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Pirates are swept by Dodgers as Postseason hopes fade away · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody.
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another episode of Buco Territory, presented to
0:13
Speaker 2: you by the Foul Territory Network. Noah Hiles joining me
0:16
Speaker 2: as always on my co hosts Josh Harrison and Platinum Key.
0:21
Speaker 2: Is Monday, August twenty fourth. The Pirates are coming off
0:25
Speaker 2: a very disappointing weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers where
0:29
Speaker 2: they get swept. We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna
0:31
Speaker 2: talk about Christian Curtis, who was their best player on Sunday.
0:36
Speaker 2: He's had two appearances in the major leagues this year,
0:39
Speaker 2: both of them have looked good. And then we will
0:41
Speaker 2: wrap out a wrap up our show as we do
0:44
Speaker 2: every Monday with Platinum Keys Key of the Week. But guys,
0:48
Speaker 2: Pirates get swept in the City of Angels. Two close
0:53
Speaker 2: ones and then a big old nothing burger on Sunday,
0:57
Speaker 2: a game that I mean they had a chance to
0:59
Speaker 2: win this year.
1:00
Speaker 3: Really.
1:01
Speaker 2: They battled back to tie it Friday night and then
1:04
Speaker 2: lost in extra innings and had opportunities to take the
1:08
Speaker 2: lead at extra innings, and then Saturday, I believe they
1:12
Speaker 2: were ahead right or two yes, and then you know
1:17
Speaker 2: Sunday happened.
1:19
Speaker 4: Too.
1:20
Speaker 2: Mark, We'll start with you. You're the fan, it's over right.
1:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, this was the gut punch that I feel like
1:27
Speaker 5: this team was just kind of ear the fan base
1:29
Speaker 5: was waiting for it to really admit that things are
1:31
Speaker 5: are over it as far as I mean, there's still
1:35
Speaker 5: a chance technically, but there's not the way that this
1:38
Speaker 5: team's playing. They the way they looked on Sunday, it
1:41
Speaker 5: looked like they just gave up, just showed up. They
1:45
Speaker 5: were there, But I mean I watched the whole game
1:48
Speaker 5: and was trying to record clips and I think I
1:51
Speaker 5: saved three clips of the entire game of just things
1:54
Speaker 5: that were interesting, and you know, I could have maybe
1:56
Speaker 5: shown off Christian Curtis a little bit. But it doesn't
1:58
Speaker 5: really feel good when you're you haven't scored a run,
2:01
Speaker 5: you're getting shut out, and that's how you get swept
2:05
Speaker 5: by the best team in baseball, and yeah it's the Dodgers.
2:10
Speaker 5: Yeah that's frustrating. But I think it just goes to
2:12
Speaker 5: show how many times throughout this year we've had conversations
2:15
Speaker 5: where it's like, man, they should.
2:17
Speaker 4: Have won this game.
2:18
Speaker 5: They left this one. You know, there's so many missed
2:21
Speaker 5: opportunities that have led up to this point where it's like, yeah, okay,
2:26
Speaker 5: you shouldn't have to worry about the Dodgers. You should
2:29
Speaker 5: just be able to write that off and be like,
2:30
Speaker 5: you know, we're still in a good place because we
2:32
Speaker 5: took care of business against other teams that we're supposed
2:36
Speaker 5: to take care of business against. Pirates, haven't done that,
2:39
Speaker 5: didn't do it against the Dodgers, So it's you really
2:43
Speaker 5: better show up in San Diego if you want any belief.
2:46
Speaker 6: Left, Josha. Just another case of losing winnable games. And
2:56
Speaker 6: as you said, mark, gut punch to the fan base,
2:58
Speaker 6: gut punch to the team, I mean, because obviously not
3:01
Speaker 6: what you set out to do headed out to the
3:04
Speaker 6: West Coast, because you look at it had a chance
3:07
Speaker 6: to win the series, as you said, but you know,
3:11
Speaker 6: as you said, there's still a small glimmer of hope.
3:14
Speaker 6: And their job is to go show up every day
3:17
Speaker 6: and do what you can to help your.
3:20
Speaker 4: Team win every day. And I mean, they just got swept.
