PHILADELPHIA — The crack of the ball off Colin Moran's bat was met with the cheers of an announced crowd of 28,161 at Citizens Bank Park. Carlos Santana, the Phillies' first baseman, dove to his right to rob Moran of a base hit, recording the final out to clinch a 6-2 win over the Pirates in the third game of the series Saturday afternoon.
The Pirates' bullpen struggled again, allowing five hits, including a three-run homer by Rhys Hoskins to erase a two-run lead, and the defense committed two errors in the Phillies' three-run eighth inning. Additionally, Steven Brault failed to pitch through the sixth inning for the third time in his four starts this season, and he walked three batters.
The offense's ineptitude, though, was at the root of the Pirates' third consecutive loss, their fifth in six games, and it's why they're no longer in first place in the division after 20 consecutive days atop the standings. Phillies' starter Aaron Nola had nine strikeouts, and the Pirates, now 12-9, scored only three runs in 27 innings since arriving in Philadelphia.
"We definitely need to be able to make adjustments quicker," hitting coach Jeff Branson told DKPittsburghSports.com. "It’s through conversations. It’s through watching the game and understanding what’s taking place. It’s not easy by any means, especially with a guy like that who has a fastball that jumps on you and is able to throw his curveball whenever he wants. It’s not easy. But that’s what you have to do as a major-league hitter."
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGSNola gave up a solo home run to Sean Rodriguez on the second pitch of the game, and responded by retiring 14 of the next 16 batters he faced. Three of the six hits allowed by the 24-year-old right-hander were infield singles, and the Pirates have now struck out 31 times in three losses to the Phillies (13-7).
The Pirates have batted .213 with 76 strikeouts to 19 walks over their past nine games. Gregory Polanco is stuck in a 6-for-43 slump. Adam Frazier was two for his last 23 entering the game, and Josh Bell is now also in a 2-for-23 slump. Bell is seeing more pitches outside the zone this season, which he explained is the result of his free-swinging ways over the past three weeks.
This offense was at its best when it showed patience at the plate, chasing starting pitchers early by working the count. However, overaggressiveness has led to a counterpunch from opposing pitchers, as evidenced by Rodriguez's first two at-bats. He broke his bat when fouling off a 93.1 mph two-seam fastball on the first pitch of the game, stepped back into the batter's box and hit the next pitch — another two-seamer — off the video board above the bleachers in right field.
Rodriguez tried a similar approach for his second at-bat; however, Nola struck him out on three pitches: a changeup, followed by two curveballs. Rodriguez was out in front each of the three pitches. Branson said the at-bat was an example of how pitchers adjust during a game, and how his hitters need to anticipate such a response.
"That’s why you have stats, scouting reports, video and all this stuff," he said. "You’re going to get counterpunched. It’s a matter of us as hitters finding a way to counterpunch. This is what makes you a better hitter and a better team offensively. The mindset is figuring out what they’re doing to you and finding an answer. It may take one at-bat to watch them go through the lineup to figure out what they’re trying to do to us."
The Pirates have 16 hits through three games of this series, batting .168 as a team during that span. Five of those hits were infield singles and only four were for extra bases. During the team's hot start to the season, the offense covered for the club's shortcomings, particularly relief pitching.
The team was 9-3 through 12 games, despite the pitching staff having a combined 4.70 ERA — most of the damage was done against the bullpen — and 53 percent of the relievers' inherited runners scored. The offense averaged 6.4 runs per game during that span with a slash line of .278/.353/.479.
"It’s too early," Francisco Cervelli said. "We just have to keep playing and making adjustments. Doing the small things."
Most of the damage was done against inferior pitching, including seven games against the Tigers and Reds, and they've encountered starting pitchers with superior breaking pitches over the past week. Nola threw 75 of his 103 pitches for strikes, producing 10 swinging strikes and seven called strikes with his curveball. Additionally, Jake Arrieta had 10 strikeouts in the Pirates' loss Thursday, using a sinker Branson called "the best he's had since 2015."
