SAN FRANCISCO — Joe Musgrove was frustrated with himself, not the offense that provided him with little run support or the shaky defense behind him Sunday at AT&T Park. It didn't matter to him that his hard-luck, six-inning outing was backed by only four hits by the Pirates, either.
While most of what went wrong in a series-splitting, 4-3 loss to the Giants was out of Musgrove's control, he couldn't contain his competitiveness on one defining play, and it made a tough fourth inning even worse. As Musgrove pointed to the dugout for Clint Hurdle to review an out call at first base, Gorkys Hernandez sprinted to third base and scored on a single three pitches later.
"That’s bad on my part," Musgrove said. "I kind of lost track of the game there." His teammates weren't upset about the play, even though it contributed to the Pirates, now 61-58, dropping to 7 1/2 games back in the Central Division and five back in the Wild Card. Instead, they were bragging about the edgy 25-year-old right-hander's competitive streak and frustrated with their inability to score runs for him.
"You didn’t know what he was going to be as a starter, but boy, he’s caught on," Jordy Mercer told DKPittsburghSports.com. "All of us love his demeanor on the mound, his want-to. He’s coming right after guys, and he’s giving it all he’s got."
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCOREMusgrove's now pitched at least through the sixth inning in five consecutive starts and has a 2.33 ERA over his past four starts. He's thrown 73 percent of his pitches for strikes in that span and this was only the second time since June 23rd he allowed more than two earned runs in a start. Musgrove, acquired as part of the Gerrit Cole trade, has a 3.49 ERA and 62 strikeouts to 20 walks in 80 innings after missing nearly the first two months because of a shoulder injury.
Yet, he's pitched far better than his surface-level numbers indicate, and this start, his 13th of the season, was another example of his hard luck. Musgrove retired the first six in order before a bloop single and RBI triple by Nick Hundley. He struck out Dereck Rodriguez and Andrew McCutchen to strand the runner at third.
"I thought I had really good stuff again," Musgrove said. "Ultimately I thought we swung the bats better than they did. We just hit the ball right at guys and they were able to sneak some hits in with guys on base." Hernandez reached on an infield single on a well-struck grounder towards Musgrove in the fourth after Brandon Crawford hit a one-out double. Joe Panik then drove in a run with a sacrifice fly before Steven Duggar hit this ball over to first base that Josh Bell couldn't handle:
Musgrove held up his glove as a plea with first-base umpire Chris Conroy and pointed over to the dugout to call for a review, while Hernandez bolted to third base. Hundley then pulled this weak ground ball up the third-base line and past a diving Colin Moran to score Hernandez for a 3-1 lead:
"I went back and watched it and it was really close, but I think he beat me by an inch there," Musgrove said afterwards. "That’s bad on my part for not staying locked in on the game and knowing the runner’s on base. It ended up hurting me for an extra run." The bad luck didn't stop there, either. Following a walk and a fielder's choice in the sixth, Hernandez reached second safely when Mercer dropped Elias Diaz's throw to second on a stolen base attempt.
Panik followed with a weak bloop single to give the Giants a three-run lead. Still, Musgrove allowed only three earned runs, struck out six batters and walked one. Like his previous start in Denver, Musgrove pounded the strike zone with his fastball before fooling hitters with his wipeout slider. That pitch produced nine swinging strikes, and it also induced weak contact.
When he walked off the mound following the sixth inning, Hurdle pulled him aside to tell him not to think too much about the final stat line: "There’s no need to change anything or to really think about woulda, coulda, shoulda," Hurdle said. "He made pitches. ... He pitched a hell of a ballgame."
Musgrove threw 92 pitches, 70 for strikes, yet he has four wins and seven losses this season. He's received the sixth-lowest run support among all National League starters, nearly 1.5 runs fewer on average than Ivan Nova. His teammates love how quickly he works on the mound, but they may love his fire on the rubber even more.
Musgrove sent a message to the Cubs earlier this season with a high slide into second base after Anthony Rizzo's takeout slide of Elias Diaz one day earlier. He also intentionally plunked the Diamondbacks' Chris Owings as retaliation for Josh Harrison getting hit by a pitch earlier in the game. He didn't deny the motive behind either incident, telling reporters both times that he wanted to protect a teammate.
The ultra-athletic former first-round pick has made acrobatic infield plays, and he doesn't hide his frustration after recording an out at the plate. "We love Joe on the mound, man," David Freese said. "He’s great to play behind." That's what made this loss difficult for those playing both in front of and behind him.
