CLEVELAND — Trevor Bauer's seventh pitch put the Pirates' historic, unprecedented streak in jeopardy. Bauer, among the American League leaders in ERA and strikeouts, hit Starling Marte in the back of the left hand with a 95-mph fastball in the first inning Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field.
Marte, the club's heartbeat during its first 11-game winning streak in 22 years, remained in the game, only to be removed after being thrown out at second base and later diagnosed with a contusion. “I was trying to stay in the game, but I couldn’t take the pain any more," Marte, who is day-to-day, said through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez afterward.
Without Marte and Corey Dickerson, the Pirates' bid for their first 12-game winning streak since 1965 ended with a 4-0 loss to the Indians in which they struck out 13 times, had only three hits and didn't have a runner reach third base.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEOAlthough the streak is over, the Pirates are still three games over .500, 53-50, and cut their deficit in the Central Division to seven games. They're only 3 1/2 games and two teams back in the Wild Card race with a four-game series against the train-wreck Mets beginning Thursday at PNC Park. As much as they were disappointed to see it end, they were brimming with optimism while readying for the charter back to Pittsburgh.
“It’s crazy in baseball, the teams in front of us lose a couple and we roll off some wins, and all of a sudden we’re back in the playoff talk – or the picture, at least," Jameson Taillon, the Pirates' starter for the finale, said. "It’s rare in baseball to win 10, but who says you can’t? It kind of threw us right back in the middle of things.”
It was an improbable run unlike any the city's baseball fans have seen in some time. The Pirates were seven games under .500 and 12 1/2 back in the division July 8, when Neal Huntington told reporters "optimism has turned to realism." He was prepared to trade veterans at the non-waiver deadline if his team didn't close the gap in the final week of the All-Star break.
Their response: 13 wins in 14 games, batting .313 with a plus-39 run differential during the 11-game winning streak. No team in the 132-year history of the Pirates has won fewer than 85 games when having such a streak. And of their seven teams to reach the World Series, four had a streak that long.
The volatile rotation posted a combined 2.47 ERA over those 14 starts and has the second-most strikeouts in the NL this month. The bullpen also stabilized, as Felipe Vazquez and Kyle Crick owned the second- and third-longest scoreless inning streaks in the majors entering Wednesday.
"I’m incredibly proud of the men," Clint Hurdle said. "They’ve gone out and played baseball. They’ve bonded up, they’ve worked together. They fought and we worked our way back into things. A lot of season left. This was a great growth opportunity for us, and there’s more in front of us."
The Pirates had also scored six or more runs in seven straight games, a franchise first since Ralph Kiner's rookie season in 1946. It put them in rare air:
Their streak was put in jeopardy approximately 15 hours before the hit-by-pitch when Dickerson injured his left hamstring while running to first base in the fourth inning Tuesday night. His absence Sunday led Hurdle to have Jordan Luplow bat leadoff, an experiment that didn't go well.
Luplow went 0-for-4 and grounded into a double play after the Pirates led off the eighth with back-to-back singles. Yet, the decision was made so Marte could stay right where he was. The center fielder owned a 17-game hitting streak since moving to the two-hole, the longest in the NL this season, and was batting .394 with four doubles, seven homers and 20 RBIs in that span.
Marte, Dickerson and Polanco formed the NL's most productive outfield this month, as that group was leading the NL in OPS, slugging percentage and batting average in July. So, you can imagine the reaction in the Pirates' dugout when this occurred on the seventh pitch of the game:
"We kind of go as he goes," Taillon said. "He’s been setting the table. He’s been hot. It’s probably not a coincidence that since his hit streak and his strong play, we’ve been winning games.”
With Luplow, Jacob Stallings and Sean Rodriguez also in the lineup, Marte was replaced by Adam Frazier, who was recalled Wednesday morning. Frazier had the Pirates' only extra-base hit, a leadoff double in the fourth inning, only for Gregory Polanco and Colin Moran to both strike out to strand him:
Polanco, Moran, Josh Bell, David Freese and Rodriguez went a combined 0-for-16 with nine strikeouts.
The Pirates' three hits were their fewest in a game since June 9, when they had only one in 2-0 loss to the Cubs. Bauer, a Cy Young contender, had 10 strikeouts — his ninth double-digit strikeout game this season — by producing 16 swinging strikes. He retired 16 of 17 following the hit-by-pitch, striking out the side in the fifth.
The Pirates went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position after batting a league-high .375 in those situations over their previous 11 games. "I think we did the best we could with what we had, with where we were," Hurdle said. "That was the fight. A couple opportunities to push a little bit and he responded."
Jameson Taillon was outstanding again, striking out five with only one walk. He pitched through the seventh inning for the fourth time this season. His lone blemish was a two-run single by Edwin Encarnacion in the third, and the bullpen's streak also ended. Crick walked Jose Ramirez with one out in the eighth, and Yonder Alonso became only the second lefty to homer off Vazquez in the major leagues with his two-run shot two batters later.
