THE BULLPEN

     Put me in coach! Our Pittsburgh Pirates continue their series with the Chicago Cubs tonight at PNC Park. These are your keys for tonight's game. 1)What a shame it is when you spend all day looking forward to watching your team play later that night only to see that team not show up. That was the case last night when the Cubs crushed the Pirates 14-3. I don't know about you, but Mrs. Black-N-Gold is not the least bit impressed with the Bucs jack of all trades/master of none bench. To have 1 super-utility man is 1 thing (think 2014 JHay or last season's SRod) but to have an entire bench full of them? That's just ridiculous. This continues to become more and more apparent. Especially now that UTIL Adam Frazier is on the 10 day DL with a hammy. What does the Pittsburgh Baseball Club do? They call up RH Dovydas Neverauskas from Indy. Too bad the Bucs gave away 3 outfielders within the last year: Wily Garcia-waived in the offseason, off to a scorching start at Triple A & played in the White Sox All-Garcia outfield last week, Keon Broxton-expected to be a breakout star for the Brewers this year after coming over for perpetual Triple A player Jason Rogers a few years ago, Harold Ramirez-part of the Liriano salary dump. True, all of these players were let go because we had The Outfield of Dreams. Well that dream is now officially a nightmare. The face that the FO didn't prepare for this is what's most frustrating. Sure, you can't prepare for a suspension but it's not like Marte and Polanco haven't been injury riddled during their careers. Speaking of Polanco, please put his picture on the side of a milk carton because this kid has disappeared. In other words, ya need to do more Hit, Run, & Score! 2)The clock struck midnight on the Pirates last night as the starting pitching, their one saving grace, turned into a pumpkin. We'll see if RH Gerrit Cole, 1-2, 4.70 ERA. can get this team back on the winning track. All aboard the Cole Train for a win! 3)On the bright side of last night's fiasco (you mean there's a bright side?), the Bucs only recorded 2 errors in the game. That's impressive that this team's run total exceeded their errors. But still, the miscues continue. Gimme a D! Gimme a Fense! What's that spell? D-Fense! Let's Go Bucs!!!!!