The Pirates managed only two hits against Rodriguez, the son of Hall of Fame catcher Pudge Rodriguez, and they couldn't capitalize after Starling Marte's two-run double in the eighth. The offense went 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position, stranding Diaz on second after and RBI double in the second inning and Marte on second in the eighth. Rodriguez retired 17 of 18 after Diaz's double.
"Yeah, it’s frustrating," Mercer said. "We want to give him run support. He had really good stuff today. It’s not so much that we can’t figure their guy out, it’s we want to get Joe his runs because he deserves it." Musgrove brushed off questions about the lack of run support. "It’s not really my job to worry about that or concern myself with that," he said.
Though it resulted in a loss, Musgrove had an air of quiet confidence in the clubhouse afterwards. After all, he's proven capable of starting after getting moved to the Astros' bullpen after 15 starts last season. "Everytime I go out there I’m competing on both sides of the ball, trying to do everything I can to get us a win," he said.
1. Sloppy baseball.
It looked like the Pirates were ready for the off-day. Mercer committed a pair of errors, although his errant throw in the seventh didn't lead to a run. Bell didn't look sharp at first base. Moran was slow to react to the grounder up the line. Rodriguez, a rookie, has allowed only five runs in five starts since the All-Star break. He's posted a 1.05 WHIP in 13 appearances, 11 starts, and Hurdle warned reporters beforehand that his players were aware it would be difficult to drive the ball against the right-hander.
The only two hits Rodriguez allowed were a pair of doubles to left in the second inning, but he also didn't have swing-and-miss stuff. Instead, he produced weak contact by pitching inside, and the Pirates seemed eager to swing. "It just seems like the times Joe's pitched, the guy on the other side’s thrown really well too," Mercer said. "We hit some balls good today, had some good at-bats. He just kept pitching us into jams and we just couldn't get anything going. We couldn’t get momentum going. … We’d get a guy on or so, but we couldn’t get a couple guys on or move the line."
They gained traction in the eighth when Rodriguez was out of the game. Adam Frazier drew a leadoff walk and Mercer reached on an infield single before Marte hit this sinker from Tony Watson to deep right for a two-run, two-out double:
"I didn’t think we got caught up in over-swinging at all," Hurdle said. "We were trying to square [Rodriguez] up, hit him hard where he pitched it. We weren’t able to do a whole lot of that."
2. The road ahead.
The Giants are a bad baseball team. Sure, they have some talent, but they're deficient on both offense and defense. Remember, the Pirates would have likely won three of these games had Clay Holmes not allowed seven runs Friday, and they gave this one away with a myriad of mistakes. They can't afford to give more games away.
The road trip ends with two games in Minneapolis beginning Tuesday, and the schedule only gets more difficult from there. They host the Cubs and Braves next week before embarking on a nine-game trip to Milwaukee, St. Louis and Atlanta. Thirty of their final 43 games are against teams ahead of them in either the Central Division or Wild Card. They need more from their offense and defense.
Corey Dickerson has five hits in 31 at-bats since returning from the disabled list. Gregory Polanco has five hits in 38 at-bats this month. Marte has 10 hits in his last 47 at-bats. That can't continue if this team is going to overcome nearly insurmountable odds to make the postseason.
3. Options for Cervelli.
Francisco Cervelli struck out in a pinch-hit opportunity in the ninth inning. His presence alone indicated he's recovered well since getting hit in the mask with a foul tip Saturday night. He was removed in the fourth inning as a precaution, and Jacob Stallings was recalled before first pitch Sunday.
The Pirates will continue to monitor Cervelli since his post-concussion symptoms took a few days to pop up in the past, so Stallings will stick around as the third catcher. Although Hurdle said he wasn't sure how long they'd carry three, Kevan Graves, the Pirates' assistant general manager, told Greg Brown on 93.7 The Fan that the club will likely do so until rosters expand September 1.
If that's the case, the Pirates will need more versatility from their bench. Frazier's currently the only backup outfielder, which means Josh Harrison may have to get some reps in the outfield in the event of an injury or if more than one outfielder is in need of a day off. Adeiny Hechavarria will start playing some second base. The Pirates also must decide what to do with Cervelli if he doesn't go on the disabled list. They'll want to monitor his reps behind the plate, perhaps more so than they did when he returned from the disabled list July 26.
"I tried to hit the ball today, I couldn't do it, but that's not because of my head," Cervelli said. "Couple days off and let's go again."
