Walk Off Win. Pirates Fight Their Way To Victory.

Entering the day, the Pirates found themselves in danger of being swept by the Twins in a 4 game home-and-home series and extending their current losing streak to 8 games. During their current skid the Pirates have utilized any method you can think of to lose games and possibly even invented some new ways in the process; mostly wasting solid starts from their pitchers, exhibiting an overwhelming lack of offense and falling victim to regular breakdowns from the bullpen. At the present time Pittsburgh has a firm grasp on the cellar position in the NL Central with a record of 2-10 and a -20 run differential, 8 full games off the pace of the first place Chicago Cubs.

For Pittsburgh the young right JT Brubaker would be making his first major league start in his third appearance for the Pirates this season. Last year Brubaker would only start six games in between the AAA Indianapolis Indians and the Short Season A West Virginia Black Bears (6.2 innings of rehab) before being shut down with a right forearm strain. Unfortunately for Brubaker his return to the mound as a starter would not be the fairy tale beginning that he and his many supporters would be wishing for as he gave up 3 runs on 2 hits, including a 3-run homer to Miguel Sano, in the top of the first. After an efficient 2nd inning, Brubaker one again found himself in trouble once again in the top of the 3rd. With runners on 1st and 2nd he struck out Sano swinging and induced a fly out to Reynolds, ending the threat and his day. Through 3 innings his final line was 2 strikeouts, 2 walks and 3 earned runs on 4 hits.

Opposing Brubaker for the Twins would be off-season acquisition from the Dodgers, Kenta Maeda. Thus far on the season Maeda had performed very well; posting a 3.75 ERA, a .83 WHIP and a 2-0 record in 3 starts, while striking out 12 in as many innings of work. However, he wouldn’t execute his pitches quite as well to begin this contest, allowing the Pirates to get back into the game in the bottom of the second. After back to back singles by Colin Moran and Bryan Reynolds, Gregory Polanco would launch his first home run of the season on a line drive to right center field, knotting the game up at 3 piece.

Stratton would continue to work the 8th, retiring the first two Twins before giving way to Sam Howard after a single by Ehire Adrainza.

For the next 3 innings, Maeda would put it in cruise control, while Cody Ponce gave up solo homers in back to back innings, leaving the Pirates trailing 5-3 after six. Chris Stratton and Tyler Clippard would then combined for a scoreless 7th, setting up a battle of the late inning bullpens. Amid all of this the Pirates would muster a run on a ground out by Phillip Evans to make the score 5-4 going into the 9th inning.

In the bottom of the 9th Pittsburgh would once again call on their late inning magic. After a lead off single by Moran and a double by Reynolds, the stage was set for a game winning walk off single by Kevin Newman in the pinch hitting role. As two runs crossed the Pirates earned the walk off win and their first in over a week.

Tomorrow the Pirates will begin a three game weekend series versus the Tigers, looking to start a winning streak as Chad Kuhl takes the hill at 7:05 EST at PNC Park.

Pirates Fall 5-2 – Bell Surges, Williams Mows Them Down

On most nights I’d spend a decent amount of this column talking about hometown kid Randy Dobnak, and he was really good, tossing 6 innings of shut out ball, but tonight he wasn’t the story. Not alone at least.

Trevor Williams soared through 7 innings, giving up one run on just three hits. The run he gave up was a barely visible hit batsman and a bloop to left field. He had 9 swing and misses on his change up alone tonight. At one point he retired 13 straight Twins.

That’s a good summary of what Williams did tonight for the Pirates, but not an indication of the overall importance of what it meant for the club. News broke right before the game that Nick Burdi had been placed on the 45 day IL with an injury to his right elbow. Another hit for a unit that just cant take anymore.

No Pirates starter thus far has gone six full innings in this season, that would change tonight. Williams was everything he needed to be. Last week when Williams struggled in his start you’ll recall I labelled him a long man because he couldn’t get his pitch count under control. Prior to this contest he told Michael McHenry that he needed to not be afraid to come into the zone when he gets a batter to two strikes, he did exactly that. Kudos to Williams, that’s leadership. I’d like to see it more than once, but it’s a start.

Geoff Hartlieb came in and danced around loading the bases in the 8th to keep it a one run contest.

The Pirates bats were quiet, I know, put this on repeat. Bell got into one and drove a double to left and a bloop single, but aside from that, pedestrian at best. Even Moran has cooled.

Erik Gonzalez played a nice third base in his fifth straight start and recorded a hit. He’s probably the best pure defender on the club not named Reynolds and if his bat plays, don’t be shocked to see the Pirates continue to give him a test drive.

Hartlieb was asked to give the club a second inning tonight and I officially can’t question Shelton on his bullpen moves. There are no options, there aren’t any flawless trips through the back end of a game right now. Richard Rodriguez or Dovydas Neverauskas are neck and neck for who might be the closer right now.

Hartlieb surrendered a double to lead off against Buxton, then got a pop up and walked a man. Shelton called on Neverauskas to get those pesky two outs remaining. He gave up a base hit to Gonzalez making it 2-0. Then Kepler got into one, a Three run shot and Dovy officially has an ERA. 5-0 Twins.

JT Riddle got his first at bat of the season to lead off the inning and struck out. Noteworthy only because it was his first. Frazier walked, and Bell hit a garbage time homerun to center. 5-2

This was a nice game, well played overall but in the end if you’re forced to toss average pitchers at a lineup like the Twins bring with them, you aren’t going to win very often.

News & Notes:

  • I’m hardly breaking news but Nick Burdi is done for the season. If you’re looking for good news on that front, Keone Kela has now thrown two BP sessions at PNC. Probably not too long for him now. But that’s one guy
  • Josh Bell was 3 for 4 tonight a triple short of the cycle. More important his timing was on against three different pitchers. All from the left side, but honestly, he needed that and nothing could be better for the club.
  • Erik Gonzalez is making a case that he deserves to start over Newman right now. He’s hitting at least as well and plays a better infield. I’m not predicting that’s how it will work out but right now he looks like the better player.

Pirates Positively Have an Optimism Problem

The biggest problem with being positive about the Pirates is probably the simple fact that its always about the future. That was one of the biggest issues with Neal Huntington and his regime, even if you saw potential in the future, trusting they’d make it to the Pirates as a fully developed and ready to contribute player was a fool’s errand more often than not.

Suddenly a new regime takes over and some felt a little more comfortable to dip their toe in the prospect pool. Now it was ok to think Quinn Priester would get here on time and contribute. I mean it was based in nothing more than blind faith for most, but it didn’t matter why. The unknown is better than what we knew.

I could list out a potential rotation for 2022 that would look pretty good. Some would jump on with enthusiasm and find a way to watch the journey with that in their mind as a coping mechanism.

All that positivity, no matter how based in reality, is undermined by the failings of this ownership. Sure, you can point out how the payroll rose when the team was in contention last decade, and how they added at the deadline. Those are facts, not the musings of blind optimists. They also happened to be ever so little less than they ultimately needed to do.

For some coming so close actually seemed to make it worse. When the window closed it slammed shut and not for the reason a small-to-mid sized market should. Pulling the McCutchen and Cole deals should have brought about the tear down, instead they tried to sell us a continuation of competitiveness. We weren’t blind, there was no replacement for Gerrit Cole really. Even if you want to blame stupidity like Marte getting dinged for PEDs or injury like Jameson Taillon, moving right on to ‘the next window’ wasn’t likely. Nobody likes to stick their fingers in to have them slammed after the first time.

So, you get a whole new management group, took a few years too long in my opinion but it happened and as I said earlier, it opened a crack for people to let themselves believe someone new would finally do this right.

There are very real reasons to believe. Travis Williams left a good job with a rising program; hell, he left a sport he was fully immersed in and a reputation built up in an incestuous industry where reputation alone can almost guarantee work for life. He grew up in a winning organization and was helping to build another and somehow, he believed this owner, with his track record would give him what he needed to continue being successful.

Ben Cherington has done the job before, but he did it in a market that has money in Boston. He’s not the choice I had in mind, I wanted someone with small market experience like Milwaukee’s number two Matt Arnold. Even so, he has experience building through the draft and developing his own talent, so I’m on board.

Let’s take a break right here to jump back into the reasons that positivity is hard though, and here’s the good news, you can rightly blame Nutting.

Bob Nutting eventually did the right thing, credit where due, but he took too long to get there. In the long run this won’t matter, but it hampered a few things. It prevented Cherington from rebuilding the organization in one clean sweep. Many of the figureheads we knew from the Huntington era were moved with a few exceptions but beyond that the foot soldiers remain by in large. By the time he was hired and finished focusing on the most important task at hand, finding a manager, organizational musical chairs around the league had already pretty much ended. Scouts were working, evaluations were taking place for the draft, and all he could really do was enhance the training plans and increase the tools for development in the organization’s levels. Toss in an additional stable of analytics wonks and you have the list. He managed to get one trade done when he moved Marte for prospects.

What I’m saying here is really this simple, he hasn’t completed phase 1 of what he wants and needs to do.

If you expected him to come in and immediately clean house, you were disappointed. If you expected him to come in and add, again, disappointed. He’s explained this as needed evaluation, time to see who he has and what they can do.

I always took that as essentially saying he thinks the coaching was really bad here in Pittsburgh and new coaching might really bring out hidden talent already on the roster. OK, I thought, but what more could you need to see from some of these guys. Hey, he knows more than me I figured.

My questions only grew because if you just want to see what you have here, why go get a Riddle, Heredia, Dyson? This was explained too, wanting to emphasize defense as a way to improve pitching numbers and get better. Get better is really as close to a mantra as this management team has. Again, OK I said, it doesn’t hurt to have a veteran on the team who can still play a mean center field. I question how this jives with the manager starting a guy who never played the outfield in center but more on that later.

Derek Shelton came here from a successful rebuild. I won’t say successful club because that would denote, they’ve won anything. I mean, in a way, they won a division title, that would be nice but no success in the post season. We’re told he is analytics believing coach and he’ll embrace what the newly expanded nerd squad would provide. He hires a young but promising pitching coach in Oscar Marin and brings home Don Kelly as his bench coach.

