The Curse of Jerry Meals

19 years ago this October, the Pirates franchise was set back to the Stone Age by an agonizing loss in Atlanta. In eerily similar fashion, the Bucs 2011 season took a turn for the worst after another close play at the plate in Atlanta. Sid Effin Bream was safe, Julio Mother Effin Lugo was not.


The Bucs are now something like 1-9 since Meals screwed us to the wall, taking all of the wind out of the team's sails. Obviously, I am not blaming Jerry Meals for any loss other than the one pictured above. But his call certainly killed the Bucs momentum. Imagine taking the first 2 games on the road in Atlanta, winning 3 out of 4 in that series heading to Philly. We might be exactly where we are right now. But my gut tells me things would have been a little bit different. The Bucs that came out that next night against Atlanta looked defeated for the first time this season. They looked completely over matched against a Phillies team they had taken 2 of 3 from earlier in the year.

Now, the Bucs have been swept by the lowly Cubs and found new ways to lose the game each time. The first game was a fairly average loss; outside of Lee, we couldn't get the big runs home when we needed them. The second game was a putrid performance by the smug Kevin Correia, who didn't seem to care that he gave up 8 ER and like 50 HRs in 2+ IP. Wednesday's game was a bone jarring 1-0 loss in which Great Stuff pitched his heart out, only to have it stomped all over buy offensive ineptitude. Last night's loss was the worst of them all.

Disheartening. Disgusting. Soul crushing. Those are some of the words I could use to describe last night's come from ahead, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory loss. The Cubs jumped out to an early 4-0 lead when 3 of their first four hits were home runs. But in the bottom of the 4th, the Bucs broke through for the first time in what seemed like eons.

GI Jones lead off with a double to right center and moved to third on a Walker ground out. Ryan Ludwick then notched his first hit and RBI as a Bucco, singling to score Jones. Kdro and NoMitt followed with back to back singles to load the bases and the great Xavier Paul bounced into a FC to score a run and put runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs for Brandon Wood, who walked. Jake Taylor decided to allow J-Mac to bat, drawing my ire and few choice words that included "Purple Son of a Bitch", only to see James get ahead in the count 2-1. J-Mac then wisely sat on a fastball, slashing a base clearing double to give the Bucs a 5-4 lead. Cutch was up next and hammered a double to score J-Mac, increasing the lead to 6-4. GI Jones, who started it all off, then drove a shot to the base of the right field wall, looking as though it was going to be a 2 run homer to put this baby to bed, but falling just short.

J-Mac then hummed through the 5th, 6th, and believe it or not 7th innings. McDonald was so pumped that he made it 7 IP that he even did a comical celebration. The team was having fun while holding a 2 run lead. Too bad it was all just foreshadowing for an epically disastrous ending. Jake Taylor sent The Guy Who Cried out to pitch the 8th inning. I immediately threw up in my mouth when I saw that. I don't know what it is, but I have never been a fan of D.Cutch. Maybe it is because he cried in the locker room after losing a regular season game last year. But he is to the Pirates pitchers what Xavier Paul is to hitters/fielders: the guy who I am eternally looking at to fail and blame for everything that goes wrong on their watch.

I will make my description of the 8th inning as brief as possible, while still getting the message across. The Bucs had a 6-4 lead. The Guy Who Cried was on the hill and exited without getting an out, so did Grilli, and so did Beimel. Veras, the person who should have started the inning, then came on to set down all 3 batters he faced in order. It took 4 pitchers to get the first out of the inning. ' Nuff said.

The Bucs were unable to mount any sort of comeback because asking them to score in more than one inning per game is like asking Congress to do something productive: Not gonna happen. Final Count- Cubs 7, Bucs 6.

This was the first time in 19 years that I have thrown something ( my remote control) out of genuine anger directly related to a Pirates game. I wanted so bad for this season to be different and it still could be, but I am not nearly as hopeful as before. I used to look forward to writing these recaps every morning but now it feels like writing a Death Row Pardon request in Texas. I understand that there are always going to be hard times when following a sports team, but it would be nice to see the  Pirates and their  fans catch a fucking break for once! Excuse my language, but I am coming apart at the seams.