The Pirates went 59 and 65 under Don Kelly as Manager this year. That is a .476 win percentage which is a huge improvement over the win percentage under Derek Shelton this year which was .316.
That is a huge improvement that gives hope for next year. Another sign for hope next year is the Bucs streaky tendencies this year under Kelly. If the Pirates can shorten their losing streaks they are a .500 team.
You might notice the win and loss streaks by the Pirates this year if you watched most of the games or checked the scores every morning. Below is a list of the outcomes for each game under Kelly this year.
- May 9: Pirates 3, Braves 2 🟩(W)
- May 10: Pirates 2, Braves 3 🟥(L)
- May 11: Pirates 4, Braves 3 🟩(W)
- May 12: Pirates 3, Mets 4 🟥(L)
- May 13: Pirates 1, Mets 2 🟥(L)
- May 14: Pirates 4, Mets 0 🟩(W)
- May 16: Pirates 4, Phillies 8 🟥(L)
- May 17: Pirates 2, Phillies 5 🟥(L)
- May 18: Pirates 0, Phillies 1 🟥(L)
- May 19: Pirates 1, Reds 7 🟥(L)
- May 20: Pirates 1, Reds 0 🟩(W)
- May 21: Pirates 3, Reds 1 🟩(W)
- May 22: Pirates 5, Brewers 8 🟥(L)
- May 23: Pirates 6, Brewers 5 🟩(W)
- May 24: Pirates 2, Brewers 1 🟩(W)
- May 25: Pirates 5, Brewers 6 🟥(L)
- May 26: Pirates 0, Diamondbacks 5 🟥(L)
- May 27: Pirates 9, Diamondbacks 6 🟩(W)
- May 28: Pirates 10, Diamondbacks 1 🟩(W)
- May 30: Pirates 2, Padres 3 🟥(L)
- May 31: Pirates 5, Padres 0 🟩(W)
June 2025
- Jun 1: Pirates 4, Padres 6 🟥(L)
- Jun 3: Pirates 0, Astros 3 🟥(L)
- Jun 4: Pirates 3, Astros 0 🟩(W)
- Jun 5: Pirates 2, Astros 8 🟥(L)
- Jun 6: Pirates 5, Phillies 4 🟩(W)
- Jun 7: Pirates 2, Phillies 1 🟩(W)
- Jun 8: Pirates 2, Phillies 1 🟩(W)
- Jun 9: Pirates 10, Marlins 3 🟩(W)
- Jun 10: Pirates 2, Marlins 3 🟥(L)
- Jun 11: Pirates 5, Marlins 2 🟩(W)
- Jun 12: Pirates 2, Cubs 3 🟥(L)
- Jun 13: Pirates 2, Cubs 1 🟩(W)
- Jun 14: Pirates 1, Cubs 2 🟥(L)
- Jun 15: Pirates 2, Cubs 3 🟥(L)
- Jun 17: Pirates 3, Tigers 7 🟥(L)
- Jun 19: Pirates 2, Tigers 9 🟥(L)
- Jun 19: Pirates 8, Tigers 4 🟩(W)
- Jun 20: Pirates 2, Rangers 6 🟥(L)
- Jun 21: Pirates 2, Rangers 3 🟥(L)
- Jun 22: Pirates 8, Rangers 3 🟩(W)
- Jun 23: Pirates 5, Brewers 4 🟩(W)
- Jun 24: Pirates 3, Brewers 9 🟥(L)
- Jun 25: Pirates 2, Brewers 4 🟥(L)
- Jun 27: Pirates 9, Mets 1 🟩(W)
- Jun 28: Pirates 9, Mets 2 🟩(W)
- Jun 29: Pirates 12, Mets 1 🟩(W)
- Jun 30: Pirates 7, Cardinals 0 🟩(W)
July 2025
- Jul 1: Pirates 1, Cardinals 0 🟩(W)
- Jul 2: Pirates 5, Cardinals 0 🟩(W)
- Jul 4: Pirates 0, Mariners 6 🟥(L)
- Jul 5: Pirates 0, Mariners 1 🟥(L)
- Jul 6: Pirates 0, Mariners 1 🟥(L)
- Jul 7: Pirates 3, Royals 9 🟥(L)
- Jul 8: Pirates 3, Royals 4 🟥(L)
- Jul 9: Pirates 3, Royals 4 🟥(L)
- Jul 11: Pirates 1, Twins 2 🟥(L)
- Jul 12: Pirates 4, Twins 12 🟥(L)
- Jul 13: Pirates 2, Twins 1 🟩(W)
- Jul 18: Pirates 1, White Sox 10 🟥(L)
- Jul 19: Pirates 4, White Sox 10 🟥(L)
- Jul 20: Pirates 2, White Sox 7 🟥(L)
