It is probably too early to say the Pirates’ longest road trip of the year could be the tipping point of their season.
However, the Pirates’ three-city, 11-game journey that beings Thursday night in St. Louis figures to present challenges, notably that the Cardinals, Diamondbacks and Padres all have records over .500.
The Pirates are a sickly 1-12 against teams that currently have winning records. They are 16-4 against everyone else, though they blew a four-run lead Wednesday and lost 9-6 to the Rangers at PNC Park to split a two-game series against a 17-17 team.
The Pirates now hit the road on an extremely sour note. The Pirates were in control Wednesday, leading 6-2 after seven innings. Then Michael Feliz walked three batters and gave up a tying grand slam to Hunter Pence in the eighth and the Rangers scored three more in the ninth off Tyler Lyons after Rougned Odor’s two-run home run followed Isaiah Kiner-Falefa’s go-ahead RBI double:
Worse yet, the Pirates’ bullpen is in disarray as they head west.
Long relievers Steven Brault and Nick Kingham were needed to make spot starts against the Rangers because of injuries to Chris Archer and Jameson Taillon.
Set-up man Keone Kela was unavailable to pitch in the series and the Pirates inexplicably did not place him on the injured list until after Wednesday’s game. The club made the announcement after Clint Hurdle’s postgame press conference, preventing the media from getting the rationale for the delayed transaction.
A Pirates source informed me of their intent to select the contract of right-hander Montana DuRapau from Triple-A Indianapolis. To add him, they will first need to clear a spot on their 40-man roster.
DuRapau, who was profiled by our Matt Welch earlier this week, has a 0.63 ERA and 0.69 WHIP in 12 appearances with Indy, including 18 strikeouts through 14 1/3 innings pitched.
Hurdle’s options were limited once the game got to the eighth inning after Kingham went four innings, Richard Rodriguez pitched two and Francisco Liriano worked a perfect seventh.
Hurdle planned to use Felipe Vazquez only for a three-out save in the ninth inning after the closer pitched three times in the previous four days. Hurdle also did not want to use Kyle Crick because he, too, had worked on three of the previous four days.
Furthermore, following Liriano's perfect seventh, Hurdle did not want to extend the left-hander because he had thrown 54 pitches over a four-day span.
Thus, Hurdle’s choices were Feliz, Lyons and Dovydas Neverauskas.
Pick your poison.
Hurdle went with Feliz and the score quickly went from 6-2 to 6-6 after Pence followed the big right-hander’s wildness by blasting the seventh grand slam of his 13-year career high off the left-field foul pole.
Lyons cleaned up Feliz’s mess by getting the final out of the eighth but couldn’t hold off the Rangers in the ninth.
“We weren’t able to close the game out,” Hurdle said. “Abner (Doubleday) was on to something when he decided to make the game nine innings.
“It’s a test at various times of the season based on what you have available, how the season’s playing out. We needed to get an out in the eighth inning to get out of the inning and we couldn’t close it off.”
Now, the Pirates play four games against the Cardinals, followed by three versus the Diamondbacks in Phoenix and four against the Padres in San Diego next week.
The Pirates insist they are ready for the challenge. Of course, it would be a bigger upset than Country Home in the Kentucky Derby if anyone said otherwise.
“Honestly, I feel the best players in the game can shower it off,” Josh Bell, who hit a home run into the Allegheny River on the fly in the fourth inning, said when asked if the loss might have lingering effects.
“We’ll think about it on the bus ride to the airport, but once we get on the flight to St. Louis you start thinking about tomorrow’s (opponents’ starting pitcher). We’re excited to get back on track in St. Louis. We’ve got four games ahead of us against a very good team in our division and we can set the standard in the division with a good showing.”
Hurdle used one of sports’ oldest tropes when talking about the trip, though he readily admitted his answer was “cliché-ish.”
