Kovacevic: Hey, maybe the manager isn't an idiot

ST. LOUIS -- I've checked and checked again but, to be sure, I phoned a friend at the Elias Sports Bureau to confirm it: The Pirates are 81-0, and Clint Hurdle is 0-54.

It's the most staggering of baseball splits, I know, but it's also totally true.

No, really.

It's based on an advanced Pythagorean metric that mathematicians at the renowned Institute of Pittsburgh Public Perception refer to as the Very Last Bad Thing I Saw. I'm pretty sure most are familiar with their work but, if not, here are some recent case studies to consider:



• The Steelers are the worst-run team in town, even though they're actually the last to win a division title. Because they looked sloppy in the preseason.

• The Penguins choke in the playoffs because Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin disappear, even though one has the highest active postseason scoring average and the other's name is carved into the Conn Smythe Trophy. Because they lost a series in which they were missing half their defensemen.

• The Pirates don't spend enough money (until they do), don't add any meaningful pieces at the trade deadline (until we realize they did), and don't have a clue how to handle this suddenly rock-solid roster because the manager lacks the guile or the guts or the will to win or all three and then some.

Hey, am I doing this right?

All snark aside here, I hope I am. Because if there's any single stance I struggle to understand in all the connecting I do with readers -- whether here or any medium -- it's this one that essentially paints the Pirates as the sleek sportscar and Hurdle as the idiot riding in the back seat who occasionally shouts the wrong directions.

I don't get it. I just don't.

And the reason is that it couldn't be further from reality.

I could revisit all that Hurdle has done to resuscitate this franchise that had been clinically dead for two decades, but since that evidently would fall on deaf ears with some, I'll instead do it their way: I'll look at the Very Last Thing They Saw, even if it was Good.

Meaning, of course, the Pirates' 7-1 body slam of the Cardinals here Sunday night.

Gerrit Cole pitched seven scoreless innings, conceding a mere two singles and coming through with a huge one of his own. Now, the only people who should get credit for that are Cole and, as he stressed, Francisco Cervelli:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2ZGC0B_RmY

But there's this to weigh, as well: Hurdle was getting grief from all corners when he first got away from assigning Chris Stewart as Cole's personal catcher, the apparent premise being that Cole was falling off, looking lost with Cervelli.

The fact is that Hurdle was dead-on to get away from having a personal catcher when he did, as he recognized it would unnecessarily handcuff him in the playoffs. Ideally, Cole would pitch in the wild-card game and other elimination games deeper into October. Using a backup, as good as Stewart has been, isn't optimal.

What's more, Hurdle went out of his way to emphasize after this game, and also very much in contradiction to perception, there's barely been any falloff.

"I still think we're missing that, prior to the two games in Milwaukee, Gerrit pitched extremely well," Hurdle said.

It's indisputable: Before the blowup at the House of Horrors to open this trip, Cole ripped through the Giants and Marlins for 14 combined innings and one total run. And in his past seven games, he has a 3.32 ERA. And in his past 15 games, he has a 3.26 ERA. And since the All-Star break, his ERA has risen from 2.30 to, uh, 2.54.

Which one of those is the crisis?

Or is it that he's got only two pitching wins since the break?

Because if it's the latter, wow, it stopped being 1968 a fairly long time ago, didn't it?

Anyway, Cervelli being in the lineup led to his going 2 for 4 with a double and a run. So that's one we can chalk up to the Pirates being #Hurdled, as the Twitter tag goes.

Here's another: Aramis Ramirez, the lineup's hottest hitter, was given consecutive days off to open this series. I wasn't wild about that one myself. But Hurdle vowed he wouldn't overuse a 38-year-old who's logged a lot of everyday mileage, and the immediate result, correlative or not, was Ramirez hammering a game-sealing home run in the eighth, while going 2 for 3 with a walk and making the snag of the night.

I still might be right that Ramirez should play more, but I'd be hard-pressed to win an argument when, ever since Hurdle began rationing Ramirez's play, he's batting .308 with 24 RBIs over the past month.

"I have no problem with how my manager is using me," Ramirez told me Sunday. "I just want to win. That's why I'm here."

One more: Sean Rodriguez, who'd begun getting branded as the second coming of Brent Morel by some, lasered a two-run home run to extend a 12-for-19 tear that, most impressively, has been spread over 14 games.

Good luck finding bench players who stay hot while getting iced every other day.

"Just doing my job," Rodriguez said.

And another: Jordy Mercer has become another target, this because he has the audacity to be getting equal playing time with Jung Ho Kang since returning from injury. In this game, Mercer made an acrobatic stab that helped Cole continue -- drawing emphatic praise on and off the field from the pitcher, I might add -- and he's batting .333 in 27 at-bats since coming back.

"I appreciate the trust Clint's shown in me," Mercer said. "It means everything."

Even where Kang is concerned, he's had 19 at-bats in the six games on this trip and has five hits. That's a .278 pace that's a tick off his .286 season mark, so it's not like he's being cooled off. With the rest Hurdle feels compelled to give Ramirez, he'll still get plenty of time. Hurdle assured him of that, as well as being honest with Kang in a closed-door meeting in his office Thursday in Milwaukee that he has concerns about Kang passing the 130-game schedule he knew in Korea.

Kang will play, and he'll keep hitting.

And to those crying out for a fixed everyday eight, I'll ask again if it's still 1968. Because that stopped being a baseball staple right around the time they lowered the mound.

It isn't easy for some players to get the day off, but Hurdle hasn't backed down.

I wrote on this site Sunday afternoon, hours before first pitch, that I noticed an extra spring in the respective steps of Gregory Polanco and Neil Walker, both of whom sat Saturday night in a lineup aimed specifically at lefty Jaime Garcia. Well, again, correlative or not, the Very Last Thing I Saw was Polanco going 3 for 5 and Walker lashing an RBI single.

And none of this is even touching on Hurdle's handling of these athletes as humans, a trait that's so much more valuable than I could ever describe to you in the context of all the cold, calculated, use-everyone-like-puzzle-pieces types over his head in the front office.

He cares about his players. Deeply. Passionately. As people.

When Polanco was struggling at mid-summer, Hurdle took the initiative to summon the kid to his office and promise him he wouldn't be demoted to the minors. I've never heard that Hurdle asked permission to make that promise. I just know that he did. And ever since, Polanco has ... yeah, you've seen it.

Hurdle has handled conflicts and complaints as deftly as any manager or coach I've ever covered, smartly, delicately and usually before they have a chance to morph into something more. And this goes beyond Ramirez and Kang. He wouldn't give in to A.J. Burnett's repeated knocks on his door the past two days begging to rejoin the rotation. A.J. fumed again to me Sunday, "I was ready two weeks ago." Takes a strong manager to stand up to that figure in that clubhouse. The manager also navigated J.A. Happ's early stumble masterfully and in a forthright way. He told Michael Morse to be ready off the bench, and Morse has a single, double and triple the past four games, all as pinch-hits. He told Joakim Soria upon arrival that even 200-plus saves won't make him a closer or even a setup man in this bullpen. He challenged Mercer and Josh Harrison to rise up and earn their jobs back, even though Harrison, in particular, had been a legit MVP candidate a season earlier.

"You know, honestly," J-Hay said after sitting out again Sunday night, "I can't imagine how hard his job is right now. I don't even want to think about it."

Not many do, evidently.