As Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia backpedaled and positioned himself under the fly ball off the bat of Gregory Polanco to end the sixth inning Tuesday night, boos rang out from a small section of seats behind the first-base dugout.
With runners on first and second, it was one of only two times the Pirates had runners in scoring position in the 1-0 loss to the Brewers in front of an announced attendance of 13,929 at PNC Park, extending the club's losing streak to seven games and continuing the offense's slump.
The Pirates, now 68-84 and only 1 1/2 games ahead of the last-place Reds, have lost 12 of 13 games, have not finished an inning with the lead in a week and the offense's difficulties have spoiled an impressive month by the pitching staff.
"This is when a manager needs to do his best work," Hurdle said. "Sometimes there’s not a lot of managing to do during the game. ... We’ve done a nice job on the mound. We’ve kept ourselves in games. We haven’t been able to get enough run support to help them on that side. However, guys are getting down the line. Guys are battling in at-bats."
The Pirates had only six singles against the Brewers (81-70), who are now 3 1/2 games back of the first-place Cubs, and were shut out for a second consecutive night. Starling Marte had two of those six singles and twice was stranded in scoring position after stealing second base.
It was the latest in a month-long drought for the offense, as the Pirates have the third-worst batting average in the National League during September, and it's coincided with the club's pitching staff having the eighth-best ERA in Major League Baseball this month.
Trevor Williams was the victim of the offense's struggles Tuesday night. The 25-year-old right-hander allowed one run in five innings, striking out six and walking two.
The Pirates never really threatened Brewers starter Chase Anderson, either. Marte hit a one-out single in the first and stole second, but Andrew McCutchen and Josh Bell both struck out to end the inning. Anderson then retired 12 of the next 14 batters he faced.
Williams, who was in the bullpen until Jameson Taillon was diagnosed with testicular cancer in May, has a 3.53 ERA in his last nine starts and is using his slider, which he developed in May, to complement his fastball command.
When he did miss against the Brewers, he missed low in the zone, which led to weak contact more often than not.
"It’s dangerous to miss up and over the zone, especially the way hitters are today with the way they are swinging hard and swinging for the fences," Williams said. "It helps my game plan when I get hitters looking down. I’m a ground-ball pitcher and it helps when I’m missing down."
Implementing the slider and using that strategy has allowed him to become more of a strikeout pitcher after he rose through the minor leagues with the reputation of being a ground-ball guy. After allowing back-to-back two-out singles in the second, he got a strikeout to end the threat.
His lone mistake was this 1-0 slider to Domingo Santana, who deposited it into the seats in left for the 1-0 lead:
Williams then retired six of his final seven batters before he was removed at the end of the fifth inning. He threw 52 of his 87 pitches for strikes and the Pirates' four relievers — Dovydas Neverauskas, Daniel Hudson, Edgar Santana and George Kontos — combined to allow no runs on three hits over the final four innings.
Yet, the offense's issues spoiled the effort. The Pirates have scored only nine runs during the seven-game losing streak and have the worst on-base percentage in the National League this month. Williams, though, gave the opposing pitchers credit and spoke with confidence that a breakthrough is near:
