ATLANTA – Kyle Crick has the stuff to bail himself out whenever his signature wipeout slider turns into a wild pitch, yet it doesn't make a buried breaking ball any easier, as the exuberant 25-year-old described hours before the Pirates' bullpen closed out a 3-2 victory over the Braves Friday night at SunTrust Park.
"Oh, it's frustrating," Crick lamented, "but it's my fault. It's all about how you deal with it."
Crick's handled it well. So have his fellow electrifying, hard-throwing relievers who own the second-lowest ERA in the majors since the All-Star break. But Crick's frustration is shared by Clint Hurdle. After all, his young bullpen has accounted for 46 of the Pirates' league-leading 78 wild pitches this season, and their erratic command has led to 18 hit batters in the second half.
Ray Searage has pressed his pitchers to execute, not overthrow. Tom Prince, the team's bench coach, has his catchers working overtime in the bullpen to prepare for balls in the dirt. However, the Pirates' seven relievers, all of whom are under 29 years old, don't plan on holding back since those mishaps also illustrate their limitless potential.
"Our catchers are some of the best in the league at handling it," Crick told DKPittsburghSports.com. "The tough part for them is we all have nasty stuff, so they have to come in, and we all have different nasty stuff. For them it’s all about keeping it in front of them."
He grinned after that last part. Crick, acquired from the Giants as part of the Andrew McCutchen trade, has a 1.88 ERA with 33 strikeouts in his last 30 outings, and he's stranded 13 of his 16 inherited runners. That wipeout slider has produced a 38.9 percent whiff rate and a .122 opponents' batting average. He's also thrown nine wild pitches, second-most on the team and tied for ninth-most in the majors.
Richard Rodriguez, the oldest bullpen arm at 28 years old, has stranded each of his last 19 inherited runners and has 68 strikeouts to 16 walks, while throwing predominately fastballs. Yet, he's thrown 10 wild pitches, most by throwing his slider in the dirt.
Steven Brault, a 26-year-old lefty, has stranded all 14 of his inherited runners and has thrown 9 1/3 scoreless innings since returning to the majors. On the other hand, he's thrown eight wild pitches and hit a team-high eight batters. Ivan Nova has also thrown eight wild pitches, while Tyler Glasnow and Chad Kuhl each account for seven.
The Pirates, now 66-69 and 9 1/2 back in the wild-card race, have followed a league-wide trend over the past decade, as more teams call up young pitchers before they have command of more than one pitch. Fastball velocity has also steadily increased, as it's unusual whenever someone doesn't throw in the upper 90s.
There have been 1,810 wild pitches in the majors this season with a month still to play, compared to 1,576 in 2008. The Pirates' increase has coincided with the youth movement in their bullpen, too. They had nine relievers 30 years or older pitch at least seven games for them last season, while the bullpen accounted for 24 of the team's 58 wild pitches. On the other hand, this year's bullpen has included only two pitchers over 30: George Kontos and Josh Smoker. With Glasnow now gone, the group's average age is just over 26 years old.
"For me, it’s the added velocity and the fact there’s an HOV lane to get pitchers up here sometimes," Hurdle said. "Their overall pitch efficiency might not be where you want it at that point in time. I think the degree of catching is still good. Yeah, we’ve got a lot ourselves. If you play the video tape of some of the balls coming out of the hand and you look at what the catchers are put in position to try to block, it’s dynamic. Basically I think it’s within the industry. More often than not you’re getting secondary pitches as a side bar. ... It’s high risk, high reward, with a lot of things that are going on in the game."
Crick and Brault both agreed their bullpen's youth is one reason why the Pirates have been susceptible to giving an opponent an extra base with a ball to the backstop. The group has 30 more wild pitches than the Cubs and 12 more than any other team in the Central Division. Trying to execute Searage's pitching philosophy has also led to the wild pitches and hit batters, Crick said.
Though how they're attacking hitters has changed, Searage still emphasizes throwing inside to prevent hitters from cheating over the middle of the plate. Establishing the inner third then allows pitchers to throw those breaking balls low and away. Brault offered a different perspective by comparing his approach now to when he pitched in college. He used to worry about his command as an amateur since catchers weren't as adept at catching those mistakes.
Now, though, he won't think twice about bouncing a breaking ball in front of the plate since he has confidence in Elias Diaz or Francisco Cervelli to block any pitch. He is also ultra-confident he can escape a jam, though Crick bristled when asked if he minds giving a runner a free base, even if there's two outs.
"They make it look easy, actually, so it’s one of those things where we’re never scared to throw it bases loaded, runner on third," Brault said of his catchers. "It doesn’t matter because we know they’re going to block it. But every now and then you throw it and it catches the corner of the plate. It’s not a perfectly round object. It has seams. It can kick up the opposite way ... and that’s when it goes awry. [Stuff] happens, I guess."
Hurdle, a former catcher, didn't agree with that mindset: "It’s just too bad you can’t put the gear on them and send them on the other side of the plate to be on the receiving end of some of these things that are coming out of their hands. That would change the vision."
