The Pirates lose and lose often. Many times, the single reason they lose a game is a hit or play by the other team. But to consistently lose like they've done for 15 years, they have to do things poorly all on their own. And they do that a lot, even if they don't all get mentioned in the paper the next day. Here is the list from one game:
Top of 1st
First two hitters get on. 3-4-5 hitters coming up. Great opportunity. Nope. Bay grounds into a DP and LaRoche continues his and our misery with a weak ground out.
Bottom of 1st
McLouth misses the cutoff man, run scored anyway. If ball was cutoff the runner was an easy out at second.
Bottom of 2nd
Cubs with runners at first and second, tapper back to Duke. Instead of throwing to second for an easy double play, Duke throws to third for the force and they only get one out. With the pitcher up next, a double play would likely have ended the inning.
Bottom of 4th
Noone in particular to blame on this play except that these things happen to the Bucs and other bad teams: man on first and a hard hit grounder right to the second baseman should be a double play. Except the Cubs put on the hit and run, the ball goes into right center, and the runner scores all the way from first. The hitter winds up on second. On what could have been a double play. Also, Duke has hit two batters in the inning.
Bottom of 5th
Immediately after the Bucs score 3, to make the score 5-3, Soto leads off with a single. Cedeno is up and squares to bunt, but the new pitcher Osoria instead throw 2 balls. With an 0-2 count, the Cubs take the bunt off and let Cedeno swing. He promptly doubles and Soto scores easily. The Bucs somehow let the Cubs score instead of getting an out. Next up is a pinch hitter for the pitcher and LaRoche commits an error allowing another run to score (this after LaRoche struck out with the bases loaded in the top of the 5th to end the inning). Batista then botches a ball that will go down as a single but could have been turned into an out. Then the Bucs luck out after Osoria cant catch a bunt and the ball caroms away. Doumit picks up the ball and for some reason, the runner on third stops and retreats to third, but Doumit throws him out. Almost out of the inning, but Sanchez throws a double play relay into the dirt and LaRoche can't scoop it allowing a run to score and the inning to continue. Again, no error but because the inning continues...Ramirez hits a 2-out, 2-run HR. 10-3 Cubs. Then Osoria picks up a swinging bunt that could have gone foul with no chance to throw out the hitter. At least that causes no damage as the next hitter flies out to end the misery.
Bottom of 6th
Marte is on to throw gas on the fire. He starts by walking the leadoff hitter. Then walks another before eventually Lee singles in two more. Ramirez singles in another. Nothing teh Bucs did wrong this inning except throw batting practice. 13 runs for the Cubs in two straight days. The game is over and not worth following anymore.
The Bucs will lose and a lot of it is due to the lack of a clutch hit, very poor pitching and continued shabby defense. That is what you will read about tomorrow in the papers - something along the lines of Duke not having his best stuff and continuing to get hit hard. Which is true, but as noted above, the Bucs made errors of many varieties in this game in virtually every inning the Cubs were hitting. These mistakes didn't explicitly lose the game today bu they are things that go on all the time that cause the Bucs to lose with stunning regularity and are the things that you would hope a new manager and management would focus on fixing. Fast.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now that they will and they'll still finish:
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