ST. LOUIS -- There's an ever-present temptation in baseball that, when one thing works, try it again. Even in this age of advanced analytics, where the game's micromanaged as never before, it can still come down to a singular human instinct.
We did this. It worked.
The Pirates capped a lousy 1-5 trip out of the All-Star break with a lousier-than-all-of-it 6-5 loss to the Cardinals on this Wednesday afternoon at blistering Busch Stadium. They're 45-50, they're 6 1/2 out in the Central, they're treading toward toast status for 2019, and I'll get to all of that in a bit.
But this one ... this just might have stung on a different level. Because this one was right there. A chance to fly home at least somewhat satisfied with taking the last two, with fundamentally outperforming the franchise that's famous for that, with at least a mini-momentum recaptured.
Instead, it was this:
That was Paul Goldschmidt, tearing into a three-run rocket off Michael Feliz in the seventh inning.
And that, if one watches it again, is one whale of a bad pitch.
Possibly a bad pitch selection, too.
Francisco Liriano had put two aboard to open the inning, and Clint Hurdle lifted him for Feliz — partly for the right-on-right matchup, partly because Feliz has been exceptional the past six weeks: 1.80 ERA, .184 opponents' batting average, no runs at all since June 22. And when Feliz evened the count at 2-2 with a fastball that was fouled off, it felt pretty promising:
Wow, that should have been the pitch we were all fussing over.
Still, for the next pitch, Jacob Stallings called for another fastball, and away it went.
"Yeah, trying to go up and in," Stallings explained to me. "I mean, he was late on the one before it, and I felt like that was a better pitch to hit than the one he hit for a homer."
He's right. The previous pitch was in a hotter zone ...
MLB.com... but oh, my, back-to-back fastballs to one of baseball's most feared bats is playing with wildfire.
Same goes for fanning on the location as badly as Feliz did. Stallings' mitt was, in fact, up and in. The pitch went over the inside corner.
"I think I missed my pitch," Feliz said. "We called the right pitch. I just missed."
Hurdle also had equally hot Richard Rodriguez available, as well as Kyle Crick and, at least theoretically, Felipe Vazquez. He expressed zero regret at the choice.
"Feliz's stuff matches up against Goldschmidt and Tyler O'Neill better than anybody else we've got ... Rodriguez, Liriano ... Goldschmidt and O'Neill were 0 for 5 against him coming in. Unfortunately, the fastball location was off on the pitch he threw Goldy today."
Why not Rodriguez, the team's best at stranding inherited runners, as he demonstrated again brilliantly less than 24 hours earlier?
"We game plan beforehand, and you're looking to the guys you want to go to," Hurdle replied to that. "Rodriguez, every time you put him in, I don't know if he's going to bat 1.000, either. But based on stuff and history and everything else, Feliz was the guy we wanted to go to. He didn't get it done. That's a decision I made."
I've seen Feliz look roughed up, meaning mentally. He was a mess much of the period before that demotion to Indianapolis. But he hasn't looked anything of the sort since his June 8 recall, and he sure didn't after this.
"I'll be good," he said. "I'll bounce back."
• All of the above wasted Chris Archer's second consecutive quality start -- fourth out of 17 all season, for full context -- in conceding three runs and five hits over six innings, with eight strikeouts and two walks. He again mixed his slider effectively, as he had in Chicago in the first game following the All-Star break, and pounded the zone.
The slider did hurt him on the only home run he'd allow, to O'Neill, but it was otherwise sharp.
I asked how much the pitch has meant to him of late, since he's now throwing it a third of the time:
"Look, dude," he began, "I've been throwing it for most of my career 40-plus percent of the time. I trust it. It's one of the best pitches in the game. I can make people swing and miss. I can get soft contact. That's what this game's about."
It's progress. If he'd pitched precisely this well all along, complaints would be sparse.
Oh, and he contributed a couple hits, too, including his first career RBI in the fourth.
• They don't quit. I'll keep repeating it. They really don't.
In the ninth inning against Carlos Martinez, after two outs, Kevin Newman singled, then scored on a Bryan Reynolds single, bringing Starling Marte to the plate with runners at the corners. Many of the 43,186 braving the 96-degree heat sat back down, only adding to the suspense that this could be another one of those compelling comebacks.
Nope. Marte got a good swing on the ball, but chopped just over it and grounded to short for the forceout at second.
• Marte didn't miss this one in the first for his 16th home run, a quarter of which came on this trip:
He's never hit more than the 20 from 2018, but he's on pace for 27. Also, his 52 RBIs lead all National League center fielders. And he covers a ton of territory out there.
This is a good ballplayer. And I'll have much more on that topic with another column in the next couple days.
• Crick pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, I feel motivated to include. He's had a rough ride for a month now, but he pumped fastballs and needed only a dozen pitches -- nine strikes -- to skate through.
"Just throwing strikes, being consistent in the zone," he told me afterward. "I feel like the last week or two, I haven't been falling behind, so they don't have as much of an idea of what's coming. It's just one of those deals. It's about how fast you can get out of it."
His importance can't be overstated. Remember, he's first in line to close if Felipe Vazquez gets traded.
• Archer's second hit was an RBI single in the fourth that followed the Cardinals intentionally walking Stallings and, for some insane reason, having Goldschmidt hold him to the bag:
Who knows why?
I wasn't on the St. Louis side, obviously, and Mike Schildt wasn't asked about it over there.
• Right after that, Dexter Fowler got a terrible break on Reynolds' two-run single that put the Pirates up, 4-3:
I point these out solely because the Cardinals still, confounding all sensibilities, get cited as the paragons of fundamentals. That hasn't been the case for quite a while.
• I joke about Lonnie Chisenhall, but it speaks volumes to what this fraud's pulling off -- being paid $2.75 million to seek second opinions all summer long about an alleged calf injury -- that Todd Tomczyk, the Pirates' director of sports medicine, didn't even mention him Wednesday in his weekly session with reporters here. It wasn't until Tomczyk was prompted about Chisenhall that he was forced to repeat the same answer as the previous two dozen weeks. Tomczyk's a total pro. Chisenhall isn't.
• The pending series this weekend against the Phillies will see Jordan Lyles, Trevor Williams and Joe Musgrove take the mound. Those three combined to cough up 20 runs over 11 innings on this trip. Buckle up.
• Flying home. Thanks for reading all through the series. John Perrotto will be back on his beat Friday.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE INJURIES
• Francisco Cervelli (7-day IL, concussion)
• Steven Brault (10-day IL, shoulder)
• Gregory Polanco (10-day IL, shoulder)
• Rookie Davis (10-day IL, forearm)
• Jameson Taillon (60-day IL, elbow)
• Keone Kela (60-day IL, shoulder)
• Erik Gonzalez (60-day IL hamstring)
• Lonnie Chisenhall (60-day IL, second opinion)
Here's the most recent full report, culled from the media session Wednesday with Todd Tomczyk, the Pirates' director of sports medicine.
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates are off Thursday. The next game is against the Phillies, 7:05 p.m. Friday at PNC Park. Jordan Lyles will try to last longer than a fraction of an inning against Jake Arrieta.
THE COVERAGE
All 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.