Nice guy, clicks with the players, involves himself in the community.

Spring training was pretty normal all in all, until COVID.

Fast forward to today, a weird season, only 60 games long. Work stoppages hang over your head just about every day. At anytime your best player could call and tell you he has a tickle in his throat, and you know right then he’s out for 3 or 4 days even if he’s ok.

You never got to build up your pitchers as you wanted to. Your hitters haven’t faced live pitching in anger in four months and on top of all that many players you’d really like to have in the mix were injured, tested positive, or whatever happened to Kela.

What do we have to judge Shelton on after eleven games with all those factors involved? Three things, line ups, in game decisions and overall progression of players.

All three categories have ranged from odd to outright inconceivable. You know, you’ve watched.

Now I’m not talking about using Cole Tucker in the outfield, told you I’d get back to it, if anything this is something that gives me hope they’ll do the same with Oneil Cruz next season and not allow being blocked at a position to keep their best, or at least perceived best players off the roster.

Its more about ignoring statistics to not intentionally walk a batter. Ignoring statistics and sitting Osuna against right-handed pitching even though he faired better against them last year. Ignoring the real need for consistent at bats and a feeling of place in a batting order that comes with some level of ‘This is our best order’. Maybe we’ve seen it once, probably not, the way it’s going we’ll see about 49 more before we wrap things up on 2020. I kid, I’m not doing the math to see if it’s possible. Having an experienced reliever available yet bringing Del Pozo in to hold a lead only to later turn to that experienced reliever when the lead is gone.

Point is when it comes to optimism, nothing more tangible than believing in the manager and his ability to use what he does have effectively will crop up. Right now, he’s left me lacking. Doesn’t mean he won’t turn it around or improve, just means as of right now, I’m unimpressed.

Want to be mad and say same old Buccos? You can, I won’t argue with you. Until they actually do something different anyone who does is only arguing with hope. Want to assume it just can’t be done with Nutting as the owner? OK, again, it hasn’t been, you aren’t wrong. I’d ask why the hell you read all this first of all, and then I’d say with no satisfaction he isn’t going anywhere.

If you really want to understand why positivity has already waned its simple. First and most obvious, they’ve lost, and looked bad doing it. Worse they’ve managed their way out of at least two games, that shouldn’t happen even when your team is bad. Second, nobody was right. Everyone likes to be right and in this case nobody has been. People who predicted an immediate fire sale went ahead and just mentally postponed it until after 2020. People who predicted Cherington would patch holes to at least have fun on the way to retooling very quickly saw that wasn’t going to happen. Folks who believed Hurdle and Searage were driving a Porche with a blindfold and Shelton and Marin would rip that thing off and show what this puppy could do have been quickly brought back to Earth.

I personally find comfort in understanding. I understand there are some good pitching prospects in the system, but I also understand pointing to their projected arrival date is wrought with Jameson Taillon type journeys and believing that future rotation is already all present and accounted for in the system belies the reason Huntington was let go.

The best I can say is let them work, see what they do. The only one of the three new figureheads actually, visibly working is not making that easy.

Musgrove Gets Touched Up Early and The Pirates Fail To Rebound

On Monday night, up until the bottom of the 6th inning the Pirates seemed to have everything firing exactly the way they wanted it to; Cole Tucker homered to lead off the game, base knocks were bringing in runners and Derek Holland had it in cruise control. Then everything began to fail and what looked like certain victory turned into agonizing defeat. After only a few hours to wallow in our sorrows and complain as much as we could, the Buccos were back on the field to take on the Twins in a rare Tuesday afternoon matinee at Target Field with Big Joe on the mound, trying to get Pittsburgh back on track.

In his previous two outings Musgrove had made some crucial errors, allowing two home runs in each contest. However he gave the Pirates a fighting chance; giving up only three runs both times while striking out 15 total batters and finishing one out from a quality start both times. As he took the mound today, I was expecting more of the same. Unfortunately I couldn’t have been more wrong as he surrendered three runs in the first inning and an additional one in the second. After 84 pitches and loading the bases again in the 4th Musgrove’s day was finally over, but the damage wasn’t done as Sam Howard let one more run cross the plate. It should be noted that it could have easily been two if it wasn’t for yet another outfield assist by Bryan Reynolds to get Jorge Polanco at home. At the end of the day his final line for the game was an extremely disappointing 5 earned runs on 6 hits, 5 walks and only 2 strikeouts.

During the time that Musgrove was getting roughed up and knocked around the Pirates bats stayed fairly quiet as the accumulated only one run thanks to a triple from Reynolds and a follow up sac fly by Gregory Polanco. Then they went silent again until the 9th, which seems to be a pattern for this year’s Pirates. The 3 for 5 Phillip Evans and the 3 for 4 Erik Gonzalez were a part of this final charge, but once again it was too little to late because the Twins had expanded on their 5-1 lead by working Nick Turley for two runs in the 5th and the Pirates fell to the Twins for the second day in a row by a score of 7-3.

They will look to put an end to this 6 game skid as Trevor Williams (0-2) takes the mound against righty Randy Dobnak (1-1), back at the friendly confines of PNC Park, Wednesday at 7:05 EST.

Pirates Aren’t Tanking, but the Result Might Be the Same

Very rarely does a sure fire, step right into the majors prospect crop up in the Amateur draft for MLB. When it looks like one is potentially there like Kumar Rocker many in the fan base believe a team not on the upswing should actively try to acquire him. You know, tank.

To be honest, it matters little to me how fans take in the game and their opinions mean even less to a newly formed front office. Maybe fans are on to something, it certainly wouldn’t be bad to get a talent like that in the system, but it simply isn’t something baseball teams do often, and its anything but a sure bet this year in particular.

I say this year because back in March Rob Manfred was given some unique power, the ability to do anything he likes to the draft order, or for that matter how it’s carried out. Many of the issues experienced in MLB so far have made the possibility of a draft lottery more plausible. A very real possibility that not every team will play all 60 games could at the very least prompt a draft order based in winning percentage, but a lottery could be considered fairer. Manfred could even decide to base the order on averages of the combined 2019-2020 seasons.

You can think all of these are idiotic ways or unrealistic, but the point is, we don’t know, and more importantly, not one team knows either. This is where the goal post gets moved the first time. Bring this up and those adamantly advocating for the tank being underway change it to “trying to get one of the top three picks”.

Teams do tank, it happens, and leagues have done their very best to legislate it out by introducing lottery systems. Even last year in the NFL the narrative was that the Miami Dolphins were tanking for the number one pick, problem is you still have to field players. Players who want to win. Maybe they know they can’t win as a team but individually they still give it their all. There’s a reason the league’s don’t want to see it, and it’s all about integrity. Something this season, many feel, is already threatened.

MLB is no different with the possible exception of the draft being less of a sure thing. Again, it doesn’t mean that some form of being bad on purpose isn’t happening. The Marlins have pulled this act off multiple times under multiple ownership groups, but it’s rarely led to anything before they pull the plug again. When they burn it down, they leave no stumps untouched. Christian Yelich to Milwaukee with 3 years of control left is a perfect example and if you want an equivalent, it would be like the Pirates moving Bryan Reynolds or Mitch Keller, now.

The Pirates could very well lose 40 games this year, if you want to call that a tank it really has no bearing on what is actually happening. It’s up to the Pirates to decide where the line is, more to the point, who the line is. When does Ben Cherington think this team can be competitive? If the answer is 5 or 6 years from now, we’ll find out fairly quickly because if not this trade deadline, this offseason will show a movement of players off this roster in place of prospects.

If on the other hand, Cherington looks at his roster and sees a rotation next year featuring Taillon, Keller, Musgrove, Brubaker and Kuhl, with a Quinn Priester or Malone making noise for 2022, he’ll need to decide if that is good enough.

Here’s the part that sucks to hear, either one of those could be wrong. Neither one will make the payroll go up. That’s the job, identifying when a window could open with what you have, or deciding there won’t be a window unless you make changes.

Rarely does intentional losing cross the mind of anyone involved. A first-year manager isn’t looking to post a bad record. A brand-new pitching coach who skyrocketed up the ranks doesn’t want to look like he can’t mold young pitchers or maximize their talent. A second year hitting coach doesn’t want people to think his recently departed partner in crime had more to do with his success than he himself.

I could go on, as players like Musgrove try to put their foot down and stake claim to their position in the rotation and set themselves up for possibly the only big contract they’ll ever sign. Even before that, soon to be arbitration players won’t want to lower their number.

None of this means they’ll win, but say the plan is to keep everyone but Bell and Frazier, just picking two likely trade candidates here not predicting. Everyone else on that club is part of that window Cherington sees. Now does the large majority of that remaining roster feel they were part of an organization that isn’t interested in winning, or do they feel they are part of the building process?

Shelton is doing his damnedest to make tanking viable. Again, I don’t think hiring a coach for his first gig and asking him to tank is reality, but the alternative is dark, he just isn’t a good coach. That’s the scariest part to be honest, he might actually think he’s been doing the right thing. If you want to hire a guy to shepherd a tank season, you’d go after a Dusty Baker type, someone who doesn’t list one year of coaching as his only example on his resume.

To believe Shelton was that hire, it means within one month he was convinced that he should come in here and put up a mind boggling case for his ouster, but trust these guys he just met will keep him around to actually coach who he’s tanking for. Cherington must trust his scouting department, most of whom he’ll replace at season’s end, that there is someone at the top of the draft so good, so can’t miss that any scout would agree.

If they are tanking and it comes from the top, boy, Cherington isn’t very good at it. He kept Bell, Frazier, Musgrove, Williams, and Moran. Minimally those five should be gone if losing big was the goal. I know, move the goalposts, he wanted to build value for them, by putting them in situations to lose all year?

Again, if tanking is what you truly believe is happening, I disagree. I have a feeling at the end of the day the definition of tank is really what’s up for discussion here, and I have no doubt the goalposts will move on that clarification as the next phase plays out.

Its quite possible this club is bad enough to tank without tanking. Its possible the coach was a bad hire. You can also blame Bob Nutting and believe he signed off on this plan because with no fans he couldn’t lose money based on plummeting attendance, but even that ignores at some point they’re going to want you, me and the players who stay to believe winning is the goal.

Are the Pirates tanking? You tell me, I think its incredibly unlikely, too many people, with too much to lose. If rooting for Kumar helps you get through this mess, have at it, hey, they might just get it done, but it won’t be a plan, it’ll be an already bad team, coached badly.

Pirates Lose 5-4, Holland Has Better Outing Than His Line Shows

The Pirates came into this game riding a four game losing streak and that background heading to Minnesota to face a 7-2 Twins club created an impending sense that any semblance of hope to see improvement impossible to fathom.

The line up continues to mystify, tenth game, tenth different set up. Feelings of dread lifted a bit on the first pitch of the game as Cole Tucker cranked it into left field to give the Bucs an early lead. They would continue to build on it a run at a time leading to a 4-0 sixth inning advantage.

Derek Holland pitched a great ballgame. Derek Holland also gave up 4 earned runs in 5.2 innings on 4 hits and two walks. That’s the line, and if you were watching the Penguins instead like most of Pittsburgh you probably think he blew it. Here’s the real story.

Holland pitched 5 innings of shutout, 2 hit ball. Walked a guy in the sixth and gave up a run scoring single. He walked another and with two outs got a linedrive to center that Center fielder Cole Tucker misplayed badly, breaking in and watching it sail over his head. Two runs scored on the, um, hit. Then Shelton with two men on and two outs called on Del Pozo, again. Walk, Walk, wild pitch, run, walk, and done. Stratton in and a great catch from Reynolds who is at least contributing with the glove, more on that later.

Tie game.

I realize fully that the bullpen is bad. I realize Shelton could use anyone and fans would sign. Del Pozo in this situation after your starter gives you a hell of an effort, riding a four game losing streak is a bad look. Holland buried his head on the bench as his night fell apart. People toss around that a player is not a major leaguer with far too much frequency, so trust me when I say, Del Pozo is no major leaguer. Even on this team, even with this many injuries. I’ve quite possibly not seen anyone struggle to hit the zone with anything since Rick Ankiel got the yips.

This game had some nice moments from the offense. Bell had a hit and looked good at the plate most of the night, Newman is getting dialed in but another bonehead move on the base paths trying to stretch a single into a double.

Bryan Reynolds continued to struggle, and he’s not snake bitten. He’s simply not making contact. Victimized all season on pitches up in the zone and showing impatience not characteristic of what he showed last season. Listen, I’m not saying the guy is a bum, but right now, if I had a big pinch hit scenario, and a manager who would recognize and use one, he wouldn’t be in my top 8. ON THIS TEAM. And I’m not joking, he’s that out of sorts. Erik Gonzalez has had more hard contact this season. Need I go on?

The top of the 8th saw Rodriguez take the mound and he gave up a single to Kepler, then Jacob Stallings tried to catch him straying and threw the ball into right field moving the runner up to second. Rodriguez struck out his second of the frame and got Byron Buxton to pop out to Bell.

On to the ninth and the Twins send out Taylor Rogers who looks frighteningly like Tony Watson with his delivery. Heredia loves hitting lefty’s and got himself a second knock on the day to lead off the inning but nothing would come of it.

In the bottom of the inning the Pirates brought in Nick Burdi, which is great. This is a good move, unfortunately the Del Pozo call earlier in the contest made this an attempt to get to another extra inning contest. He started the inning giving up a single to Polanco and a walk to Garver. Arraez drove a ball to the gap and Tucker almost ran into Heredia but the catch was made. Both runners advance to 2nd and 3rd on the play with one out. Nelson Cruz wins the game on a sacrifice fly.

5-4 Twins. Five game losing streak. 2-8 and you get the feeling this was another one given away. Tough stuff, back at it tomorrow afternoon.

News & Notes:

  • Del Pozo at the very least should never see a purposeful leverage inning again. If things are desperate enough with injuries that he needs to remain on the club at least he should not be used to hold a lead. I don’t believe they’re tanking but Del Pozo is a walking billboard for the people preaching it.
  • Whatever is off with Bryan Reynolds its small. He’s off time or off plane just enough. In a normal season you’d chalk it up to a rough start, this season is just about 20% through. It’s probably a small adjustment and in many ways he’s a victim of his own success last season, but he needs to turn it around.
  • Cole Tucker is noticeably better from the right side. His swing looks more managed and he seems to be more patient. It’s rare for a switch hitter to take better to the right side because you just see so many more pitches from the left.
  • Derek Holland could really be a find, at least in the class of a Jordan Lyles, which is a real win if he continues to pitch like this. A four pitch mix and when he has them all working he can be formidable. Good to see.
  • This was the Pirates third extra inning contest
  • Two noticeable gaffes for Tucker in Center tonight. One costing the club two runs directly and the other preventing Heredia from being able to set up to hold the runners. It’s possible they move up anyway but Tucker took that possibility away.

