How the Tides Have Turned

Going into the game June 17th in Cleveland, hopes soared high in the hearts of Pirate fans. Coming off a sweep of the last place Astros, the Bucs were in that hallowed territory above the .500 mark. The team was finally getting consistent, quality starting pitching. The hitting was not producing power numbers, but some timely rallies and scrappy hardnosed tenacity had been enough to get more tallies in the victory column than the corresponding defeat one.
Expectations have been so drastically lowered for this ballclub, that the City of Pittsburgh was absolutely ecstatic about having a team that was not absolutely buried in the standings by the June Equinox. Optimism abounded among the fans and supposedly objective media. Talk around town was about this team being different, FEELING different, that they absolutely, positively would not collapse, crash, and burn like so many prior incarnations of the Pirates had done over the past two decades.
The conversation was not based on it being possible to see if this stellar, above everyone’s wildest expectations, starting pitching would and could last an entire season. No, instead the big talk was centered around what kind of power bats the team could trade for to help them actually compete for a wildcard or division title spot. Talk it turns out that was vastly immature.
Interleague play has been a bugbear for the Bucs. They have earned the worst record in baseball since the regular season games between the two leagues began, mostly by being the consistently worst team in baseball over that same time period. It seems however that even the usually inept Pirate teams manage to find an extra, extra level of bad play in these crossover series.
Charlie “Good Stuff” Morton seems to have reverted back to his 2010 self. Opposing hitters are starting to smash him around once again in the same manner that Belushi smashed this douchebag’s guitar in Animal House.


I’m sure Morton’s tormented artists soul will be able to compose a few more folk ballads to croon over his latest stretch of horrible pitching. So we have that to look forward to.
Morton was the symbolpiece of the surprisingly competent start of the Pirates early this season. Having him falling apart is surely an ominous sign of what’s ahead for this group. They still have time to salvage things with a few victories here, but they had better act quickly, with the Mighty Red Sox coming to town this weekend and games up in Toronto with the DH in play on the horizon. If the pitching is cracking, and the offense continues its horrific pace on games where they are not given gift runs, it could get very bleak, very quick.
The lesson here may be: whenever you get your hopes up about the Pirates, get ready for the boot to come stamping down on your face, once again.