Skenes, Chandler, and whoever else can take the ball — that's Pittsburgh's rotation now

The Pirates are 72-74 with 16 games left and six back of the last wild card, and their pitching staff looks considerably different than it did two weeks ago. Braxton Ashcraft — 15-6, the anchor of this rotation all year — is on the 15-day IL. Mitch Keller is on the 60-day. Kirby Yates, who had been quietly excellent out of the bullpen, is also unavailable. That's three arms gone, and Pittsburgh needs to win nearly everything left to have any conversation about October.

What remains is Paul Skenes and Bubba Chandler at the top, with Jared Jones stretched into a larger role behind them. Skenes and Chandler have both logged over 150 innings this season, so asking more of them down the stretch is its own kind of risk. Jones has the strikeout stuff to hold a lineup — 10.5 K/9 on the year — but he's been used carefully, and 16 games in 16 days is a different ask than his usual workload.

The bullpen picture isn't clean either. Mason Montgomery has been the steadiest arm in the pen all season, and the Pirates will lean on him heavily. But Carmen Mlodzinski — who has been used as both a starter and a late-inning option — has been shaky lately, and Yohan Ramírez has seen his role quietly shrink. Neither is someone you want carrying the back end of close games right now.

The 7-3 stretch over the last ten games is real, and the offense has been good enough to stay in it. But six games back with 16 to play requires an almost perfect run, and the Pirates are going to need arms they haven't fully counted on yet to get there.