For a few innings Wednesday, it looked like the Pirates were just going to tee off on Gerrit Cole. Pittsburgh got to him early and often, and the Barstool Baseball account was tracking the carnage in real time as the Yankees ace kept serving up homers to a lineup that isn't supposed to scare anybody.
Bryan Reynolds circles the bases after taking Cole deep, the 4th homer he's allowed on the season.
That was homer number one. A little while later, Nick Gonzales did the same thing, his 6th of the year, and suddenly Cole looked like he'd lost the plot entirely with Pittsburgh up 2-0.
Nick Gonzales goes deep off Cole, his 6th homer of the season, pushing the Pirates lead.
Eric Hubbs flagged something else going on mid-game too, referencing a "crazy ruling" that went against the Yankees before praising Cole for battling through it and settling back in. Whatever the call was, it clearly rattled the building for a stretch before Cole found a groove again.
Eric Hubbs reacting to a disputed ruling mid-game and crediting Cole for refocusing afterward.
Crazy ruling. Good on Cole for locking back in and getting out of that bullshit
Then came the moment the whole account exists for. Down 3-0 in the 7th, Ben Rice unloaded a 3-run shot off the Pirates bullpen to tie the game, his 30th homer of the season, a milestone that had Barstool's feeds lighting up instantly. Hubbs summed up the vibe best, gushing that he doesn't know where his life would be without Rice right now.
Ben Rice's 3-run home run, his 30th of the year, ties the game against Pittsburgh.
Rice leading MLB in OPS and slugging with runners on base this season is exactly why that swing felt inevitable the moment the Pirates left a pitch over the plate. It was the kind of at-bat that's turned him into the Yankees' most trusted bat in big spots, and for a moment it looked like it might flip the whole game.
It didn't hold. Mitch Keller and the Pirates staff kept grinding through the middle innings scoreless, and that's what actually broke Barstool's baseball crew. Hubbs didn't hide his frustration afterward, pointing squarely at the offense going quiet right when it mattered instead of building off the Rice homer.
Eric Hubbs venting that letting Keller work through 5 scoreless innings was on the Yankees' bats.
Letting Keller get through 5 scoreless innings is unacceptable. Offense just isn’t good enough
The Pirates ultimately won it in extra innings, turning Rice's homer into a footnote instead of a turning point, which is exactly the kind of outcome that made Hubbs say afterward that he personally didn't love how the whole thing unfolded. Cole struck out double digits in the loss, extending his own strikeout streak as a Yankee, but strikeouts and a tying homer don't mean much when the lineup can't add on and the bullpen can't hold serve into extras.