- Jul 21: Pirates 3, Tigers 0 🟩(W)
- Jul 22: Pirates 8, Tigers 5 🟩(W)
- Jul 23: Pirates 6, Tigers 1 🟩(W)
- Jul 25: Pirates 0, Diamondbacks 1 🟥(L)
- Jul 26: Pirates 2, Diamondbacks 0 🟩(W)
- Jul 27: Pirates 6, Diamondbacks 0 🟩(W)
- Jul 28: Pirates 6, Giants 5 🟩(W)
- Jul 29: Pirates 3, Giants 1 🟩(W)
- Jul 30: Pirates 2, Giants 1 🟩(W)
August 2025
- Aug 2: Pirates 16, Rockies 17 🟥(L)
- Aug 2: Pirates 5, Rockies 8 🟥(L)
- Aug 3: Pirates 9, Rockies 5 🟩(W)
- Aug 4: Pirates 5, Giants 4 🟩(W)
- Aug 5: Pirates 1, Giants 8 🟥(L)
- Aug 6: Pirates 2, Giants 4 🟥(L)
- Aug 7: Pirates 7, Reds 0 🟩(W)
- Aug 8: Pirates 3, Reds 2 🟩(W)
- Aug 9: Pirates 1, Reds 2 🟥(L)
- Aug 10: Pirates 8, Reds 14 🟥(L)
- Aug 12: Pirates 1, Brewers 7 🟥(L)
- Aug 13: Pirates 0, Brewers 14 🟥(L)
- Aug 13: Pirates 5, Brewers 12 🟥(L)
- Aug 15: Pirates 3, Cubs 2 🟩(W)
- Aug 16: Pirates 1, Cubs 3 🟥(L)
- Aug 17: Pirates 3, Cubs 4 🟥(L)
- Aug 18: Pirates 5, Blue Jays 2 🟩(W)
- Aug 19: Pirates 3, Blue Jays 7 🟥(L)
- Aug 20: Pirates 2, Blue Jays 1 🟩(W)
- Aug 22: Pirates 9, Rockies 0 🟩(W)
- Aug 23: Pirates 5, Rockies 1 🟩(W)
- Aug 24: Pirates 4, Rockies 0 🟩(W)
- Aug 26: Pirates 6, Cardinals 7 🟥(L)
- Aug 27: Pirates 8, Cardinals 3 🟩(W)
- Aug 28: Pirates 2, Cardinals 1 🟩(W)
- Aug 28: Pirates 1, Cardinals 4 🟥(L)
- Aug 30: Pirates 4, Red Sox 2 🟩(W)
- Aug 30: Pirates 10, Red Sox 3 🟩(W)
- Aug 31: Pirates 2, Red Sox 5 🟥(L)
September 2025
- Sep 2: Pirates 9, Dodgers 7 🟩(W)
- Sep 3: Pirates 3, Dodgers 0 🟩(W)
- Sep 4: Pirates 5, Dodgers 3 🟩(W)
- Sep 5: Pirates 2, Brewers 5 🟥(L)
- Sep 6: Pirates 1, Brewers 4 🟥(L)
- Sep 7: Pirates 2, Brewers 10 🟥(L)
- Sep 9: Pirates 2, Orioles 3 🟥(L)
- Sep 10: Pirates 1, Orioles 2 🟥(L)
- Sep 11: Pirates 2, Orioles 3 🟥(L)
- Sep 12: Pirates 5, Nationals 6 🟥(L)
- Sep 13: Pirates 5, Nationals 1 🟩(W)
- Sep 14: Pirates 3, Nationals 4 🟥(L)
- Sep 15: Pirates 0, Cubs 4 🟥(L)
- Sep 16: Pirates 1, Cubs 4 🟥(L)
- Sep 17: Pirates 4, Cubs 8 🟥(L)
- Sep 19: Pirates 3, Athletics 4 🟥(L)
- Sep 20: Pirates 2, Athletics 0 🟩(W)
- Sep 21: Pirates 11, Athletics 0 🟩(W)
- Sep 23: Pirates 4, Reds 2 🟩(W)
- Sep 24: Pirates 4, Reds 3 🟩(W)
- Sep 25: Pirates 1, Reds 2 🟥(L)
- Sep 26: Pirates 9, Braves 3 🟩(W)
- Sep 27: Pirates 3, Braves 1 🟩(W)
- Sep 28: Pirates 1, Braves 4 🟥(L)
You can tell by looking at the color in the list of games that there are green and red bunched with their own representing streaks.
Notable losing streaks can be found which include at least a 4 game losing streak and only winning one game during that span: May 12 - May 19th, June 14 - June 21, July 4 - July 20, August 9 - August 17, September 5 - September 19.