The Pirates led 2-0 on Saturday as the result of Rodriguez' home run and him scoring in the sixth on Starling Marte's pop fly that fell in shallow center for a base hit. But the Phillies put runners on the corners with one out against Brault in the sixth, leading Clint Hurdle to call upon Michael Feliz, who had pitched 7 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
Feliz proceeded to allow this three-run homer to Hoskins:
The Pirates' bullpen has a 5.43 ERA — the third-highest in the National League — and they allowed three more runs in the eighth on three hits and an error. The team has made a number of defensive mistakes and baserunning miscues during their recent skid, and the offense's ineptitude has made the margin for error quite small.
"At the end of the day, we scored one run on the second swing of the game," Hurdle said. "We plated another run because a ball found outfield grass. You have no safety net when you score three runs now in 27 innings here in this ballpark, which doesn’t give you any room for error when you’re playing defense or when you’re pitching."
1. Hitting isn't the only issue.
The Pirates have made a myriad of mistakes over the past nine games that led to their fall in the standings. Trevor Williams was thrown out trying to advance to second on a sacrifice fly Tuesday. Moran misplayed a bunt in the second inning Thursday, which contributed to Jameson Taillon's high pitch count.
Adam Frazier wasn't prepared to make a cutoff throw in that same inning, and Frazier failed to try to convert a double play in the sixth inning Friday night, allowing the tying run to score. The issues continued in the eighth inning Saturday. First, Edgar Santana walked the leadoff batter on four pitches.
Then, Felipe Vázquez struck out Odubel Herrera with a slider, but a wild pitch on the swinging third strike — the Pirates lead the majors with 20 wild pitches — put runners on the corners with no outs. Then, Hoskins hit an RBI single to center, followed by Scott Kingery hitting a ball that skipped off the webbing of Vázquez's glove.
Frazier, who replaced Marte in center earlier in the inning, made a throw home that was six feet from the plate and dropped by Vázquez to score another run, giving the Phillies a 5-2 lead. Finally, with the bases loaded, Jorge Alfaro hit a slow grounder to David Freese at first, but Freese hesitated to throw home because Vázquez was running across the first-base line to try to cover first.
Freese's throw pulled Cervelli off home plate, allowing another run to score. "It was just a crazy inning," Vázquez said. "It seems like stuff like that has been happening to us the past week. Every team goes through that. We’re trying to fight through it. We’re doing what we were doing last week. It’s just not coming the way we want. We just want to keep going out and doing what we were doing. In the next few days we’ll get out of this."
2. Patience seems to be wearing thin.
The Pirates' dugout, including Hurdle and Rodriguez, were chirping at home-plate umpire Lance Barrett after Nola got a low strike call against Bell in the fourth inning. Marte wasn't happy with a called third strike during the previous at-bat, either. Cervelli also exchanged a few words with Barrett following his at-bat in the fifth inning.
They had legitimate arguments on several occasions — it appeared the movement on Nola's curveball, as well as the pitch-framing of Alfaro, made balls out of the zone appear to be strikes — but they weren't expressing frustrations when similar called strikes happened in previous games.
Cervelli also lost his patience in the sixth inning after Brault hit Santana with a pitch. With the lines erased in the batter's box, Santana was behind the line and Cervelli voiced some concerns to Barrett. Then, Hurdle came out to speak to Barrett, but nothing came of the discussion after Barrett said the Pirates were doing the same.
"I don't want to see a guy hitting behind the line," Cervelli said. "I have to go back as a catcher and the breaking ball I'm not going to be able to catch for a strike, so that's my thing. If you put a white line there, you can't cross that thing. Everybody does different things. Santana is a smart hitter. It's not his fault. If they didn't do it, he's going to keep doing it."
3. Brault still working to be efficient.
Hurdle described this as a "good game" for Brault. The left-hander allowed two runs on two hits with four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings, but he walked three batters and threw a first-pitch strike to only eight of the 21 hitters he faced. Also, he had seven three-ball counts and retired only five batters on three pitches or less.
Brault had command of his changeup, which complemented his two-seam fastball, yet he threw only 49 of his 93 pitches for strikes. He has a 1.27 WHIP and opponents are batting only .221 against him in 24 1/3 innings this season. On the other hand, he's averaging 4.44 walks per nine innings and 16.4 pitches per inning pitched.
"I’ve had a tough time with doing that this year and obviously that makes things a little bit harder," Brault said of falling behind in the count. "It’s annoying to say it’s something I have to focus on going forward and I know it is. It’s kind of been the thorn in my side, so I want to make sure I can get on that a little bit better."