3:24
Speaker 6: They got to sweep this next series, but you can
3:26
Speaker 6: only do that by winning that first game. But you know,
3:29
Speaker 6: definitely a gut punch because obviously riding you know how
3:34
Speaker 6: they finished that home you know, kind of a little
3:36
Speaker 6: bit of momentum swing. As we talked about momentum, you know,
3:40
Speaker 6: this is also another way to kind of kind of
3:42
Speaker 6: stop that momentum when you lose some winnable games and
3:45
Speaker 6: you know, kind of been a story this season. So
3:48
Speaker 6: as I said, as statistically not out and for them,
3:51
Speaker 6: they have to continue to keep grinding, showing up every day.
3:54
Speaker 6: That's your job as part of being a professional. Anything
3:57
Speaker 6: can happen. Obviously we've seen, you know, crazy things happened,
4:00
Speaker 6: but that's not anything for them to be sitting here
4:03
Speaker 6: and saying, man, there's a chance for us to if
4:05
Speaker 6: we went out like no, you got to go out
4:07
Speaker 6: and do what you're supposed to and you know, whatever happens,
4:12
Speaker 6: I mean, you've already kind of written your own fate.
4:15
Speaker 6: But you know, at the end of the day, they
4:18
Speaker 6: can't get caught up in saying that was the end
4:20
Speaker 6: of our season, because for a lot of people and
4:22
Speaker 6: a lot of guys, you know, there's more baseball to
4:25
Speaker 6: be played after this season, you know, hopefully, But you
4:28
Speaker 6: know you're playing for yourself, You're playing for the team
4:31
Speaker 6: that is on the front of your jersey. But as
4:34
Speaker 6: I said, that's part of being a professional.
4:36
Speaker 4: It's not a fun situation to be in. I've been
4:39
Speaker 4: in that situation.
4:40
Speaker 6: But this is where you see guys that really want
4:43
Speaker 6: to play, and you know it'll be appreciated by the
4:47
Speaker 6: ones that are in that locker room. And you just
4:48
Speaker 6: got to be able to look in the mirror and say,
4:50
Speaker 6: you know what, you got nobody to blame but yourself.
4:54
Speaker 6: You know, you know a lot of these losses are
4:56
Speaker 6: just looking in the mirror and saying, we didn't take
4:59
Speaker 6: care of business, and you you can't expect to be
5:01
Speaker 6: rewarded when you don't.
5:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they're just not good enough, That's just
5:07
Speaker 2: what it is. I mean, they came out swinging against Scoobley,
5:12
Speaker 2: they didn't quit late in the gamey night. Yeah, they
5:16
Speaker 2: they're they're fighting, they want to win. They're better than
5:20
Speaker 2: they were last year. Regardless of where this team finishes,
5:24
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's gonna you can definitively say the
5:28
Speaker 2: Pirates got better. It's probably going to end up being
5:31
Speaker 2: the best team in the Ben Sherrington era. But that
5:35
Speaker 2: means nothing. I mean, it's it's congratulations. You know, you're
5:39
Speaker 2: the fastest team in the slowest heat at the track race.
5:44
Speaker 2: You're just not good enough. They don't field well enough,
5:47
Speaker 2: they don't pitch well enough, they don't hit well enough,
5:50
Speaker 2: not when it matters. They're just not a good enough
5:52
Speaker 2: baseball team. They're better, they're better, and for a portion
5:56
Speaker 2: of this season they were entertaining. Yeah, but the real
6:02
Speaker 2: teams are separated in the month of August, those dog
6:05
Speaker 2: days as they call them. And you know, Josh, you
6:09
Speaker 2: were a part of some really good teams, and you
6:11
Speaker 2: were a part of some teams that we thought were
6:13
Speaker 2: really good and fell apart in August, and this is
6:16
Speaker 2: one of those teams that's in the latter category. And
6:18
Speaker 2: the frustrating part is when your teams fell apart in August,
6:23
Speaker 2: we could look back or end up looking ahead maybe
6:26
Speaker 2: sometimes and say like, Okay, there's something here. There's nothing
6:31
Speaker 2: with this group. Nothing, nothing attached to this organization knows
6:35
Speaker 2: anything about winning right now, not in Pittsburgh, none of it.
6:39
Speaker 2: It's they they haven't had a winning record since one
6:44
Speaker 2: third of this podcast was playing for the team, so
6:46
Speaker 2: the last time they've had a winning record as a team.
6:49
Speaker 2: So losing baseball, YEP, that's what it is. We're gonna
6:53
Speaker 2: take a quick break from talking about losing baseball. When
6:56
Speaker 2: we come back, we're gonna talk about a guy who
6:58
Speaker 2: can maybe one day be a part of a winning team.
