DK's Daily Shot of Pirates: Pivot points 

When we leapfrog at least one of the six teams in front of us for the wildcard, get back to me.....

We need an outfielder, and I think it's time to acknowledge that we have a serious problem at 3rd base. I don't know if Hayes is hurt, but his bat is terrible and even his defense is down this season. Shame they fired the one guy who could help him reach his potential.

Management has never cared.. they take your money because you keep giving it to them and that’s all they really care about. They’re providing themselves and their families with wealth and luxury that you and I will never see, all while being absolutely awful at their jobs… imagine being year 5 into a rebuild and STILL not caring and punting the season away and still having a job? I can’t.

I still agree heavily with yesterday's main point. Package a trade with Chandler, Fleming, and maybe a solid young position player prospect down still in developmental and package it with some cash for a solid middle of the lineup bat that will be there for the couple seasons. We NEED that one big bat on offense to build Reynolds, Cruz, Cutch, and the rest around and spark more runs.

When winning games, it's great, but when losing games with great pitching, it's just not good. Then comes a loss when Pitching and batting is flat out not there. I give credit for this win, but see a need for some better bats. Also some pitching. The uncontrolled wavering needs to be fixed. I would love to see a better fix. Thank you DK Great show. Happy fourth of July

DK, I love you, but clutch is real. In all my years playing sports, you would see guys rise up and play out of their minds in big moments. Then on the other hand some guys would just shrink. These are humans playing and pressure makes people react in different ways. Think of the guys they say have it, they perform in clutch, big moments or the guys who play awesome all game then in a big moment just choke. Keep up the good work DK!

Great game to watch

Wins are what it's all about. Unfortunately, Cherington and Nutting don't know that.

At the end of this stretch against the Braves Cards Mets and Brewers will show what this team is made of. Is anyone noticing that Skenes' starts are being wasted and is anyone alarmed about the number of HRs he is allowing each start ??? A key stat nobody talks about is 2 out RBI and the Bucs are terrible and they still do not have a regular hitting .300 or better. So itis goingto be another frustrating summer of unrealised potential

I couldn't watch the game due to holiday travel, but I was very excited when I discovered the final score. I'd love to see the Pirates play with more consistent drive and motivation, since the games are so much more fun with that level of energy. I'd also like to see the players experience something meaningful to look forward to, especially in the second half of the season. The Pirates deserve to feel more than occasionally good about the team and themselves in the coming months. Even a single thoughtful decision on behalf of the players would absolutely be an enormous improvement. I'm not suggesting that I think the Pirates should try to make the playoffs-- I sincerely don't believe they should while the current organization is intact. There are way too many internal problems for that to be a reasonable wish, and I'd prefer to see these players attempt to thrive under a completely different leadership group. However, if Cherington isn't going anywhere, and he plans to make a token move just to show everyone that he did "something," he should change his typical approach just once and make one key decision that might inspire the Pirate players in the first season of Skenes, Jones, Keller, etc. The players should at least be able to have a more meaningful end to a season than they're likely going to have otherwise. There's very clear evidence that Nutting, Cherington (and even Shelton at various times) take these Pirate players completely for granted. That's one of the worst qualities in a manager-- and in MLB, it becomes a very public and visual form of disrespect. Happy Independence Day, everyone-- and I'm going to take it a step further: #freethePirateplayers

I'd like to see them acquire Daulton Varsho from Toronto. Good bat, excellent fielder and Toronto should be sellers.

Can they please stop with Edward Olivares now. The guy shouldn't be playing regularly. He's hitting .200 in his last 15 games and no extra base hits since May 26th. 0-4 last night, is the guy Shelton routinely hits in the cleanup spot? Wow wee, really impossible to understand. It was good to see the bats pick up the pitching last night for once. Tellez is staying locked in after his good June. He played all around good baseball last night. Cutch gets that walk in the 10th and Reynolds comes up with a clutch hit, credit to him there, he has struggled in those situations in the past. Cruz appears to be having more fun out there which bodes well for him overall. He's still up and down though I think that is just the player he is and it is going to take time for him to hopefully get the experience and outgrow it. Last night was a great stride for him showing he can do it in a big situation. Credit to Shelton for subbing Triolo to run for Bart. Taylor bunting with two strikes is absolutely awful and fortunately that didn't come back to bite them. Happy 4th, Let's Go Bucs! We need a series win.

The 25 man needs a SERIOUS makeover. Suwinski, Oliveras and Grandal need to be removed. Get Pegeuro up and get him plenty of at bats. Get a consistent outfield bat, with a decent prospect pkg.

Need an outfield bat

Suwinski and Grandal gotta go.

Go get Jesse Winker and Kevin pillar. It solves your outfield issues and you wouldn’t need to give much of anything.

This team needs a makeover. C'mon Cherington!!!

There’s no such thing as clutch, but there is an absence of clutch, literally makes no sense

Let's see. Jones denied the win -- as usual. The bullpen allows the tie, and then they pull out the win. It's good they won, but they should have won 3-1. That's ALWAYS what happens Starter leaves, bullpen implodes. We should add this to death and taxes: starter can't win if he leaves before a complete game. Look at Skenes.

Why get excited, the Pirates are still going to end up losing 2 out of 3 to the Cardinals. This team still blows.