Pirates End Season With Loss To Yankees
The Pittsburgh Pirates' 2024 season is now in the books after a 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees.
The Pirates and Yankees exchanged leads through the first three innings before Pittsburgh knotted the game up at 4-4 on an RBI double from catcher Joey Bart in the top of the fifth inning. Both teams didn't plate a run for two innings, then Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo gave them the lead with a two-run single off Carmen Mlodzinski with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Former Pirates relief pitcher Clay Holmes entered for the Yankees in the ninth inning and worked a scoreless ninth inning to help New York avoid the sweep and earn his 30th save of the season.
Bart went 2-4 with an RBI and Joshua Palacios was 2-3 with 2 RBIs in the loss. Jared Triolo drove in the other run of the game for Pittsburgh.
Luke Weaver earned the win for the Yankees after pitching a scoreless eighth inning, improving his record to 7-3. Colin Holderman was on the hook for the loss after allowing one run in 1.1 innings of work, dropping his record to 3-6.
The series win was the Pirates' first against the Yankees since 2008 and their first in franchise history at Yankee Stadium. Pittsburgh finished its season 76-86, matching their record from last season.
Now, the Pirates will set their sights on the offseason and attempt to build a playoff-caliber team around Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz and the dynamic duo of Paul Skenes and Jared Jones atop their starting rotation. Among the first decisions will be deciding to bring back general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton, though, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal indicated that both appear to be safe for the time being.
Even if they both return, there's no disputing that this is the most important offseason of their tenure. Through their five seasons together, the Pirates have gone 294-414 and have yet to play meaningful baseball with playoff implications in the latter half of September.
Pittsburgh has a few key pieces in place that can anchor a playoff team. Now, they need to round out the roster with other players who can break their nine-year streak of missing the playoffs.
