5-5-25 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
The Pirates have been on a gauntlet of facing winning baseball teams, but the way they’ve started, lets be real, they’re looking up at almost everyone they face.
This is the second series this season against the Cards, and they were one of the few teams the Pirates defeated in a series. That said, this Cardinals team while not good, still has enough to compete, and more importantly, they play like a competitive baseball team.
The Cardinals fall short, the Pirates often just stop running when they see they won’t get to the finish line. Still, getting on the road and away from the sad environment they’ve created at home is probably a good thing for this club.
5/5
Pirates: Carmen Mlodzinski – 1-3, 6.58 ERA, 22K, 10BB, 1.81 Whip
Cardinals: Miles Mikolas – 1-2, 4.66 ERA, 17K, 9BB, 1.34 Whip
5/6
Pirates: Paul Skenes – 3-3, 2.74 ERA, 41K, 8BB, 0.91 Whip
Cardinals: Matthew Liberatore, 2-3, 3.44 ERA, 30K,3BB, 0.97 Whip
5/7
Pirates: Mitch Keller, 1-3, 4.38 ERA, 29K, 12BB, 1.36 Whip
Cardinals: Sonny Gray, 3-1, 4.12 ERA, 39K, 10BB, 1.19 Whip
Pirates: Ke’Bryan Hayes, this has to be the most under the radar “who’s hot” ever, cause I sure haven’t noticed it, but in his past 15 games, Ke’ is hitting .310, the problem is he just doesn’t walk, like ever, so his OBP is only .344 in that span, but he is collecting hits.
Cardinals: Victor Scott II, he’s been on fire, in his last 15 games he’s hitting .313 with a .377 OBP and is slugging .458 all while playing master class center field.
Pirates: Bryan Reynolds – he’s off to a terrible start to 2025, but we’ve seen this movie before, that’s not a good recipe for a team that can’t afford one of their best to be playing like one of their worst. In his last 7 games, Bryan is hitting .187, with a .267 OBP. From the 2 hole, protecting Cruz in the lineup, yeah, not good enough and so much so it stalls just about everything they get started, on the rare occasion they get something started.
Cardinals: Nolan Arenado – Pretend I’m whispering this, because if he hears, well, I don’t want him to hear. In his last 15 games he’s hitting .211 and his OPS for the season is a full 100 points lower than his career average at .743. Yes, he’s still better than a lot of Pirates hitters, but for him, this is very down.
Pirates: Spencer Horwitz, Jared Jones, Dauri Moreta, Johan Oviedo, Nick Gonzales, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Endy Rodriguez to name a few.
Cardinals: Masyn Winn just sprained his ankle yesterday, day to day and still on the roster for now. Ivan Herrera looks to be close to returning from his knee bone bruise, could be as early as this week.
Notes
The Cards are coming off a thrilling double header sweep of the Mets that propelled them to a series victory against one of the very best teams early on in the game. Don’t expect the Cards to play down to their competition in this series.
Steel City Pirates 
I’m an old guy. I recognize that “we don’t do things” like they did in the 60s etc. I was at the heights of my professional career (business, not baseball) in the 80s and 90s. When things went wrong I got angry and my people knew it. They got angry too. Usually that inspired a sense of we need to get this right, and right now. I hate using the term embarrassment because fans toss it around too casually. I never understand how a fan can be embarrassed. What I will say is that the folks in this organization seem to lack professional pride. I know that doesn’t apply to guys like Skenes but management and many of the players seem to be guilty of this.
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