I was going to wait until the weekend series with the Astros was finished to write this up, but I find myself with time on my hands this morning, so what the heck.
Through the games of August 12, the Pirates now stand at 39-75 (,342). They are on pace to finish with an incredible 107 losses. The "second season" that began on July 1 and that I naively had such hopes for back in my July 5 post is even worse: the team is 12-24 (.333) since July 1.
With 48 games remaining, the team will have to play at a .500 pace, 24-24, to merely avoid 100 losses. Bristol and Levi will become the Ozzie and Harriett of Alaska before that happens.
No, the only race of any import for this crummy team now becomes the race against their 1952 counterparts, the team that lost 112 games. To avoid that ignominy, they will have to go 12-36 over the final 48 games of the season. Can they do it? I think they can, but it's a going to be a close call. Here's how it can be done:
The team has played (relatively) well at home, 26-30. If they play at that same pace over their remaining 25 home games, that's 11 wins. This means that they will have to eek out just one win of their remaining 23 road games. Surely they can do that, right?
Surely someone in Vegas is setting odds on this.
Oh, one other race of note. It has been documented that the Buck Showalter led surge of the Orioles has dropped the Bucs into last place in all of MLB. As of this morning, they are 1/2 game behind the 29th place O's. This race bears watching as well. I'm thinking that the jump start Showalter gave the Orioles will level off soon, and that this one could go right down to the wire.
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