This is a really strange pattern to observe that the team would lose more than 4 games in a row and only win one during these stretches. Why not win two games during these long ranges of losing? Why lose at least 4 during these time ranges? Outside these time ranges under Kelly the Bucs never lost more than two in a row. How can that be? It is so weird. Stranger yet the biggest of these losing streaks happened around the two biggest events during the MLB season. One being the all-star break and draft, and the other being during September callups when the Bucs successfully clinched the third-best overall odds to win the 1st overall pick in next year's draft.
During May 12th to the 19th, Kelly was still getting his bearings just taking the reins on May 8th as the Pirates Skipper. The MLB had a Juneteenth celebration during June 14 - June 21 range and the 46th Annual Southern League All-Star Game was on Tuesday, June 19, 2025 at Regions Field in Birmingham, AL., but I am not sure if that would affect the play on the field.
Where I am going with this is that the back office would have been very busy during these losing streaks perhaps except for the Juneteenth celebration and Southern League All-Star game. Regardless, it was one of the weeks a league event was happening.
For some more context the other league events that occur during the year outside of these losing streak ranges is the Independent Futures League All-Star Game which took pace on July 22, two days after longest losing streak.
During August 9 - August 17 the following events happened which seem unrelated, MLB Player's Weekend and the MLB Little League Classic presented by New York Life when the Mets Played the Mariners in Williamsport, PA.
The only event on MLB.com's event page after March that did not land on one of the Pirate's losing streaks is the MLB Speedway Classic which was scheduled for August 2, but played August 3rd due to weather. The pirates lost 2 out of 3 games in Colorado during those days The Pirates had their worst pitching performance of the year in the Rockies series up to that point, and what ended up being the second worst pitching series of the year behind the last time the Brewers swept them later the same month during the August losing streak.
Here is a link to the MLB.com events page: MLB Events Calendar.
Here is a visual of the wins and losses during Kelly's time as manager this year.
The streaky behavior during almost all the MLB events during the Kelly tenure makes me think there was some intentional tanking or distractions happening fronted by the back office all leading to the third-best odds of winning the first overall pick in next year's mlb draft, and a reason to sell at the trade deadline. The Pirates even won 8 out of the last 9 games before the trade deadline making their players look good during that time, especially David Bednar.
Obviously I do not know if these claims are true, but it is fun to think about, and I think it gives some hope for next year if the Bucs can prevent these long losing streaks.