The Pirates, more than any other team that I can currently gather, have a great deal of guys built like a transmission tower. Wide necked, large torso'd, top heavy shtarkers. Like...something I've seen in athletes that genuinely perplexes me is the kind of shoulder and chest muscle conditioning that makes you look like your neck is more of an afterthought than anything, it's more torso than neck. Takeo Spikes used to look like that, just the massive neckmonster roaming the countryside. And that's most of the Pirates right now. Konnor Griffin, Nick Gonzales, Ryan O'Hearn, Spencer Horwitz and Henry Davis just walk around looking like they're holding in their breath, they lean back and hits come flying out, and then they stand there in the locker room going '...yeahweplayedourbestoutthere...uhm...Paulcertainlygavehisall, but y'know...intheend...', etc.
I'm not implying there's cloning going on in Pittsburgh. It's rich to assume they've perfecting cloning technology when we've established that they can't even get the humidor to work. They're just getting their conditioning reps in and that seems to be helping. The Pirates are closer to good than they've been in a while. In fact, since they're over .500...they might just be...good.
Nick Gonzales having a decent year proves this is all heading in the right direction, because he always felt like a placeholder infield guy to me, didn't really accomplish a lot. He CAN hit though, and now it seems like it's for a reason. He's hitting .318 right now with 48 hits [one less than team leader Oneil Cruz, wait WHAT??] and 19 RBIs. Yet to launch any long balls, but this team has Cruz, Ozuna and BRANDON LOWE for that. Gonzales is just a great contact guy to have around, and to see him looking well-rounded at last is a great sign. Also great to see Bryan Reynolds hitting well again, he's got 26 RBIs and 4 homers. Cruz has 10 homers and 32 RBIs despite the usual obvious flaws. And Griffin, while not a full world-beater yet, stole 10 straight bases successfully to start his career and has 20 RBIs. Those top-heavy brutes seem to be turning this team around, and with help from famed little guy Brandon Lowe and his outrageous power hitting.
What's wild is we're beginning to see the limits of the starting pitching, which I figured would be doing most of the work by now. On Sunday the Phillies scored 5 runs off of Paul Skenes, which I did not think was possible. His ERA is now a measly 2.62, which means the Phillies and the Mets were responsible for keeping that thing above 2 pretty much. Mitch Keller is having a bit too many starts where he gives up 3 runs, and while the rest of the start is by and large fine he's just not as dominant as he was. Bubba Chandler's not the guy yet, Carmen Mlodzinski's more 'good' than great. At least Braxton Ashcraft's keeping the pace strong with a lot of innings of great work. Eventually Jared Jones is gonna get back here and level things a tad, but until then this unit just needs to rebound from a poor week and settle back in, which is still possible.
I just want the Pirates to stay above .500 and keep surprising people. The Cardinals and Cubs may have the momentum in this division, but the Pirates still have a lot going for them, and only hope to grow into themselves as we proceed.
Coming Tonight: The majority of his rotation is injured, but luckily he's fully healthy again, and surging.
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