7:00
Speaker 2: His name's Christian Curtis next to Umbuco Territory.
7:07
Speaker 3: One of the things that I wasn't very good at, well,
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8:07
Speaker 2: Christian Curtis had another good outing. He's now pitched eight
8:11
Speaker 2: innings in his major league career, has not allowed to run.
8:15
Speaker 2: Look pretty darn good yesterday against the Los Angeles Dargers.
8:20
Speaker 2: Mark your mister, clips, What was your takeaway on his performance?
8:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just love what I'm seeing from Christian Curtis.
8:29
Speaker 5: The command has kind of been what has been a
8:32
Speaker 5: little bit of like the question mark around him. He's
8:35
Speaker 5: a twenty four year old starter, been starting mostly in
8:38
Speaker 5: the minors, and he looks like he is deserving another
8:42
Speaker 5: shot coming out possibly in the Saint Louis series as
8:46
Speaker 5: a starter, especially when you're comparing it to how Carmen
8:49
Speaker 5: Macinski looked today. How I mean, they've been using Lake
8:53
Speaker 5: Baker as an opener. But I liked Christian Curtis a lot.
8:56
Speaker 5: I would love to see what he can do. I
8:59
Speaker 5: don't think he's made a start. When he made his
9:01
Speaker 5: debut back in July. I'm pretty sure that was out
9:03
Speaker 5: of the pen, Albeit five innings. So yeah, yeah, so
9:08
Speaker 5: I'd really like to see, you know, what he can
9:10
Speaker 5: do in that starter role when they're saying this is
9:13
Speaker 5: your day, where you can prep for it and see
9:16
Speaker 5: what they have, because it's that fifth starter spot is
9:20
Speaker 5: still kind of open. I feel like if Carmie macginsky
9:25
Speaker 5: is just I don't know if you really want to
9:27
Speaker 5: give him another run out there at that I think
9:29
Speaker 5: it's just time to accept that he's a bullpen guy
9:32
Speaker 5: or yeah, what you want to do with him. But
9:35
Speaker 5: it's really nice to see a bright spot here. We
9:39
Speaker 5: were just talking last episode about Pirates' pitching development. Christian
9:43
Speaker 5: Curtis was a guy drafted in the twelfth round, so
9:47
Speaker 5: for him to actually come develop into a major league
9:49
Speaker 5: talent would be a really great success story for this franchise.
9:54
Speaker 6: Yeah, you kind of took a point. I was going
9:58
Speaker 6: to say that he could to answer a little bit
10:01
Speaker 6: of that question because we did talk about, you know,
10:04
Speaker 6: Pirates pitching factory if they still, you know, were considered
10:07
Speaker 6: that and not saying one guy can do that. But
10:11
Speaker 6: as you say, nice to see a bright spot with
10:13
Speaker 6: everything going on, and obviously from a position that you
10:17
Speaker 6: know has needed some help this year and curious to
10:20
Speaker 6: see how they you know, as we talk about, you know,
10:23
Speaker 6: just in a previous segment, where do they go in
10:26
Speaker 6: the future, you know, especially with the last month, you know,
10:30
Speaker 6: maybe they give him a little bit more you know,
10:33
Speaker 6: opportunity to see where he lies in their future plans,
10:37
Speaker 6: if they really give him an opportunity. But as far
10:40
Speaker 6: as for what he's done in the early beginning of
10:42
Speaker 6: you know, his start of his career, you know, he's
10:45
Speaker 6: come up and done pretty much what anybody would dream of,
10:48
Speaker 6: you know, So kudos to him. And as you said,
10:52
Speaker 6: you know, twelfth round draft picked. You know, it's nice
10:54
Speaker 6: to hear somebody you know that that is, you know,
10:58
Speaker 6: showing up and getting that op tunity, you know, regardless
11:01
Speaker 6: of wherever were drafted.
11:02
Speaker 4: So this is a guy that can.
11:04
Speaker 6: You know, maybe put his name in the mix to
11:07
Speaker 6: you know, make things interesting for you know, that fifth
11:10
Speaker 6: starter spot.
11:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't have a ton to add. This didn't
11:15
Speaker 2: need to be a super long segment, but what else
11:17
Speaker 2: are you going to talk about? Right? So, yeah, but Curtis.
11:20
Speaker 2: Curtis is the perfect example of guys who should be
11:22
Speaker 2: playing as.
11:23
Speaker 4: Much as possible exactly, and I.
