Pirates' Don Kelly Gets Brutally Honest About Slump
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PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates are playing their worst baseball of 2026 and manager Don Kelly knows it.
The Pirates suffered another loss, this time an 8-2 defeat to the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park on Aug. 13, with the game almost over soon after the Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, with poor pitching, hitting and defense on display.
Kelly spoke postgame and unlike his normal defense of his team, he spoke on his frustrations with the team and why he was most disappointed in this loss.
"We have to compete," Kelly said postgame vs. SportsNet Pittsburgh. "Today was not good enough. I felt like we felt sorry for ourselves and didn’t compete with the fight that we have all season, and we have to be better. We have to find a way, and we have to dig deep in the clubhouse, players, staff, everybody, and find a way."
Pirates Throwing 2026 Season Away
The Pirates had a strong start to the season and were competitive through the first half, staying in the National League Wild Card race.
Pittsburgh has been awful since coming back from the All-Star break, posting an 8-17 record, losing seven straight series and falling six games below .500, 58-64.
The Pirates, just a little more than two weeks ago on July 27, held the third spot in the NL Wild Card race, but have since gone 2-12 and are now six games back.
It's been a few reasons for the Pirates' downfall, with starting pitching living up to expectations, offense struggling as a whole, but especially against left-handed pitching, poor defensive showing and a bullpen that is only just getting good, particularly after the trade deadline.
Pittsburgh has been especially poor over their past three games, all losses, scoring just three runs total, and not getting the hiting they've needed.
Jared Jones, Paul Skenes and Carmen Mlodzinski all pitched poorly during this stretch and the Pirates bullpen hasn't had the chance to really make its mark.
Kelly usually sticks up for his team after a defeat and has done so during this stretch, but was frustrated with the entirety of this loss to the Marlins, with problems throughout their performance.
"They have. Everyday," Kelly said on his team's resiliency. "The fight has been phenomenal up until this point, but today, it was just not good enough. We haven't been playing good enough baseball. The mistakes on the bases, not getting over, covering first base. There's just a lot of things that we can't let slide. We have to be better at and that's what it's going to take to pull out of it."
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Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.