“You build me up

You break me down

Until I’m falling to pieces

I crash and burn

I never learn…”

So are the words to progressive metal giants Dream Theater’s song “Build Me Up, Break Me Down”, the second track from their eleventh studio album, “A Dramatic Turn of Events”. No, this is not even remotely similar to the song “Build Me Up Buttercup” released in 1968 with which almost all of you are doubtlessly more familiar, but I suppose that the choruses of both songs are applicable to today’s entry. Nevertheless, I will focus on the more melancholic of the two as I prepare the body of the Pirates’ playoff hopes for its annual funeral. 

Look, I will be honest. I was not expecting much from this last week of Pirates’ baseball. Six games against the red-hot San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers did not inspire great confidence in a team that was already struggling to put games away, especially with four of those six games being against Dylan Cease, Michael King, Jack Flaherty, and Tyler Glasnow, four of the better pitchers in the NL West. It also did not help that Mitch Keller and Paul Skenes were both only slated to make one start last week, leaving ravenous lineups to feed on vulnerable prey standing a mere 60.5 feet from them. 

A ridiculous rain delay in the first game of the week—Tuesday’s Cease vs Falter matchup—allowed the former to be chased after a mere 14 pitches in one frame, with the latter going two innings. Neither allowed a run. After the stoppage—and another one due to extremely poor drainage on the warning track that turned the outfield into the Schenley Park pool—it became Bryan Hoeing’s outing for the Friars and Jake Woodford’s for the Buccos. Presumably, chasing Cease would have been good for the Pirates…the Padres’ pen spun eight scoreless innings en route to a 6-0 triumph. 

The Bucs got to King early in the penultimate game of the homestand that included the 2-1 series loss to the D-Backs the previous weekend, tagging the former Yankee for four runs (three of which were earned) in the first four innings. Unfortunately, Marco Gonzales decided to throw glorified batting practice to the Padres, giving up a solo shot to Jackson Merrill in the second and a three-run jack to Kyle Higashioka in the fourth before allowing a fifth run to score on a Merrill RBI-single in the fifth, leaving the game with the scoreboard showing a 5-4 deficit. A McCutchen 2-run single to regain the lead in the bottom of the sixth would hold until the top of the ninth, when David Bednar would relinquish the lead via another Jackson Merrill homer, Bednar’s fourth blown save of the season. The top of the tenth saw Colin Holderman surrender three runs, only two of which the Pirates could get back in the bottom half. 

Bednar blew another save the next day. The Pirates fell behind 4-0 in the first two innings, clawed their way back to a 5-4 lead  in the seventh, and then the Pittsburgh-area native surrendered three in the top of the ninth. Rowdy Tellez’s run-scoring knock in the bottom of the ninth would inch the Bucs closer, but they would ultimately come up a run short. Bednar had blown back-to-back saves, and the Pirates had lost four-consecutive games right before a perilous trip out west to Dodger Stadium and Petco Park. 

The hope on Friday was that Mitch Keller would be the proverbial “stopper”. That is why he is the highest-paid pitcher on the team, right? (No, the real reason is that everyone else is either on a rookie deal, or is a reclamation project). This did not prove to be the case—Keller got blasted, allowing seven runs in four innings, including a solo home run to Freddie Freeman and a two-run dinger to Shohei Ohtani. The game was never within striking distance, as the Dodgers won a comfortable 9-5 ballgame. The losing streak had reached 5, and Paul Skenes was the next man in the rotation. 

The team’s pitching woes did not stop there.  Skenes had his worst outing, numbers-wise, in his career, surrendering 4 runs in 6 innings, striking out 8 while allowing 7 baserunners to reach. His ERA ballooned to 2.25, effectively ending any hope he had of winning the NL Cy Young award as a rookie. The Pirates could only muster one run, a 9th-inning solo home run off the bat of Ke’Bryan Hayes. 

That brings us to yesterday’s game, which saw Tyler Glasnow face Bailey Falter. Falter allowed four runs in the first two innings. McCutchen’s second of two-run homers ended up tying the game in the eighth, and a Bryan Reynolds bloop single would give the Pirates the lead in the tenth as the ghost runner came around to score. Would the losing streak end? NOPE! Bednar, who came on in the ninth for a scoreless frame, was left out there for the tenth. RBI double, walk, strike out, pop out. Maybe he would get out of the inning and get us to the eleventh at the very least? Teoscar Hernandez, who was up with two on and two out, had two strikes against him. Bednar threw him a fat pitch, and Teo socked it into right field for a game-winning knock. The losing streak hit seven games. Bednar received a loss, his second of the week.

For all the shit that I have given Colin Holderman recently, his ERA is 3.43. Bednar’s is 5.75. I can almost guarantee that if Bednar was not a Yinzer, that he would have been run out of town MONTHS ago. Meanwhile, Aroldis Chapman—to whom the Pirates are paying $10.5 million, their highest-paid player—has been far-and-away the Pirates’ best relief pitcher of late, maintaining a 1.29 ERA in his last seven appearances and a 2.87 ERA in his last 15. Why is he not getting the save opportunities that Bednar—8.59 ERA last 7, 5.87 last 15–has been? 25 walks and hits in your last 15.1 innings pitched is horrendous. 

Had the bullpen done its job over the past few weeks, the Pirates would likely be in a playoff spot. Instead, we are going coffin shopping. I kept telling myself that I would not let myself get too excited about this team, that there was only disappointment in the future. I simply could not help myself. They built me all the way up, and now they are breaking me down. I guess football starts soon…