Horwitz on offense: 'I think we're gonna start showing better'
The Pirates went a record-tying 26 games without scoring more than four runs, and have now generated five-plus in back-to-back games for the first time since April 6 and 7 when they scored five runs against the Yankees and eight against the Cardinals.
The team is still 16 games under .500 and 13.5 games behind the first-place Cubs in the National League Central standings. It would certainly take a lot for things to turn around in a drastic way. But some of the things that have been done offensively the last two nights have helped increase the confidence level heading into this afternoon’s matchup with the Brewers.
“Everyone keeps talking about that streak, but I mean, in reality, it just comes down to taking better at-bats, swinging at better pitches and doing damage when we get those pitches," SpencerHorwitz told me this morning. "The streak is whatever, and yes, the monkey is off our back, good. But we know what we're capable of. I think we're gonna start showing better."
The Pirates have won three of their last four games, but they are still one of the worst offensive teams in Major League Baseball. The numbers clearly support that fact, and they shouldn't be ignored. There has been a small ounce of progress made over these last two days, though, as they've generated 11 runs of support on 21 hits in this series against Milwaukee. Six different players have produced multi-hit games, including Horwitz, Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz, Andrew McCutchen, Adam Frazier and IsiahKiner-Falefa. The latter two had three hits apiece in Friday's win.
"It's contagious and I think it's been building. As we talked about, that fifth inning (Wednesday) stands out to me where it's a really frustrating inning for the hitters, where you're hitting balls that hard, that far and they end up being outs and hitting isn't fair," DonKelly said. "Sometimes you're going to get the cheap one but how do we continue to have that feeling and build that confidence out of squaring balls up and know that it's going to result in hits and eventually it's going to break through? I'm glad that, last night, six runs, like you said the other day, we weren't really caught up in the whole 'four run thing,' it stinks going through that, but it wasn't a dialogue. It was knowing we are going to come out of this and we're going to score, we want to score more than five."
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THE ASYLUM
José Negron
6:03 pm - 05.24.2025North ShoreHorwitz on offense: 'I think we're gonna start showing better'
The Pirates went a record-tying 26 games without scoring more than four runs, and have now generated five-plus in back-to-back games for the first time since April 6 and 7 when they scored five runs against the Yankees and eight against the Cardinals.
The team is still 16 games under .500 and 13.5 games behind the first-place Cubs in the National League Central standings. It would certainly take a lot for things to turn around in a drastic way. But some of the things that have been done offensively the last two nights have helped increase the confidence level heading into this afternoon’s matchup with the Brewers.
“Everyone keeps talking about that streak, but I mean, in reality, it just comes down to taking better at-bats, swinging at better pitches and doing damage when we get those pitches," Spencer Horwitz told me this morning. "The streak is whatever, and yes, the monkey is off our back, good. But we know what we're capable of. I think we're gonna start showing better."
The Pirates have won three of their last four games, but they are still one of the worst offensive teams in Major League Baseball. The numbers clearly support that fact, and they shouldn't be ignored. There has been a small ounce of progress made over these last two days, though, as they've generated 11 runs of support on 21 hits in this series against Milwaukee. Six different players have produced multi-hit games, including Horwitz, Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz, Andrew McCutchen, Adam Frazier and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The latter two had three hits apiece in Friday's win.
"It's contagious and I think it's been building. As we talked about, that fifth inning (Wednesday) stands out to me where it's a really frustrating inning for the hitters, where you're hitting balls that hard, that far and they end up being outs and hitting isn't fair," Don Kelly said. "Sometimes you're going to get the cheap one but how do we continue to have that feeling and build that confidence out of squaring balls up and know that it's going to result in hits and eventually it's going to break through? I'm glad that, last night, six runs, like you said the other day, we weren't really caught up in the whole 'four run thing,' it stinks going through that, but it wasn't a dialogue. It was knowing we are going to come out of this and we're going to score, we want to score more than five."
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