The Giants have gone from World Series contender to one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball in less than a year, making them an ideal matchup for any team with the All-Star break near.
Entering Friday, they had a league-worst .676 OPS and their pitching staff has faltered in the face of lofty expectations, causing them to tumble to 19 games under .500.
The past meant very little with the way Gerrit Cole and the Pirates' bullpen pitched Friday night at PNC Park, as the Giants scattered a season-high 18 hits in a 13-5 rout.
The loss dropped the Pirates to 37-43 — five games behind the first-place Brewers — and though it followed a trend of ineptitude, Clint Hurdle did not want to overreact.
"Those guys aren't happy where they are and they’re going out every night to try and change the direction of their season," he said afterward. "Just like we are. Tonight, they got the best of us."
The performance drew a reaction from Cole, though. After allowing 23 runs in four starts, the right-hander rebounded to allow only three runs over his previous 20 innings entering Friday.
His 22nd start of the season began with a leadoff home run from Denard Span, and Cole quickly unraveled from there. He was charged with seven runs on 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings, being pulled after allowing a one-out single to Span in the sixth.
It caused emotions to bleed through, and eventually led to a heated exchange between him and Hurdle. After a miscommunication in the infield allowed a baserunner to reach in the third inning, Cole picked up the errant throw from Josh Bell and chucked the ball to the backstop to the left of the first-base dugout.
He then allowed three runs on five consecutive two-out hits in the fourth inning.
With his pitch count sitting at 84 pitches, he walked to the dugout disgusted. Set to bat third in the bottom-half of the inning, Cole was told by Hurdle that he might be pulled from the game if the Pirates needed a pinch-hitter.
That provoked this reaction:
"The first game of the series; pitch count is good," Cole explained. "Obviously we had to run through more relievers tonight than we wanted to, but at that point I’m good to go. Just trying to shave off as much work as you can from the bullpen. We’re only down two runs at that point. We’re still in the ballgame. They didn’t scorch the ball in the fourth. I just wanted to keep pitching and keep us in the game still."
Hurdle said of the exchange: "It wouldn’t be the first one we’ve had. (A.J. Burnett) and I used to have them every now and then. It's just the direction the game was going."
Cole stayed in the game, failing to execute a sacrifice bunt with no outs and runners on first and second. He pitched a perfect fifth inning, but was pulled in the sixth.
It was the third time in six starts that Cole allowed seven runs, but he said the issues that plagued him during that horrific four-game stretch earlier this season were not present Friday night.
Span's home run was on a curveball low and inside the zone. The awkward infield play in the third extended an inning that led to another run, and the five consecutive hits in the fourth were not hit terribly hard.
But he needed 25 pitches to get through four batters in the second inning, and an inability to make the Giants swing at pitches outside the zone increased his pitch count. He was unable to keep his fastball low in the zone, and his breaking pitches weren't all that sharp either.
Still, Cole didn't think he pitched particularly poorly:
"As far as what I can control I’m executing it pretty well," he said. "I just don’t think I did a good enough job of getting count leverage and really staying ahead of guys, be able to get in synch more with that approach."
Cole's ERA has now risen to 4.51 and he has a record of 6-7, allowing a career-high 18 home runs. He struck out seven batters and only walked two Friday night, but he forced Hurdle to use a bullpen that has proven to be wildly inconsistent.
Antonio Bastardo — making his first major-league appearance since April 24 — walked the only batter he faced. Jhan Mariñez allowed three runs on five hits in one inning. Wade Leblanc, who had a 9.82 ERA in 10 appearances in June, gave up this solo home run to Brandon Belt to lead off the eighth:
Edgar Santana was charged with another run in the ninth after walking a batter and hitting another. The performance came against an opponent that ranks 25th in the majors in batting average with an OPS that is 27th, and that had lost 12 of 13 games entering the week.
Both the rotation and bullpen had improved at times over recent weeks, even as recently as Thursday night when Jameson Taillon had yet another impressive start, leading the Pirates to think a breakthrough had occurred.
"I think our pitching is starting to dominate people and be what they’re supposed to be," Jordy Mercer said Friday afternoon. "That’s kind of what we’re based off of, too. If we pitch and play good defense we’re going to win a lot of games."