11:26
Speaker 2: Mean because there are no top end prospects that you
11:29
Speaker 2: can look forward to get called up right now. Like
11:31
Speaker 2: you're not going to get Seth Hernandez major Lea, Seth
11:34
Speaker 2: Dornandaz is in healthy right now. Edward Quarantino, if you
11:36
Speaker 2: get him to Altuna, that's a major step forward. But
11:41
Speaker 2: like your focused now is twenty twenty seven and you
11:45
Speaker 2: need to figure out who can contribute, and Christian Curtis
11:48
Speaker 2: might be in that conversation. We might be talking in
11:51
Speaker 2: March about Christian Curtis battling for a fifth spot in
11:55
Speaker 2: the rotation or a bullpen spot, or even just being
11:58
Speaker 2: a guy where they're like, maybe they'll slow cook him
12:01
Speaker 2: and build him up to be ready to contribute in
12:04
Speaker 2: June if there's an injury. But he's here now, he
12:08
Speaker 2: should be here for the rest of the year, and
12:10
Speaker 2: anyone with a similar pedigree. It's it's time to start
12:14
Speaker 2: getting a look at some of these younger guys and
12:18
Speaker 2: these fringe guys to see heyn who can help the
12:21
Speaker 2: team win, because you know, the guys who have been
12:24
Speaker 2: here all year, they haven't done enough, is what it is. Yeah,
12:29
Speaker 2: you gonna take another break, Oh you got one real.
12:32
Speaker 5: Quick, Just throw a real quick guy. Shout out to
12:35
Speaker 5: Christian Curtis's family. They met my mom in spring training
12:38
Speaker 5: and were lovely to her, and so Christian Curtis always
12:43
Speaker 5: has held a very special spot in my heart. Yeah,
12:46
Speaker 5: she like took a picture of them and without her
12:48
Speaker 5: in it and sent it to me. I was like, cool, mom,
12:50
Speaker 5: But yeah, So just shout out to the Curtis family
12:53
Speaker 5: for being so welcoming, very good people from what I hear.
12:56
Speaker 5: So finish on that now.
12:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's nice. All right, We're gonna take a quick
13:01
Speaker 2: break again. When we come back, we will wrap up
13:03
Speaker 2: this today's show, I should say, with Mark's platinum Key
13:06
Speaker 2: of the Week here on Buco.
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Speaker 7: Territory, Bella Bella Bella, where I don't know where Bella is,
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Speaker 7: but I know.
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Speaker 3: How to take care of my.
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14:20
Speaker 5: A little change up. Shout out to the graphics team
14:22
Speaker 5: for helping us out with a sadder Key of the week,
14:26
Speaker 5: because yeah, we're in sad times. The downpour of the
14:29
Speaker 5: season's happening here. But this week's key of the week
14:33
Speaker 5: is I want to see O'Neal Cruz play every single
14:36
Speaker 5: game of these next six games. He's been in his
14:40
Speaker 5: five games back, he has a twelve sixty nine ops
14:43
Speaker 5: seven RBI, just really contributing and showing that spark that
14:48
Speaker 5: this offense has missed with him being out with injury.
14:52
Speaker 5: So now that we have him back, I want to
14:54
Speaker 5: see him every game. I don't care if there's a
14:56
Speaker 5: left handed pitcher on the mountain. He's batting over three
14:58
Speaker 5: hundred against leftis eight sixty four ohps this year. Continue
15:03
Speaker 5: to give him that opportunity, continue to play him out
15:06
Speaker 5: in center field, and if he needs a break, then hey,
15:09
Speaker 5: we haven't open DH slot finally now. So I'd rather
15:12
Speaker 5: see O'Neill in the lineup every single day moving forward,
15:17
Speaker 5: just because he's so critical to this team right now,
15:19
Speaker 5: and it's we had enough baseball without O'Neal Cruz. I'm
15:25
Speaker 5: ready to have him back in the lineup every day.
15:27
Speaker 5: So that's my key of the week is keep playing
15:29
Speaker 5: O'Neal Cruz, keep having him, just go on this tear
15:34
Speaker 5: and see where that leads you. Because if this team
15:37
Speaker 5: is gonna pull off a sweep of the Padres and
15:40
Speaker 5: pull off a sweep of the Cardinals, they're gonna have
15:43
Speaker 5: to have O'Neal Cruz contribute in a massive way if
15:47
Speaker 5: they have any chance at competing.
15:49
Speaker 4: So yeah, that's.
