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Bucs’ GM says improvement must come quickly for Pirates

By Will Graves The Associated Press PITTSBURGH — Ben Cherington believes the Pittsburgh Pirates are getting better, they’re just not doing it fast enough. The general manager hopes a coaching shakeup can help speed up the process. While manager Derek Shelton will return in 2025, hitting coach Andy Haines and bullpen coach Justin Meccage will not. The team dismissed both on Wednesday, three days after the Pirates finished 76-86 for a second straight season despite the arrival of rookie ace Paul Skenes. “What I believe we need to do is develop just more cohesion, tighter ...

Skenes earns BA top honor

From Mirror, wire reports PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes was named Baseball America’s 2024 Rookie of the Year on Monday. Skenes is the second player from the Pirates to be named the publication’s rookie of the year along with Andrew McCutchen in 2009. The 22-year-old Skenes went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA and 170 strikeouts. Braves, Mets clinch ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves bounced back from a stunning loss in the first game of a makeup doubleheader, claiming the last postseason berth with a 3-0 win over the Mets in the nightcap Monday after New York clinched a ...

Second half disappoints Bucs fans

By John Hartsock The 2024 season was hoped by everybody in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization, as well as many of the team’s fans, to be the final and most eventful and successful one in the Bucs’ projected five-year rebuilding plan. And therefore, its importance was significantly magnified. After going through four years of growing pains that included two consecutive seasons of 100 or more losses in 2021 and 2022, the Bucs finished with a 76-86 record in 2023, an improvement of 14 victories from the year before. The 2024 season was anticipated as one in which the light ...

Bucs split final two of season

NEW YORK — Alex Verdugo hit a go-ahead, two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning and the New York Yankees ended the regular season with a 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday. Struggling for most of the second half, Verdugo snapped a 4-all tie by hitting a fastball from Carmen Mlodzinski into right field to score Austin Wells and Jasson Domínguez. Wells was hit by a pitch from Colin Holderman, and Domínguez walked. Following a walk by Jon Berti, Verdugo delivered his fourth hit in 24 at-bats with the bases loaded. Saturday’s game Paul ...

Reynolds leads Bucs to victory

The Associated Press NEW YORK — Bryan Reynolds homered twice, including a tiebreaking two-run drive in the eighth inning that lifted the Pittsburgh Pirates over the Yankees 4-2 on Friday night and delayed New York from clinching home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs. Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s two-run single put the Yankees ahead in the fifth inning but Nick Gonzales and Bryan Reynolds hit consecutive homers off Carlos Rodon in the the sixth. “I said, ‘You ever get two at Yankee Stadium?’ And he said, ‘no.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve seen people get two ...

Civale too much for Pirates

By John Perrotto The Associated Press PITTSBURGH — Aaron Civale pitched six scoreless innings in his last start before the postseason and Joey Ortiz was a home run short of the cycle as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 on Thursday. Civale (8-9) allowed three hits, struck out five and walked one. He is 6-1 with a 2.57 ERA in his last nine starts. “He just continues to impress me as a pitcher,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “In this day and age to see a pitcher like that … he had pinpoint control today.” Ortiz, a rookie third baseman, ...