“We’re going to take it one game at a time, that’s really how we approach it,” he said. “We’re best served that way. We’ve been through 33 games and experienced a lot already. We’re going into St. Louis and that’s where our focus is. This trip is going to take us to some tough teams, teams that are playing well and it starts (Thursday).”
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE GOOD
Kingham did basically what the Pirates wanted, getting them through four innings while allowing two runs.
Kingham somehow navigated a 33-pitch first inning without allowing a run as he got a pop out and a fly out with the bases loaded. Joey Gallo tagged Kingham for a two-run home in the third inning that traveled 443 feet and bounced into the river.
The right-hander gave up a total of three hits while striking out five and walking three.
It was Kingham’s first start of the season after eight relief appearances and he told me the adjustment was easy:
THE BAD
Feliz, who began last season as the Pirates' primary set-up man, had given the team hope that he was ready for some success. In his first four outings after being recalled from Indianapolis on April 27, he allowed one unearned run and one hit in four games and 4 2/3 innings.
However, it all fell apart on Feliz in the eighth inning and he looked like the pitcher who ended last season with a 5.66 ERA and 1.51 WHIP in 47 games.
Feliz was one of four players acquired from the Astros in the Gerrit Cole trade in January 2018, along with Joe Musgrove, Colin Moran and Jason Martin.
THE OTHER SIDE
Gallo became the fastest American League player to reach 100 career home runs, doing so in his 377th game. The slugger is the epitome of the all-or-nothing hitters prevalent in today’s game as he has just 93 singles in five seasons.
However, Gallo was more impressed by Pence’s home run.
“He's always ready to come in the game,” Gallo said. “I think that says a lot for a guy with that much experience, that much respect in the game, and he's taking every single out serious, every single game serious. I think it's very good for us young guys to see that.”
THE DATA
• Melky Cabrera went 2-for-4 to run his hitting streak to 12 games. It is the longest active streak among National League players.
• Bell also had a double as his hitting streak reached eight games. Of his last 17 hits, 14 have gone for extra bases with seven doubles, six home runs and one triple.
• Elias Diaz was 0-for-4 and is hitting just .138/.167/.172 in nine games.
• Starling Marte has reached base in 28 of his last 29 interleague games.
• The Pirates are 8-0-2 in their last 10 interleague series at home since losing two of three to the Astros from Aug. 22-24, 2016.
THE INJURIES
• Keone Kela, right-hander, was placed on the 10-day injured list after Wednesday's game because of right shoulder inflammation.
• Jameson Taillon, right-hander, is on the 10-day IL with a strained right forearm flexor tendon. He will not throw until early June.
• Chris Archer, right-hander, is on the 10-day IL with right thumb inflammation. He is expected to pitch a simulated game Friday in St. Louis.
• Corey Dickerson, outfielder, is on the 10-day IL with a strained right shoulder. He is expected to begin throwing soon.
• Nick Burdi, relief pitcher, is on the 10-day IL with right elbow/biceps pain caused by a nerve problem.
• Lonnie Chisenhall, outfielder, is on the 10-day IL with a broken right hand. His rehab assignment at Indianapolis was stopped April 27 because of left calf tightness. He has resumed baseball activities but there is no timetable for his return.
• Jacob Stallings, catcher, is on the 10-day IL with a cervical neck strain. He's on a rehab assignment with Indianapolis.
• Erik Gonzalez, shortstop, is on the 60-day IL with a fractured right clavicle that required surgery. He had his stitches removed Wednesday but won't return until at least mid-July.
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates open a four-game series against the Cardinals at 7:45 p.m. Thursday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Joe Musgrove (1-3, 2.63) will face Michael Wacha (2-0, 5.17). DK will be covering the series and I'll pick the team back up Monday night in Phoenix for the opener of a three-game series with the Diamondbacks.
THE COVERAGE
All of our expanded baseball coverage, including Indy Watch by Matt Welch, Altoona Watch by Jarrod Prugar, and Mound Visit by Jason Rollison, can be found on our team page.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Pirates vs. Rangers, PNC Park, May 8, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS