I mean, what's left to say? What's left to ask? Heck, why even bother with the people bungling what should be a bona fide blessed stage of these Pirates' evolution? I didn't. I went to take Rowdy Tellez's temperature instead. Because, hey, if one puts thought into it, it was Ben Cherington, not Rowdy, who paid Rowdy $3.
2 million this past winter when plenty of better first baseman were available. And it was Derek Shelton, not Rowdy, who penciled Rowdy's name into the lineup for this Thursday series finale against the Giants that, anywhere else in Major League Baseball, would've been viewed as -- gasp! -- a pivotal game. Instead of .
.. Giants 7, Pirates 6 .
Another blown five-run lead . Another wasted grand slam , this by Joey Bart as a sequel to Bryan Reynolds' the previous night. Another thrown-away quality start by another young phenom pitcher, this by Paul Skenes as a sequel to Jared Jones the previous night.
Another ...
uh-huh, this: pic.twitter.com/Zgww2dYJgL That's staring at strike three with the bases loaded and one out, that's 0 for 4 with two Ks, and that's .
175 for the starting baseman in Year 5 of this front office. Shelton's assessment: "He needs to have better at-bats." Yowza.
So yeah, I asked Rowdy, still one of the goodest dudes through all this, how he was holding up. “It was a tough one for all of us. Tough last two," he'd initially reply in the plural.
"We played a good series in Chicago. I think we've shown that we're a capable ballclub to win games. Tho.