Still, the Pirates' bullpen is among the most effective in the majors. They've allowed the fewest home runs in the second half and fourth-fewest hits in the NL. They've left 78.5 baserunners on and only 28 percent of their inherited runners have scored this season, the sixth-lowest mark in the NL. Felipe Vazquez has converted each of his last 19 save opportunities, including a scoreless inning Friday, and Keone Kela is averaging more than 13 strikeouts per nine innings in 14 appearances since joining the club.
Together, the group ranks fourth in the majors with 491 strikeouts — last year's bullpen had 491 all season — which has left all involved wondering how to clean up of their command at times.
"These guys have great stuff," Diaz said. "You are going to have trouble stopping that 95 fastball in the dirt, or a nasty slider off the plate. We try to have fewer. We need to have fewer. It’s nasty, but we can either block those or we just have to get those thrown so they don’t bounce away like that."
1. Taillon becoming an "ace."
Hurdle pulled out the Pirates' game notes when a question asked about Jameson Taillon Friday afternoon was framed with the phrase "pretty good," and he rattled off notable statistics:
• Taillon was one of only four starters to allow three or fewer earned runs in 16 consecutive starts, joining Justin Verlander, Jacob deGrom and Luis Severino.
• Entering Friday, Taillon had allowed only 14 runs in 52 innings over his previous eight starts. His 2.86 ERA since June 1 was the 10th-lowest mark in the NL.
• He had won six of his last nine road starts while posting a 2.44 ERA.
Taillon further illustrated Hurdle's point with another spectacular performance, striking out seven with one walk over seven innings to earn his 11th win. His two earned runs allowed were solo homers, including this game-tying solo shot by Johan Camargo on a hanging slider in the seventh:
Otherwise, Taillon had what could be one of his better starts this season. The Braves have the second-highest scoring offense the NL, led by 20-year-old rookie Ronald Acuña Jr., who homered off Taillon in the sixth; however, Taillon kept them off-balance, exploiting their weakness by pitching to the top of the zone. That, David Freese said, showed the 27-year-old starter prepared and executed. He threw 75 of his 103 pitches for strikes and was often ahead in the count.
"You just watch tonight, he’s attacking hitters’ weaknesses, and he’s hitting his spots," Freese said. "It turns around and hitters aren’t really sure what’s coming. It gets them off-balance, and he gets poor swings. He gets punchouts. That’s what aces do."
Hurdle didn't use the term, but he beamed afterwards when asked to dissect the outing. Taillon, meanwhile, was encouraged by the consistency. Taillon's now made 27 starts, one more than last season, with a 3.45 ERA. His 146 strikeouts are 48 more than anyone else on the staff. More important to him, he has thrown a team-high 159 innings:
2. Offense scrapes enough together.
Acuña Jr.'s 11 home runs in August are tied with Mel Ott (1929) for the most ever by a player 20 or younger. Meanwhile, the Pirates combined for 17 home runs in August, and they again had to manufacture runs. They finished with seven hits and went 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position. It was Diaz who gave them a lead with a single in the second after Corey Dickerson doubled down the right-field line.
Freese, who went 1 for 4 in his final game for the Pirates, singled in the sixth to score Starling Marte, and Gregory Polanco drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth when he turned on this elevated fastball:
"Greg stayed on the pitch, fought through the ball and was able to get enough of it to drive to the outfield gap," Hurdle said. "That’s the one thing I think you’ve seen growth this year from him. He punches out twice, puts his helmet down and he goes out to play defense. ... There’s no emotional baggage or collateral damage he’s carrying around at-bat to at-bat."
Still, the Pirates scored the third-fewest runs in August and only the Giants hit fewer home runs. They finished the month with 10 wins, 17 losses, and completely ruined their playoff chances. The Braves, on the other hand, had 17 wins and 13 losses. Late Friday night, Freese spoke highly of the Braves' young talent. On the other hand, he was blunt when asked about his own offense's free fall over the past month.
"It’s just frustrating," Freese said. "We’re just not winning. We’re fighting, but when you play teams that are better than you and they come out hot, they’re going to beat you. We’ve got a club that we’ve got to grind. We talked about it all year. Right now, the talent in this clubhouse, you’ve got to fight all day, every day. We don’t have a lineup where you can kind of — not relax, but just expect four guys to show up. Our staff is doing an unbelievable job. Offensively, we just haven’t been doing it lately, but real proud of the pitching and where they’ve come from."
Ouch.
3. Diaz shines again before injury.
Diaz, now batting .286 with a .790 OPS in 76 games, left the game in the seventh inning after injuring his right hamstring when running out a ground ball. The injury was serious enough to cause him to limp back to the dugout. He's very much a big part of the Pirates' future, and they'll likely be cautious with him given Jacob Stallings will be recalled as soon as Saturday when rosters expand.
As disappointing as Diaz's injury was to everyone in the visitors clubhouse, Taillon in particular, Diaz again showed his immense talent with this throw to second to complete an inning-ending double play in the first inning:
"That was tough," Taillon said of Diaz's injury. "We hate to see that. Everyone loves Diaz. Everyone really loves Diaz, and he’s grown up so much this year. It’s crazy for me to see what he’s become as a guy and as a player because I played with him in Low A."