It resembled the Pirates' losses in May and June, when they either pitched well and didn't hit, or hit well and didn't pitch. Their first loss in 15 days did not spoil all that was accomplished, though. They led for 49 consecutive innings following Bell's walk-off double in the rain before the All-Star break, earned the franchise's first 10-game streak in 14 years, rattled off four consecutive series wins and changed the entire complexion of their season. Rather than executing a fire sale, Huntington is now faced with what and how much to add before Tuesday's non-waiver deadline.
Most important, it convinced all involved that what they accomplished the first six weeks of the season was no fluke after all, and the best could be to come.
“We were playing not our best baseball before, so it just showed us that what we did early in April wasn’t a fluke," Taillon said. "We were able to get back to kind of where I thought we were. Maybe we end up somewhere in the middle, but we’re definitely not as bad as we were playing there for a stretch. It just proves to us that we’re able to play a better quality.”
1. Taillon emerging as the ace.
There's a reason why Hurdle gave Taillon the first start following the All-Star break. Remember, Ivan Nova is strongly against not being able to pitch every five days, so the manager's decision spoke to his confidence in his promising starting pitcher. Taillon has earned that trust.
Sure, he had another near-disaster first inning, throwing 21 pitches after allowing a leadoff double to Francisco Lindor. The Indians also tagged him for two runs on three hits in the third, capped by Encarnacion taking advantage of this slider right down the middle:
Oh, and Jason Kipnis hit a one-out triple in the fourth. But Taillon retired 10 of 12 following that extra-base hit, needing only seven pitches to get through the fifth and 10 to complete the sixth. The breaking pitches weren't all that crisp, either. He produced only eight swinging strikes, five of which were from his four-seam fastball.
Taillon retired 13 batters on three pitches or less and was at 89 pitches through seven innings when Hurdle chose to turn to his bullpen. "He made pitches," Hurdle said. "As we’ve talked all along, good pitching stops good hitting. He was extremely solid off the mound."
Taillon has posted a 3.09 ERA over his last 11 starts with 66 strikeouts to 16 walks in 67 innings during that span. He's now pitched through the sixth inning in four of his last five starts and accomplished his explicit goal when his short-handed lineup was facing one of the top offenses in the AL.
“The old cliché is [as] a starting pitcher, you keep your team in the game, give them a chance to win, and I did that," Taillon said. "I just ran into somebody that was pretty tough today.”
2. What to do without Marte?
Marte was diagnosed with a "contusion," meaning he did not fracture the hand, and is considered day-to-day. He'll be examined by the Pirates' team doctor when the team returns to Pittsburgh, and they'll wait until the swelling goes down before determining when he's available to return.
Marte will likely avoid a stint on the disabled list, although Encarnacion suffered a similar injury before the break and needed eight days to recover. It likely won't be enough to drastically change Huntington's plans for the deadline, but it does leave them shorthanded against the Mets, who nearly won a series against the Pirates in New York last month.
Austin Meadows, the likely replacement, was still in Triple-A Indianapolis' starting lineup Wednesday night, which bodes well for the severity of Marte's injury. However, this is still a crucial weekend. All it takes is a bad series for the Cubs and Brewers to both gain ground on the Pirates in the standings.
As unfair as it may seem, one bad weekend could spoil all the good they've accomplished during this six-game road trip. "Life’s not fair, the game’s not fair at times; things happen," Hurdle said. "The best news we could have got was the news we got, as far as the severity of the injury. ... We’ll see where it goes, but when those things happen, you hear them, you never know. We’ll see how he bounces back."
When the Pirates return home, they could have a starting outfield of Luplow, Frazier and Polanco. That's not great. As successful as Meadows was at first, the Pirates were just 10-24 with him in the starting lineup. Yes, they've had some success with Marte out, but he's a far different player now than he was at any point earlier this season.
Marte is batting .292/.339/.503 with 16 home runs, 54 RBIs and a league-best 25 stolen bases through 91 games.
3. Another incredible defensive play.
Mercer is among the worst shortstops in the majors according to defensive runs saved; however, he's still a capable defender at 31 years old and kept it scoreless when the Pirates seemed to be reeling. With runners on first and second in the first inning, Yander Alonso struck a liner up the middle.
Mercer dove to his right and flipped the ball over to Sean Rodriguez at second base for the third out:
The call stood after a managerial review, ending an inning where Lindor doubled and Jose Ramirez drew a one-out walk. “That was going to be an interesting play if they called him safe because we probably had a chance of getting Lindor with his hard turn at third or getting the out at first," Taillon said of the play. "If they overturned that and called him safe, they did us a disservice by calling him out in the first place. Man, that was an unbelievable play. That ball was shot right back by my head. I didn’t really see it. I just heard it go by.”
Although there will likely be suitors for Mercer at the deadline, the Pirates would be wise to err on the side of caution and keep him. Kevin Newman looks major-league ready, but is it really worth disrupting your middle infield to receive a Low-A prospect? Mercer's also batted 12 for 29 with five doubles over his last 10 games, which isn't exactly pedestrian production. He's been a key cog in what the Pirates have accomplished.
Newman can wait until next year.