My friend Dan is an aspiring Pirates fan, but he doesn't know a lot about baseball. He never followed it while he was growing up and the Pirates haven't given any reason to learn the game since he moved to Pittsburgh. The last two seasons, I've been teaching him different things about baseball in general and about the Buccos specifically.
Every day this month, he's asked me the same question: Is it time to panic yet? I keep answering that, no, it's not time to panic, because it's a long season and we still have a lot of baseball yet to play. After the Pirates fell to the Dodgers 11-0 on Tuesday night, he texted me and asked if it was time to panic. I said yes. I would still feel a sense of panic even if the Buccos had won last night and the fact that they didn't isn't helping my sense of panic.
I hate to say that any game is a must-win with so much baseball left to play (45 games remaining), but I have to say that I think today's game is a must-win situation. Winning today won't turn the season around necessarily -- Cutch and James McDonald are still slumping, everyone in the lineup still strikes out too much and doesn't walk enough, the bullpen has been shaky, they're not hitting for power like they were in June and July -- but it will help them remember what it's like to win.
Coming into the current home stand, they knew they were going to face a higher level of competition than they did coming out of the All-Star, but they still had 11 games at home and they had been playing exceptionally well at PNC Park. They're 3-7 through the first ten games and, really, the only bright spot was that nine run outburst in the bottom of the fourth on Sunday (I was there for that and it was awesome). They've played 13 straight games and have seven more in a row staring them in the face.
This is a team that's used to losing. Clint Hurdle has done a good job of creating the skeleton of a winning mindset and veteran AJ Burnett has bailed this team out of a slide on a number of occasions already this season. But, the skeleton Hurdle has constructed is still pretty young and fragile and Burnett's only one guy. The Dodgers are awfully good and they've looked very formidable thus far in this series.
It's a big obstacle to overcome and I don't know if this team is up to the challenge. A win today won't save the season, but I really believe that a loss will make an already panicked fan base seriously start to lose interest (it's almost football season, after all).
They need to remember what it's like to win. They need something to make them feel good about the upcoming road series against the Cardinals and Padres (who really should've swept the Buccos last weekend). They need something to keep them from collapsing like they did last season.
But... I don't think they have it in them. And that makes me nervous. Panicked, even.
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