The Pirates' offense did not have much luck, either, after they scored three runs in the first inning. They forced Johnny Cueto to throw 114 pitches through five innings, including 36 pitches in the fifth, but did not score another run until the seventh, when they trailed 10-3.
"You see the hits they were getting," Bell said. "It makes it tough."
LANCE'S THREE THOUGHTS
• Trouble began for the Pirates well before Cole's fourth-inning meltdown. After he allowed a one-out walk to Span in the third inning, Joe Panik hit a one-hopper to the left of Cole that seemed to be headed to Adam Frazier at second.
Cole hesitated to cut off the ground ball while both Bell and Frazier hesitated to make the play.
"I feel like there’s like a split-second there where I have to decide whether or not I’m going to go for the ball," Bell said. "In that moment, I thought G had a bead on it."
Noticing that no one was on first, Cole hustled quickly to cover the bag, but he was too late.
This is how the sequence unfolded, and it got much worse after a poor decision by Bell:
"After it gets by him and I field it I just have to hold it," Bell explained. "I tried to do too much. It’s on me."
Cole said: "We just didn’t field it."
The play infuriated Cole and he never seemed to recover, though he escaped the inning by allowing only one run on two hits and retired the first two batters he faced in the fourth.
Bell has played his way into no longer being yanked for a defensive replacement, but still tends to have mental hiccups such as that play. Fielding the ground ball was not the problem, though.
Cole charging the ball made it difficult for Bell to judge, but the error allowed a runner to advance to third base and Hunter Pence delivered one of his five RBI to cut the Pirates' lead to 3-2.
"You’d have to ask Gerrit if it shook him," Hurdle said. "I just think that’s a play where there had to be immediate communication from somebody. I’d like to see somebody say, ‘I got the ball,’ whether it’s the pitcher or the first baseman or the other guy coming to back up the play and I don’t think we had the communication we needed. Once the ball got in the glove, we just needed to hold on the ball."
• McCutchen’s June will be remembered for quite some time.
He reached in each of his four plate appearances and has done so in eight straight appearances. The former National League MVP batted a league-best .411 in June, and is 6 for 11 with four walks and three RBI in four games since returning to the No. 3 spot in the lineup.
He's not concerned about one month, though. McCutchen is focused on each day and sticking with the approach that has lifted his average to .283:
He has hit safely in 16 of his last 20 games, and sparked the only successful inning of the game.
After Frazier and Josh Harrison delivered back-to-back singles, McCutchen drew a five-pitch walk to load the bases for Josh Bell with no outs.
McCutchen was hit by a pitch to lead off the third and singled to lead off the fifth, an inning where Johnny Cueto threw 36 pitches but did not allow a run.
He fouled a pitch off his right shin in the seventh inning and was removed after he singled, but said he'll play Saturday as long as he can walk.
Yes, he's that eager to continue this roll that he's on.
• Antonio Bastardo’s tenure with the Pirates is rapidly approaching an end.
Pitching to Panik, a left-hander, with runners on the corners in the sixth inning, Bastardo allowed Span to steal second base and walked Panik on six pitches that took more than seven minutes.
Bastardo was far from sharp, and an inability to get an out forced Hurdle to quickly make a change. Mariñez entered and did not fare much better.
It was Bastardo’s first appearance since he was placed on the disabled list on April 25 with a left quad strain. He had allowed 12 runs on 15 hits in just 6 2/3 innings.
Once healthy, Bastardo was sent to Triple-A Indianapolis, where he exhausted all 30 days of the maximum rehab assignment.
He had a 3.18 ERA in 11 1/3 innings at Triple-A in that span before the Pirates recalled him Tuesday. He now has a 3.30 WHIP with a 16.20 ERA and opponents are batting .429 against him.
ON DECK
The second game of the series will begin Saturday at 4:05 p.m., with Chad Kuhl facing the Giants’ Matt Moore.
Kuhl is making his 16th start, with a 2-6 record and a 5.58 ERA. He has not pitched six innings in a game since April 18 and has allowed nine runs over his last three starts.