North Shore Nine

Mitch Keller was looking almost untouchable to start this contest, but after a 5th inning home run, and then a few bunts after a HBP, Keller ends up allowing 3 earned. It's easy to say, however, that Keller looked much better than what his numbers suggest today.Oneil Cruz, who we talk once again about hitting 7th in this lineup, had some pretty good at bats as well as a solo shot off of Sandy Alcantara. Yoshi Tsutsugo came through with another clutch hit to send the game into extra's. Was this hit enough to grant him an extended stay in Pittsburgh? We also dive into Ke'Bryan Hayes a little bit and talk about his major struggles offensively. What exactly is it that limits his power and ability to make good contact at the plate?

With speculation around Jose Quintana getting traded, he gave one of his best performances in what could be his last start in Pittsburgh. Pitching 7-scoreless innings vs. the Marlins and only giving up 4 hits in doing so, we discuss what impact, if any, this adds to his trade value as well as dissecting the type of return it could mean.Outside of the strong pitching today, the club was able to scatter 9 hits, albeit almost half of them were poorly hit weak contact. Hey, you take hits however they come and that's what the Pirates did. Yoshi's hard liner gave the Pirates enough for the victory.

It was no surprise the Marlins have been lacking offense as they came to PNC with a 34-inning scoreless streak. However, it was the Marlins with all the offense today. The Pirates had just 2 hits on the day and the sole run coming from a Jason Delay home run. With 11 total strikeouts we question if it is time to bring more heat onto Andy Haines in regards to this teams approach as well as production.As far as the pitching, Zach Thompson gave up 7-earned in his 3rd start from coming back off the IL. He hasn't look as sharp which begs to question his overall future outlook. The bullpen certainly continues to show its struggles as Dillon Peters' earned run tonight has given him 8 in his last 6 innings pitched since his return as well.There was also much bigger news on the day as the Pirates dealt DH Daniel Vogelbach to the Mets for reliever Colin Holderman. How do we think this trade fares? Tyler and DiNardo give you their perspectives.

Hear our reaction and discussion of the Pittsburgh Pirates selecting Termarr Johnson in this year's 2022 MLB Draft.

Hear our reaction and discussion of the Pittsburgh Pirates selecting Thomas Harrington in this year's 2022 MLB Draft.

Hear our reaction and discussion of the Pittsburgh Pirates selecting Hunter Barco in this year's 2022 MLB Draft.

We can’t stress enough how encouraged we are after each Mitch Keller start and today he posted quite possibly the best back to back starts of his career. Going 6 innings while giving up 1 unearned run and striking out 6 batters, Keller found success changing up his pitch repertoire once again as we explain.Unfortunately for Keller, there was no offense once again from this team who’s been starving for it since the Reynolds injury. You’ll notice we had a need to vent a little on the struggles of Yoshi Tsutsugo and Josh VanMeter while they find themselves in the lineup time and time again. We did manage to find some comfort today in the fact that as abysmal you would expect this catching situation to be, Jason Delay and Tyler Heineman have actually pleasantly been productive.

Tonight was the second bad outing in a row for Jose Quintana who saw his ERA raise to 3.99. Giving up 6 earned today did not help, but the bullpen afterwards ensured any hope of a comeback was lost. Dillon Peters gave up 6 runs on 8 hits while Stratton added another run.Not all things were terrible today. Ryan, co-founder of NS9, joined as a guest host for the first time in 25 months since his departure. We not only talked about tonight's pitching, but the struggles (yet amazement) by Oneil Cruz, the leadoff spot occupant, Cal Mitchell's return to the big league, and then just overall Pirates talk.

Tonight Tyler, Jim, & DiNardo return together for their non-postgame show to discuss many of the hot topics right now. Today, it was reported that Jack Suwinski will be optioned tomorrow after going hitless since July 5. However, is his demotion truly performance based?This rotation has pleasantly been performing solidly enough since early May and after about 6 weeks worth of results, what do we make of it and what does it potentially mean for Oscar Marin's future?For some reason or another the Pirates bullpen has been this week's civil war, so we are here to set draw the line in the sand and tell you what to make of it. Choose Your Side!!

What more can be said about JT Brubaker since incorporating his 2-seamer? He has quite possibly one of his best starts going 7 scoreless innings with 9 punch outs and just 5 baserunners. He didn't have much offense behind him as Ben Gamel's RBI single was the lone run JT was able to get while on the mound.However, things started to get crazy in the 9th and then extra's with the Mickey Mouse rules. Michael Chavis ties it up in the 9th to get the game into extra's. Then the wheels fell off. Daniel Vogelbach and Ke'Bryan Hayes each had an RBI to bring the Pirates lead at 4-2. David Bednar entered the game to close things down, however he wasn't missing bats and ultimately gave up the lead as well as the game.

our straight and 9 in their last 14 have the Bucco’s won. Today was a bullpen game as Roansy Contreras was optioned last week and they came through pretty strong once again. Stratton pitched and well enough to hand the ball over to Dillon Peters who returned from the IL and impressed once again. David Bednar was able to close it out for his 16th save of the season.Offensively, the Pirates did just enough but it was once again Jake Marisnick who went deep for the second time in as many games since his return. Tyler and DiNardo discuss Kevin Newman and his potential importance to Oneil Cruz in the infield. Is maybe keeping Newman around to play 2B not so bad after all? How about Jason Delay continuing his play and the defense he provides this club behind the dish?

