DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

So, this is how it’s going to be, then?

The 2014 edition of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club isn’t going to back into anything because it, unlike its predecessor, won’t have that choice. It won’t have any 17-games-over-.500 starting point for the pennant race. It won’t have anyone in the rear view mirror, only what’s right there in the windshield.

It’ll have to be the hard way.

It’ll have to be every foot-cracking, rib-smacking injury withstood, every bad bounce shrugged off, every blown lead overcome, every lousy loss showered away.

And all those wonderfully uplifting wins, too.

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

What a smooth, systematic and satisfying W that was Monday night at PNC Park, huh? 

Oh, not the game you watched?

Well, bear with me here, because at the fork in the stadium’s tunnel where one goes left for the home clubhouse, right for the visitors, I chose the latter for the first time in a long time in search of a wholly different perspective for what at least feels like a rather tired tale.

You know, the one that ends Cardinals 3, Pirates 2.

“You’ll take any kind of win,” Mike Matheny was saying in the visiting manager’s office, looking like he might just bust out a cigar. “But that’s a good one.”

And so it was, from the opposite perspective.

Oh, we all know what it is from the home perspective by now.

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

The general consensus around PNC Park’s home clubhouse late Wednesday night was that the Pirates’ 3-2, bottom-of-the-ninth, come-from-behind, seven-game-losing-streak-ending, Gerrit-Cole-revitalizing victory over the Braves was no big deal.

Gaby Sanchez, whose sac fly finished it with fireworks, might have summarized the mindset best: “We don’t get caught up in anything other than the now.” 

The general consensus was, of course, bunk.

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

The Pirates do stupid things sometimes.

Can we start there?

It’s stupid to have Brent Morel, Jayson Nix and Michael Martinez on the same bench, batting, respectively .143, .137 and .128.

It’s stupid to have Morel start at third base under any circumstance, much less in this latest loss, 7-3 to the Braves on Monday night at PNC Park, much less when a team was trying in vain to cut off a losing streak before it hit six.

And it goes far beyond stupid to have Morel bat in the bottom of the sixth, with the score 6-3, runners at second and third and no outs, when those runs are imperative, and strike out.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

This is on Pedro Alvarez.

Honestly, I’m tired of tiptoeing around it, tired of hearing and reading every other imaginable excuse for why these dogged, determined and, yes, talented Pirates haven’t been able to assume anything more than a short-lived hold on contention this summer. Or, in the context of their current five-game losing streak, why they’re suddenly in peril of falling out of contention entirely.

Sure, the injuries have hurt, especially those of Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Gerrit Cole. The list of blame could also tally up Francisco Liriano’s customary off-year, Charlie Morton’s relentless losing, Jason Grilli’s early blowups, Neal Huntington’s maddening summer-long denial about his bullpen, all these bench guys even their wives wouldn’t recognize, and it could climb all the way up to Bob Nutting’s payroll still being several million shy of acceptable and all the usual suspects.

Devour that list as you will.

But here’s the cold truth once you’re done with the distractions: No single factor has weighed this team down more than that the defending National League home run champion, around whom a lineup and an infield and to some extent an organization have been built, has been an unmitigated bleeping disaster.

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

LATROBE, Pa. — Sign Russell Martin!

Hang on, let’s try that again with the appropriate gusto: SIGN RUSSELL MARTIN!

Much better.

Honestly, I couldn’t type that sentence with any more conviction if I pounded the keys through my Macbook with a mallet. And if there’s anyone following Pittsburgh sports, intensely or informally, who doesn’t share that sentiment with the same pulse, I’m unaware of them. The retaining of the Pirates’ catcher has become the cause celebre of the summer, from social media to talk shows to that one bigmouth the other night screaming from PNC Park’s upper deck, “Sign Russ now, Buccos! Do it!”

Again, consider that seconded.

At the same time, though, let’s consider whether that’s wishful thinking or holds any basis in reality.

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All the flags beyond PNC Park’s outfield fences flap in the same direction. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

A smooth, autumnal breeze drifted down the Ohio Valley, up the Allegheny and right through PNC Park on this Tuesday night. The marquee showed Pirates vs. Tigers in a duel of contenders, the place was pretty much packed again, and the evening as a whole was about as pristine as one could hope for baseball in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The pennants stayed up.

That’s what got me, if you want to know.

Not sure how many fans ever notice those nine black and gold pennants, commemorating the franchise’s World Series and/or National League championships, lining the upper riverwalk beyond center field. They’re easily missed, even though each is individually lit, each so vital in importance. But on this night, they stood tall. And they stood the whole time. The breeze kept them perked up from Edinson Volquez’s first pitch to his fantastic stab to the final out of a 4-2 deflating of Detroit that both engaged and enthralled the crowd of 34,919 and, more important, pushed the Pirates within 1 1/2 games of the Brewers.

It’s a pennant race, Pittsburgh. We’ve got ourselves a pennant race, and I’ll be damned if the pennants themselves haven’t taken notice.

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