15:50
Speaker 5: My my key of the week. Josh, you want to
15:53
Speaker 5: throw in any thoughts about O'Neal Cruz.
15:55
Speaker 6: Yeah, obviously, his presence in a line up since He's
16:00
Speaker 6: come back has definitely been felt and unfortunately, you know,
16:04
Speaker 6: he even what game time home run the other night
16:08
Speaker 6: in LA, So you know, he just in this short
16:12
Speaker 6: amount of time back, he's already shown to be a
16:15
Speaker 6: part of this lineup that they have really been missing
16:18
Speaker 6: and as I said, got to show up every day
16:21
Speaker 6: still statistically not out and even to add on to
16:25
Speaker 6: your point, mark, you know, he missed quite a bit
16:27
Speaker 6: of time. And I'm sure for him, you know, he's
16:30
Speaker 6: he's just like, man, I'm just getting started, you know.
16:32
Speaker 6: But you know, so I think if they do, they're
16:37
Speaker 6: gonna take a look at guys that they want. But
16:39
Speaker 6: he's a guy that obviously, regardless of what's going on,
16:42
Speaker 6: he's swinging the back. You gotta it doesn't make sense
16:45
Speaker 6: to not put him out there, and especially in this case,
16:50
Speaker 6: you got to put him out there. And with D
16:52
Speaker 6: H obviously been an option in some cases. You know,
16:55
Speaker 6: it's something that if you are worried about not necessarily
16:58
Speaker 6: his workload because he missed some time, but you still
17:00
Speaker 6: might want to give him that you know, blow or
17:02
Speaker 6: breather on his legs. You can obviously use DH as
17:05
Speaker 6: an option. And I think it's also old to him
17:09
Speaker 6: as we talked about it coming into spring training and
17:11
Speaker 6: how he started the season before he got hurt against lefties.
17:15
Speaker 6: Because at the end of the day, it may answer
17:18
Speaker 6: your question as to you know, what he's going to be,
17:21
Speaker 6: you know, facing lefties if he's a part of the
17:23
Speaker 6: plans next year, because obviously left handed pitching has been
17:27
Speaker 6: one of their you know, lineups kryptonite this year. So
17:31
Speaker 6: if you're going to face a lefty, why not put
17:33
Speaker 6: a guy in there his banging lefties regardless.
17:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't have much Dad. If he's healthy enough
17:42
Speaker 2: to play, then play him exactly. He's one of your
17:45
Speaker 2: best players.
17:45
Speaker 7: He might be your best player.
17:48
Speaker 2: He's going to be your best player next year, so
17:50
Speaker 2: play him. M And I don't care about split ntchups
17:54
Speaker 2: at this point, especially for a guy who's hitting lefties
17:57
Speaker 2: better than most of your right handed back right So it's.
18:00
Speaker 5: Just, yeah, it's like he's such an important part you
18:03
Speaker 5: want him to improve, Yeah, and so I just give
18:06
Speaker 5: him that opportunity.
18:07
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't want to say anything more and
18:09
Speaker 2: piss off. So all right, you know what won't piss
18:14
Speaker 2: people off is hitting that subscribe button. Getting us the
18:18
Speaker 2: three thousand subs. Josh, love that transition. Huh uh that's great.
18:23
Speaker 5: Love great, you know what.
18:24
Speaker 2: I love it. Also is the Bucco Territory Team store.
18:27
Speaker 5: Got a lot of good stuff. Check it out.
18:30
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, maybe you can wear a Pirate's playoff game
18:32
Speaker 2: in twenty forty seven. All right, platinum key, Josh. Do
18:35
Speaker 2: you guys have any final remarks?
18:38
Speaker 4: No, just getting up.
18:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, just the pain continues, but hopefully we'll have
18:43
Speaker 5: something positive to talk about after the Padre series. We
18:46
Speaker 5: got Ashcraft, Skimes Chandler, so uh, top of the rotation,
18:50
Speaker 5: we'll see, uh, at least maybe get one with ash Draft. Yeah,
18:54
Speaker 5: so yeah, here we go, here we go.
18:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, at least at least like to talk about Drew Aller.
19:01
Speaker 5: Now, hey there you go.
19:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, you know who they are, you know
19:07
Speaker 2: who I am. You know what this show is. Thanks
19:09
Speaker 2: for tuning in to another episode of Bucko Territory, presented
19:12
Speaker 2: to you by the Foul Territory Network.
19:14
Speaker 4: Take care