Yinzer Reactions: Recapping The Pirates Series With The Cubs

After a series sweep by a division rival it may be hard to find the silver linings or see any light at the end of the tunnel. Pirates Fans and others are all too happy to pile on to the misery that we were left with after Pittsburgh’s one-hit loss to Milwaukee because as we all know the Pirates are gonna Pirate. Now, I am not trying to be overly optimistic or pretend like everything is going great since it obviously isn’t. However, there are still some positives that can be drawn from a season of evaluation, amongst the many negatives that can’t be completely ignored either.

Positive Takeaways

1) Kevin Newman seems to be getting his bat going. After starting the series with an 0 for 4 night, Newman went 4 for 8 in the final two games; raising his average from .050 on the season to .179. I know this is still not ideal, but improvement has to start somewhere.

2) Steven Brault remains efficient as the first half of the “piggyback”. Brault struck out 4 and didn’t allow a single hit or walk over 3 innings of work on Sunday and it only took 35 pitches for him to do so.

3) JT Brubaker shows the ability to stretch himself out for multiple innings and perform well in doing so. In his second appearance of the season, the young right hander went 3 full innings, striking out 3 along the way; bringing his season total to 7.

4) Colin Moran’s power may be for real. Moran blasted his 5th home run on Saturday, which is quickly climbing to almost half of his total (13) over 149 games last year.

5) Jacob Stallings’ defense is as good as or better than advertised. As reported by Jim Rosati and Jason Mackey yesterday Stallings, per FanGraphs, leads Major League Baseball (all positions) in Defensive Runs Above Average (DEF) at 2.4. Next best is Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez (1.5) and has also been worth 3 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), which is tied for the MLB lead among catchers with Wilson Ramos of the Mets.

Negative Takeaways

1) The injury bug has started to take over the Pirates Pitching Staff. While it wasn’t bad enough that Mitch Keller (left side discomfort) and Michael Feliz (right forearm discomfort) were placed on the 10-day IL on Sunday, Chad Kuhl came out of the game in the bottom of the 5th after only 1 1/3 innings and 28 pitches. This string of bad luck for the Pirates pitchers began a few days before when Kyle Crick (right shoulder strain) and Clay Holmes (right forearm strain) found their way to the IL.

2) The swing and miss by the Pirates lineup is starting to make almost every pitcher they face look like a potential Cy Young Candidate. Over the past 3 games the Pirates batters have struck out a total of 28 times, which came after 14 Ks in the last game of the series with the Brewers.

3) The Pirates are now 0-2 in extra inning games under the new runner on 2nd rule. Even though I completely hate this rule to my core, it is something we have to deal with and so far the Pirates have failed miserably in adjusting to it. In 4 innings with a runner starting on second with no outs, they have yet to have a player cross home plate.

4) Free passes and homers given up by the Pirates are starting to pile up. At this point in the season the Pirates pitching staff has given up 43 free passes, tied for 5th in MLB, and 11 long balls. For a team that can’t get its bats going, this is something that needs to stop or at least slow down.

5) A losing streak in a shortened season is amplified, which doesn’t bode well for the Pirates as they have now lost 4 in a row. In a shortened season the Pirates 4 game skid would almost be equivalent to an 11 game losing streak in a full 162 game season.

With a three game set against the Minnesota Twins scheduled to begin today this Yinzer will continue to look to pick out the positives in what seems like a sea of negatives. Hopefully this starts to get a little bit easier to do, but just so I am clear, I am not counting on it. Either way, it is all a part of the process.

Pirates (2-7) at Twins (7-2) Series Preview

Many of the storylines write themselves, Derek Shelton returning to the city that made him a hot coaching candidate in the first place to face his good friend Rocco Baldelli. The two only spent two seasons together but Shelton has mentioned on numerous occasions he has borrowed from the time he spent there, and we’ve already seen evidence of that.

Here is a quote from Do-Hyoung Park who covers the Twins for MLB.com, “Rocco Baldelli and his staff are always thinking ahead and typically have their lineups for the following week’s games written out well in advance.” Sound familiar?

There are things we’ve seen in this early going that have alarmed fans and those who cover the team. Moves that seem counterintuitive to winning or even the stated goal of evaluation. From not pinch hitting when 90% of the fan base is yelling at the TV to pulling a pitcher 35 pitches into a perfect 3 inning outing. Sticking to the plan, is paramount to Shelton and while the two men aren’t clones, the shadow of Baldelli is very much so cast here in Pittsburgh. Obviously, the goal is to have his record follow too, but there is much work to do before that can become a reality.

Both men also have ties to the Tampa Bay Rays and the approach they each employ is at least representative of that system. This is a story of two teams in very different stages. Baldelli manning a rebuilt Twins team no longer poised to catch the league by surprise but expected to contend, while Shelton has just started his journey in Pittsburgh. The inverse records aren’t a fluke.

Tonight, the Pirates will start Derek Holland (0-0, 3.18 ERA) vs Lewis Thorpe (0-0, 0.00 ERA). This will be Thorpe’s first start of the season after two successful games out of the pen tossing 4.2 innings.

After that things get a little murky. The Pirates will toss Joe Musgrove and Trevor Williams, but the Twins have yet to announce their starters. Neither team has identified who will start in the fourth. This would be Mitch Keller’s spot and I expect it to go to Brubaker.