Today may have arguably been the best start by Mitch Keller as he went 7 full innings and Tyler & DiNardo discuss just what  about it was so impressive. Besides Keller's 2-seamer still impressing, he has started to add and tweak even more to his pitch mix. To close out his 3rd save of the year, Yerry De Los Santos came in during another high leverage spot and got 4 outs by strikeouts in his 1.1 innings pitched.How about the return of the Kevin Newman and now Jake Marisnick? Newman has been producing since his return and finished today with 3 hits while Marisnick coming fresh off the IL finished with a double, home run, and a stolen base. Is there potentially any trade value in either of them and what would a return possibly be?Let's also not leave out this pleasantly performing catcher on this roster now in Jason Delay. Known for the glove, and boy have we seen some of it so far, he hit his 3rd double on the year as we discuss why he should finish the year in Pittsburgh

Pirates hit 4 homers today to power through and secure the series win. Hayes, Chavis, Cruz, and Vogelbach each went deep for the team's 13 total hits today. Oneil Cruz's HR was crushed for 416 feet on a swing that looked so nonchalant and almost hit the Toyota Tundra. On top of that, he also turned on the burners to get himself to third base from first on a bloop single to center that helped him score the 2nd. Tyler and Jim discuss what they have seen from Cruz to this point as far as challenges.Ke'Bryan Hayes was a triple shy of a cycle in a much needed breakout type of game. Duane Underwood Jr had another impressive outing while Manny Banuelos was impressive for today as well. We also find out live who made the All-Star team for the Pirates this year.

It was thanks to Ben Gamel's big HR with one on that gave the Pirates the late lead and ultimately the victory. Though he had his first error in 3 years which lead to a run earlier, he happily was able to erase it.The game didn't start pretty as DiNardo mentions. Brandon Woodruff had a no-hitter through 4 with 6 strikeouts and it just looked like one of those games that was quickly already out of reach. Zach Thompson only allowed 2 earned, but his command lacked most of the game and was able to escape some jams.Yoshi Tsutsugo, Kevin Neman, and Oneil Cruz all strung 3 hits in a row to start the late offense. Yoshi had to pretty hard hits today which has been something pleasant to see after his year he's had. 

With runner on the corners, Daniel Vogelback comes through with a big hit that scored Diego Castillo but as we all saw, Mike Rabelo sent Kevin Newman dead to rights which ended the game. If this alone wasn't enough, the buildup of having to see players like Yoshi Tsutsugo, Josh VanMeter, and Kevin Newman has really frustrated Tyler and he let's it all vent.JT Brubaker danced through raindrops tonight and luckily allowed just 3 earned runs in 5 innings today. Manny Banuelo and Yerry De Los Santos did enough to keep the team in the game, but as we now know it just wasn't enough.

Today with the doubleheader, the Pirates split in Cincinnati. Neither game was much offensively. In total, they scored 5 runs on 12 hits. Daniel Vogelbach continues hit hot streak while Michael Chavis looks keeps wrecking havoc on left handed pitching. Both starters today looked very good. Bryse Wilson had his best start of the year while lowering his ERA almost a full run. Roansy may have had his best outing of the year, although that didn't award him his keep in this rotation. Shortly after the game it was announced that he was optioned. Listen as we discuss why there is a true reason to monitor his innings but also what bothers us so much about this decision.

Well, tonight's game against the Yankees was not quite like last nights game. Mitch Keller came out looking solid putting 0's on the board until the 5th inning when things started to go south. After 4 earned runs on 10 hits and 2 HR's, Keller was pulled after the 6th.The offense couldn't find answers for Severino and company compiling just 4 hits on the night. Bryan Reynolds collected 2 hit while Oneil Cruz smoked a ground ball and beat it out for an infield single. Other than that, there isn't much you can talk about this team offensively tonight.With the game already looking out of hand, Manny Banuelos made his Pirates debut facing his former team giving up 5 earned in just .1 innings. If that wasn't enough, we all got to watch a position player pitch once again in Josh VanMeter who allowed 6 more runs during his mound duty.

Okay, so we may have had our reservations on Jose Quintana when signed. Then we may have disagreed among ourselves on how to approach the trade deadline with Q. However, I think we all now are on board that Jose Quintana is proving himself once again as a quality pitcher and maybe look into not trading him but rather look to getting an extension done this year.Q went out today and pitched 5 innings with just 1 earned run and 7 strikeouts to the best offense in baseball. He was backed by the bullpen who also gave up just 1 earned in 4 innings that included David Bednar's 13th save. So, does this mean David Bednar is fully back after today's performance?The offense also was there to spoil Jameson Taillon's return to PNC. Daniel Vogelbach hit his 11th HR while Jack Suwinski shows the power is legit hitting his 14th on the year. What do we make of Jack Suwinski at this time and his future has a Bucco? It certainly looks to be quite intriguing.

The batters box did no favors today for the Bucs offense. If they weren't slipping trying to run out of it, they were heading back to the dugout after striking out. With 14 K's on the day, they did nothing to help the solid pitching performance outside of Daniel Vogelbach's three hits and Jack Suwunski's two.Zach Thompson came from the IL today and lasted 4.2 innings. DiNardo discusses how he felt about his return albeit giving up 2 earned. With the game still in tact, the Pirates bullpen did their job today to shut down the Brewers offense who actually had even less hits than the Pirates.We also discuss the latest trade that happened as well as the Cherington quotes on Kevin Newman's return.

After a game where one reliever threw 56 pitches, Bryse Wilson knew he was going to have to give innings today whether they be good innings or bad. Luckily, they were good. With increased velocity, Wilson went 6 strong innings to earn his first win of the year. Is this the makings of something new for Wilson?A shaky David Bednar came into the 9th to close it out as he walked the first batter on four straight pitches. However, Bednar settled nicely and looked more like his old self as he retired the next three batters.Offensively, this was a solid team performance where everyone chipped in. Oneil Cruz and Michael Chavis each went deep. Outside of the 112 mph laser Cruz put into the stands, there were a few other things that were almost just as impressive we tell you about. Diego Castillo also continues to make his case to keep him on the MLB roster