This gets harder after every one of these weird losses that follow the exact same pattern, but there was a baseball game today, and that's better than no baseball game. So let's start there...

1. Shin-Soo Choo went into today's game with a measly 3 home runs, and left with five. If he can rediscover his pop, this lineup looks just a bit better.

2. RAF Space Force Captain Esmil Rogers had another decent outing, which is good because my man Scott Barnes had a disaster. Please please please, front office, don't give up on him after today. Three years from now, Barnes & Rogers could be the new Raffy Left and Raffy Right.

3. The fact that all these losses fit the same pattern tells me that this is a team with very specific problems. We all know what they are. No consistency from the front end of the bullpen, frequent "disaster starts," and multiple black holes at the bottom of the lineup. That's not that many problems, and between pickups like Rogers and somebody like Santana or Kotchman finding it, they could break this pattern in a hurry.

The Pirates are coming into town. Lets make them walk the plank.