Inside Conditions…Pirates' lukewarm performance won't cut it

The Pittsburgh Pirates were playing excellent baseball until last Friday, when their ship strayed from warm salty waters straight into a buzz saw disguised as a baseball team, namely the Washington Nationals.
At times it seemed as if the Nationals were an all-star team and the Pirates were a high school squad.
Well, Pittsburgh wasn’t quite that bad but the Pirates seemed very uptight and tense facing the Nationals.  This was as tight as I have seen the ball club since the first week of the 2015 season.
Let’s back up for a few moments. The Pirates began the month of June in San Francisco playing the SF Giants in a 3-game series, Pittsburgh took 2 out of 3. They traveled on to Atlanta where they took 2 out of 3 from the Braves.  Back to PNC Park where the home cooking needed to be a home remedy because the Buc’s lost 2 out of 3 to the lowly, cellar dwellers in the NL Central Division, the Milwaukee Brewers.
There is a slow electrical burn going on somewhere can’t you smell it? Pittsburgh then welcomed their comrades from “the city of brotherly love,” otherwise known as Philadelphia and promptly swept the Phillies back under the NL East rug beating the Phillies 3 straight.  I stated hearing Michael Jackson and his brothers singing the hit from their final “Victory” tour, “Can’t you feel it? The Pirates began to feel sort of “groovy.”  Why? Because the Bucs had their cannons locked and loaded, as they stood on deck ready for battle. Pittsburgh was just waiting to continue their “victory” celebration at the expense of the underperforming and undermanned Chicago White Sox who were about to sail their badly damaged “schooner” into the “mined harbor” of PNC Park. Can’t you feel it?  Bu..bu..but wait.   I’m beginning to stutter now.  Did I..I..I..men..men..men..tion,  tha..tha..that, th..th..Whi..Whi..White, So.. So..Sox have been hanging around the cellar of the American League Central Division for a good while now?  The Pirates continued on to Chicago to face the “Sox” at home where they beat them 2 out of 2, showing Chicago that their squad was in a deeper bind than the “Windy City’s” worst deep dish pizza.
In less than 48 hours the Pirates would be flying the “Jolly Roger” at half- mast after Pittsburgh was bombarded by the Washington Nationals because last Saturday the Pirates even became the victims of a get this…a no-hitter. Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer had a perfect no hitter going until Pirates pinch hitter Jose Tabata’s elbow got “nicked” preventing Scherzer from pitching a perfect game. The miniscule E.R.A. that was put up by the Pirates pitching staff 16 games prior to Pittsburgh sailing into Washington, DC was now more inflated than a hot air balloon.
This is not the time for the Pittsburgh Pirates to begin to believe the hype. Pittsburgh cannot survive and thrive being lukewarm, offensively or defensively because there is not much wiggle room between triumph and tragedy in Major League Baseball.  If you don’t believe me, ask Pirates pitcher Charlie Morton.
Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412.583.6741
He is also a contributing columnist for urbanmediatoday.com
Follow him on Twitter@ultrascribe