following inning, three of those on this Marcell Ozuna rope into the left-field corner:
Bases cleared, courtesy of Big Bear 🔥#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/hMfrNNW3vC
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) June 29, 2024
And that was a big that.
Pérez was cut off at four innings, six runs, eight hits and two walks through a ponderous pitch count of 92.
“I think we see when Martin is effective, he can run the fastball in and then use the changeup off it on the other side," Derek Shelton would say. "That’s a heavy and really good right-handed hitting lineup, and we just left some balls up.”
Which felt like it fed into the offense doing what the offense does: One hollow late run on six hits -- only three of those in 40-year-old Charlie Morton's 6 2/3 scoreless innings -- and a barely-worth-mentioning-anymore 13 strikeouts.
“That was the old-school Charlie Morton curveball," Shelton would say. "He had the ability to go to it whenever he wanted to. I mean, you see why this guy has pitched 15 years in the big leagues, because I don’t know if he can have a better curveball than that. Even the ones he threw on the plate had so much action that we didn’t get really good swings on them.”
Zero exaggeration there:
Uncle Charlie was cookin'👨🍳 pic.twitter.com/D1ba5yBWHW
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) June 29, 2024
Which, in turn, felt like it fed into whatever the hell Edward Olivares might've hoped to achieve by throwing behind Ozzie Albies on this allegedly routine single to right:
Baserunning masterclass with Professor Albies 📚 pic.twitter.com/cGsQ6iy1uX
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) June 29, 2024
Score that a double, but only because that's beer league. Or bush league.
But whatever. Again, one of the 54.
And, as long as I'm at it, one of the 81. Because this also was the halfway point of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 143rd season, one that's currently got the club in this place in the National League's wild-card picture:
MLB
It's supposed to be about contention. Maybe that's contention up there. Or maybe it isn't.
It's supposed to be about a push to the playoffs. Maybe that's what this'll be. Or maybe the National League just stinks, with the exception of those top three teams and, of course, these Braves.
It's supposed to be about a reward for yet another long rebuild. Maybe that's what Paul Skenes and Jared Jones represent. Or maybe their starts, as well as those by Mitch Keller, are merely fun bumps on another road to nowhere.
It's supposed to be about a rise up, collectively and individually. Maybe that's what Skenes'll show the Braves and the Atlanta folk here Saturday afternoon. Or maybe he'll be supported by one whole run from his offense again.
No idea. I've got no idea.
Before the first pitch, Shelton was asked to assess his team at the midpoint, and he answered, "I think we've played well at times, and I think we can continue to play better. That's the most important thing. And we can continue to play more consistently. There's been times when we've done every facet well, and there's been times we haven't. The consistency portion, I think, is the most important."
I don't know about that, either. From this perspective, the consistency oozes.
What I do know is that, splitting this season in half, these Pirates have lost three more games than they've won. That's not progress. And I'm not sure splitting it into Tanner's thirds makes it any more palatable.
• Tons more from this day on our Pirates Feed, as ever.
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