MILWAUKEE -- "We have to," Nick Gonzales was telling me late Wednesday night in an American Family Field visiting clubhouse that was every bit as barren as it was boisterous just 24 hours earlier. "We really have to start stringing something together."
They do. They really do.
Right after, oh, you know, 12-2 the other way.
Right after five home runs, four measly hits.
Right after a W, it's an L.
Get this: They've now played their past 53 games without winning three in a row or losing three in a row. That's two shy of the Major League Baseball record for such a thing, that being the 55 of the 1922 Boston Braves. The Pirates' only sweep of the season was the opening four-gamer in Miami, which would become 5-0 with an ensuing win in Washington. Conversely, they've been swept three times, but even then, the most recent three-game losing streak was May 7-10, two to the Angels and one to the Cubs.
I'd say that I've never seen anything like it, except that almost no one alive could have.
“Yeah, we have to gain momentum," Derek Shelton would say. "We have to have streaks like that. We haven’t been able to get that going.”
On one hand, the reasoning for this seems clear: Over the span of 92 games, they've been awful offensively. While at the same time, the starting pitching's been so strong that the rotation's stuffed with potential stoppers.
So, in this setting, for example, Martin Pérez gets steamrollered for a 4 2/3-inning line of five runs, nine hits and three walks, sinking his side into a 5-0 deficit before he's the first one to the hot water.
His evening, summarized in three scenes:
Two. Out. Mashing.@willya02 x @SalFrelick pic.twitter.com/U9bLZCWxnE
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 11, 2024
Our All-Star catcher hit this ball 117 mph (!!!!!!!)@Wcontreras42 pic.twitter.com/SFrDtpC2fQ
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 11, 2024
Why don't you hit it farther next time, @rhyshoskins? https://t.co/kTl5oisLnD pic.twitter.com/TaZcOGqD7w
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 11, 2024
That was that. Four more were added off relievers who'll soon be staying at one of Tom Bodett's favorite hotels outside Indianapolis, one runner reached second base in eight scoreless innings against Tobias Myers, and everything that went right one night went wrong the next.
What was different about Perez after he'd held the Cardinals to one run over 7 1/3 innings in his previous start?
I asked him:
“I was trying to do the same," he'd reply. "But I think they were on a couple of pitches and they let me throw a lot. That’s a good team and, when you’ve got good teams like this one, you have to go out there and do your thing. But that didn’t happen today. I’ll be ready for my next one.”
I asked Shelton, too:
What was so awesome about the other guy?
"Tobias was attacking," Pat Murphy, the Brewers' manager would say of Myers, the blooming 25-year-old who's been their best pitcher since the start of June. "And he's been attacking for a while."
Yep. Myers' six strikeouts were only part of his story, as he'd run up 0-2 counts on seven of his first 14 batters and, at one point, he'd throw 16 consecutive pitches for strikes.
What was different about the outcome as a whole?
Not a thing. Right after what I felt was the Pirates' most exemplary -- and encouraging -- performance of the summer, they fell right back to four games under .500 and a bit further behind the beef of the wild-card pack ...
MLB.COM
... with the Cardinals having lost twice on this same day, and with at least one of those bubble teams, the filthy-rich Mets, beginning to making a move. And with all their money, they're a good bet to make more moves before the July 30 trade deadline.
Ben Cherington's got money available, too. It couldn't be as much, but it's not nothing.
Paul Skenes has the series finale Thursday. That means there's an excellent chance the pattern continues, this time in the positive context. But that's not a solution. That's not a map to competing, much less contending, over any long haul. Neither are spontaneous offensive eruptions. Or patchwork all-bullpen starts. Or plucking this dude or that dude off waivers.
Don't make me say it yet again.
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