The Pirates Unraveled by Angelo J. Louisa

Author:Angelo J. Louisa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2015-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

Despite the pessimism of some of the Pittsburgh press core who thought that the surge was too little too late, the results propelled the Buccos to two and a half games behind the league-leading Reds and two games behind the second-place Cardinals by the end of play on September 14.49 Moreover, it restored the players’ confidence in themselves and, with 12 games remaining for them as well as for Cincinnati and St. Louis, gave them hope that they might still win the race for the National League flag.50

But unfortunately for the Pirates and their supporters, what could have been the springboard for a thrilling comeback turned out to be the last hurrah of a bronze medalist. After dropping the final game to the Giants, 6–5, the Bucs lost three out of four to Brooklyn, took two out of three from Philadelphia, and managed to get only one win out of three against Boston. This gave them a disappointing total of four wins and seven losses during the home stretch and left them in third place, four and half games out of first. And what made this late fade even more galling were three other factors: all seven losses came at the hands of second-division teams with losing records; five of the losses were by one or two runs; and neither Cincinnati nor St. Louis had an exceptional finish either. Regarding the last point, the Reds were as bad as the Buccos, going 4–7–1, while the Cardinals had a creditable, though not insurmountable, 7–5 record.51

As with their surge, the Pirates’ reversal of fortune can be attributed to various reasons, but for the most part, the pitching staff was not to blame. In the three losses to Brooklyn and the first loss to Boston, Meadows, Hill, Yde, and Kremer pitched well enough to win, but the Pittsburgh bats could produce only one run per game in their behalf. In the remaining three defeats, ineffective pitching played a significant role, but in each of two of those contests, the Pirate offense pushed just two runs across the plate. Taken together, in those six losses, the team’s ERA was 3.00, while its average runs scored per game equaled 1.33—and this from an offense that averaged a tad more than five runs per game for the entire season.

In the other defeat—the 6–5 setback to the Giants that got the reversal started—Bush was not able to handle the New York hitters, but the Bucs still might have won the game if not for two fielding miscues. Down 4–2 going into the bottom of the fourth, the Giants got three straight singles off Bush to load the bases, but Waner made a great catch of a liner to right center and an equally great throw to hold the New York runner on third from scoring. Bush was then replaced by Johnny Morrison, who did exactly what he was supposed to do: get the batter to hit the ball on the ground to set up a double play. But Rhyne muffed the easy grounder and the runner on third scored with the bases becoming reloaded.

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