NEW YORK — Clint Hurdle made wholesale changes to his lineup amid what he called one of the most challenging times in his managerial career. Hurdle moved Starling Marte to the leadoff spot, Josh Bell to the two-hole and Josh Harrison will bat third in front of Colin Moran for the Pirates' series opener against the Mets at Citi Field on Monday night.
Hurdle did more than change the lineup, too. He told reporters he planned to emphasize the need for a "group commitment." After all, the Pirates have lost 24 of their past 34 games and are only four games ahead of the last-place Reds in the Central Division.
"We need to revisit our game," Hurdle said. "This is probably one of the most challenging parts of Major League Baseball I’ve ever been through: 10 and 24. The numbers are real. … I think we shrink-wrapped some things and find a way to get a group commitment, to revisit the group commitment with the things we're doing, whether it be in the bullpen, whether it be defensively, whether it be offensively."
In addition to those changes, Corey Dickerson was bumped down to the seven-hole with right-handed pitcher Seth Lugo starting for the Mets. Although Marte is an experienced leadoff hitter, the change was a surprise.
Marte has made 61 of his 63 starts in the three-hole and hasn't batted leadoff since last season, when he made 49 starts there. He's batted .271 with a .742 OPS in 231 career games batting atop the order. Harrison, meanwhile, hasn't batted third yet this season and hit there only twice all of last season. Bell hasn't batted second this season and was moved out of the cleanup spot earlier this month.
However, Bell has reached safely in 14 straight games and has hit safely in nine of his last 10 at-bats. He's batted .297 in 11 games since moving to sixth in the order. Yet, each player has struggled at times over the past six weeks.
Although Dickerson has slashed .299/.335/.447 this season, he's posted a .611 OPS with 13 strikeouts and no walks in 17 games this month. Marte has batted .213 with a .638 OPS in 25 games since returning from a right oblique strain last month. Bell has only four home runs with a .705 OPS in 77 games. Harrison, on the other hand, is mired in an 0-for-16 slump, but he's hitting .429 with runners on base this season. He hasn't received enough run-scoring opportunities, though.
Change at the top could address one of the Pirates' weaknesses. They've been outscored by 18 runs and have a combined .682 OPS in the first inning of games this season. Hurdle waited to post the lineup until after he addressed the team during an advance scouting meeting Monday afternoon.
The Pirates scored only six runs during their four-game series against the Diamondbacks this past weekend, and they struck out a combined 34 times over the final three games. Neal Huntington was adamant Sunday he still intends to try to add to the club after Dejan Kovacevic reported the Pirates are shopping five veterans, including Dickerson.
However, there's not much time between now and the non-waiver trade deadline July 31 for the Pirates to dig their way out of a nine-game hole in the division.
"In the National League, we’ve continued to sink a little bit — a lot further than we hoped — but we’re in a three-week stretch where we can fight our way back into this and there are some teams we need to climb over," Huntington said. "There are a large contingent of teams in the National League still in this, so it makes for an interesting market, and there are teams that already moved the players they planned on moving. Even though they’re not in a buying situation, there’s really not a lot to buy from them."
Huntington's statement can be perceived in one of two ways: either he's confident a turnaround can occur over the next month, or the number of contenders in the NL will make his commodities more valuable on the open market. Either way, Hurdle made it clear there is a sense of urgency.
He previously said he had no desire to move Marte out of the three-hole and didn't want to move Bell again too soon. Well, the plan has changed, thanks to a .233 team batting average since May 18. Hurdle likened his lineup to tuning a violin in search of perfect pitch and said all involved, himself included, have to improve for positive change to occur.
"As a group, as a team, coaching staff, manager, sometimes maybe I need to tighten my strings, or maybe I need to loosen my strings with the coaching staff and with players," Hurdle said. "I think we've gotten to a good place where we've tried to figure out where we can provide some help and some encouragement along those lines."