The Twins Bullpen which was an albatross last season is coming up aces thus far in 2020 and it’s a good thing because the starters that were already a question mark have caught the injury bug on top of it. The Twins have the ability to carry the club with offense though and so far, that’s what they’ve done.

Things to Look for:

  • Similarities. In short, see if you can pick up on things Baldelli does that might help explain some of the moves we’ve seen Shelton make.
  • Pirates pitching will have their work cut out for them, Minnesota is averaging 5.11 runs per game, as you’ve watched, the Pirates don’t.
  • The Twins rank third in home runs already with 16 and giving them up has been an issue for the Pirates. That’s not a nice recipe.
  • Who the Pirates use to start on Thursday will give us insight into how they feel about some players. If they use Brubaker it means they really see him as a potential starter which he has been throughout his entire career. Another option could be to split the Brault-Kuhl marriage but after refusing to allow Brault to go an extra inning after only 35 pitches and three innings on Sunday, I see this as very unlikely. Brubaker is my bet.
  • Will the Pirates projected best hitters start to find it? Kevin Newman showed something yesterday despite his mental lapses yesterday in the field and base paths. Reynolds did not start the game yesterday but struck out in a pinch-hitting experience, a trend not too many expected for him this season. Bell had the same experience but came through in his pinch hit. Many things can happen in this series, these few hitting or not is the most important.

Cubs Take Finale in Extras to Sweep the Pirates at Wrigley

A sunny afternoon in Chicago’s Wrigley Field on a Sunday is about as Summer as Summer gets. The Pirates set out to salvage one game from the three-game set and the plan took center stage.

See, questioning Derek Shelton’s moves or lineups always brings a response pointing to the plan. Either big picture or plans for individual players but always the plan. Rigidly.

The plan today called for Reynolds and Bell to sit, creating a Sunday lineup to trump all Sunday lineups. As is course when questioning Shelton’s decision Kevin Newman looked to make the choices look heady by hitting a homerun in the first as the Bucs jumped out in front 1-0 and the Pirates in general really got to Lester. Driving his pitch count up early and getting hits and walks to put themselves in position to score. Alas they could not add on, but no worry, Steven Brault was tossing darts. He breezed through 3 innings with 35 pitches and simply attached the zone. Brilliant outing is not overstating his effectiveness.

Then the plan stepped in again.

See the plan was three innings for Brault and while there was no way the Pirates planned for him to handle those innings in only 35 pitches he was still pulled for Chad Kuhl. We all knew this was coming, but it sure did seem like the plan was more important than the outcome. Innings are arbitrary figures, pitch counts are where you get rigid, at least that’s what recent tradition would tell you.

Regardless Chad Kuhl came in and continued the dominance, pitching a scoreless inning. Meanwhile John Lester settled down, retiring 10 straight Pirates at one point, somehow recovering from his early pitch count woes to complete 6 innings of 1-run ball.

Early in the next inning Kuhl seemed to look at his hand, it wasn’t exaggerated or prolonged, but the trainer and manager jumped from the dugout steps like they were looking for it. He would stay in the game but not for long, giving up a run and again calling on the trainers to look at his finger, all the markings of a blister or fingernail but still the game that was well pitched was in jeopardy.

The Pirates bullpen starting with Hartlieb, then moving on to Turley, Neverauskus and Rodriguez kept the Cubs in check through the 8th. Steady work from four guys who all haven’t had that word in their scouting reports thus far, but it matters in a game like this.

In the ninth Philip Evans worked a walk, and Shelton replaced him at first with Jarrod Dyson. I assume the plan afforded for this move. Unfortunately, the plan then called for a bunt with one of the league’s best base stealers at first. In a weird twist he then pinch-hit Bryan Reynolds for Heredia which seems, I mean at least has the appearance of attempting to win a ball game.

Then the heavens opened in Chicago and a rain delay later the Bucs came back for the bottom of the ninth with just called up lefty, Sam Howard. Another head scratcher if you believe winning is the goal, but this too worked out for Shelton.

On to extra innings we go and through a minefield of less than passable major league bullpen arms from both sides of the diamond the score remained 1-1.

The Cubs called on Ryan Tepera to start extras and the Pirates called on Josh Bell with Jacob Stallings at second. Josh Bell drove a ball the opposite way and Joey Cora sent Stallings on the sharply hit groundball, the throw to the plate created a collision but Jake was out. To be honest he wasn’t even close, however, Shelton asked the umpires for an explanation, but it was pretty clear. On the play Bell scampered to second. Frazier lined a ball to second and Bell alertly got back to the bag, and then Kevin Newman harmlessly bounced back to the mound.

For the bottom of the tenth the Bucs sent Howard back out to face Ian Happ and he promptly walked him, which isn’t the worst thing with this new extra inning set-up. up came Rookie Nico Hoerner and while he struck out, a sloppy play by the Pirates moved a runner to third. The Third baseman charged on an attempted bunt while Newman failed to cover the bag. The Pirates then employed a five-man infield to face Almora Jr., Howard struck him out too. It came down to David Bote and the rookie induced a pop up to end the inning. Big stuff there and a welcome sight.

Jeremy Jeffress came on to pitch the eleventh with Newman at second. Osuna grounded to short and Newman suffered his second mental misstep in one inning, this time breaking for third and easily being thrown out leaving Osuna at first on the fielder’s choice. Nothing came of the inning. And if we’re going to blame Cora for sending Stallings, which I certainly do, we need to also hold Newman accountable. He was the only reason the Pirates scored in the game up until this point, but he also can’t afford to play unfocused baseball.

Cody Ponce came on in the bottom half to make his major league debut and got Anthony Rizzo to fly out deep to right, moving the runner to third. Then gave up a single up the middle to Javier Baez to drop the contest 2-1.

The story of the game and I think the season so far is the plan is more important to Shelton than situational baseball and its hard to figure what’s working versus what isn’t when the players just aren’t good enough.

News & Notes:

  • The Pirates sat Bryan Reynolds and Josh Bell today, both made it into the game and Josh Bell recorded a hit but the fact remains the top of the order for the Pirates has simply let the club down.
  • Joey Cora may have misjudged sending Jacob Stallings to the plate on Josh Bell’s single, in fact he definitely did, but he wasn’t the only one to have a mental hiccup. Kevin Newman made two in one inning, simply can’t have that from one of your ‘best’
  • Sam Howard was impressive in his two innings of work striking out 3 and recording more swing and misses (5) than anyone else in the game.
  • Largely the Pirates bullpen has settled down, but all it’s really done is put a spotlight on the biggest issue, the bats, or lack thereof.
  • On to Minnesota for three against the Twins, Covid willing.

Pirates Late Inning Heroics Fall Short

After dropping the first game to the Cubs on Friday night, 6-3, the Pirates were looking to get back on the right track as former top prospect, Mitch Keller, took the mound for the Pittsburgh against Chicago right Tyler Chatwood. Pirates fan were just hoping that the Bucco bats would wake up a little bit as they currently sat last in that category with a .178/.242/.306 slash line.

As the game started it looked as if things were finally going to swing in the Pirates direction as Adam Frazier led off the game with a double on a line drive to centerfield. However, this optimism was short lived as Chatwood would go on to allow only one other Pirate to touch the base paths until the 7th inning, striking out 10 batters along the way. In the top of the 7th they finally got to Chatwood as Kevin Newman led off the inning. He would retire two more, one swinging, before allowing a single to Bryan Reynolds and a walk to Gregory Polanco to load the bases. The Pirates were on the verge of a big inning as Jeremy Jeffress got Phillip Evans to ground out, ending the rally for the time being. Over 6 2/3 innings Chatwood would strike out a total of 11 batters, walk 2, allow 3 hits and not give up a single run.

On the other side Keller began the night a lot like he had in his previous start; struggling at times, but limiting damage as he got out of the 1st inning with out surrendering a run. He gave up a lead off double to Ian Happ and walked the second batter, only to strike out Javy Baez and induce a double play to end in the inning. In the second it was much of the same as Wilson Contreras doubled and moved to third on a wild pitch. Newman then saved a run as he choose to go home, nabbing Contreras. A fly out to Polanco later and Keller has escaped another inning unscathed. This would not be the case in the third as solo home runs to both Happ and Baez put the Cubs up 2-0. Kyle Schwarber would then single right before disaster struck. Keller bounced a curveball to catcher John Ryan Murphy, called for the trainer, pointed to his side and exited the game after on 2 2/3 innings. The Pirates inconsistent bullpen would be in charge of taking it the rest of the way.

On the season thus far the Pirates relievers have a combined for a 4.63 ERA, only 2 holds and 2 blown saves, but it has not been all bad as Chris Stratton and JT Brubaker were about to prove. Stratton got the Pirates out of the 3rd by striking out Contreras and then had a 1-2-3 bottom of the 4th, striking out Nico Hoerner in the process. In the 5th Brubaker entered the game and systematically took apart the Cubs for the next 3 innings; striking out 3, while allowing only one hit and a walk. So far this season Brubaker has impressed; not allowing a single run in five innings of work.

Unfortunately for the Pirates the hard work of Stratton and Brubaker would be all but erased as Michael Feliz entered in the 8th and promptly gave up 2 runs, both on a Schwarber homer. Miguel Del Pozo would enter the game and fight his way threw the rest of the inning, not allowing another run, but the damage was already done. Going into the top of the 9th the Cubs led the Pirates 4-0 and to that point had Pittsburgh to get 3 hits.

The Pirates began their rally with a Newman single and two batters later, a Colin Moran home run; his 5th of this young season. Reynolds would then double and eventually score on a Polanco ground out, bringing Pittsburgh to within one run. However, just as it had the previous night the rally would come up short as Jose Osuna would ground into force out; leaving the Pirates fans disappointed with a second straight loss to the Cubs, 4-3.

After another gut wrenching defeat, topped by the loss of Keller to injury, the 2-6 Pirates will look to right the ship as they take on the Cubs in a Sunday Matinee at Wrigley, with Steven Brault set to take the mound in another potential “piggybacking” start co-starring Chad Kuhl against the veteran lefty Jon Lester.