ST. LOUIS -- Fire everyone.
Yeah, the Pirates lost yet again, 3-1 to the Cardinals on this Saturday night, extending this latest streak to seven games, the record since the All-Star break to 4-23 and the overall record to a season-worst 20 games under .500 at 48-68. And digging anew through the history books, this is the franchise's second-worst 27-game stretch in Major League Baseball's modern era, meaning from 1900 onward. The only one worse was a 3-24 in 1952.
I'll say it again: Fire everyone. The very most Bob Nutting could do is sell. The very least he could and should do is clear out the front office. All of them. Throw their furniture out, too. And then, rehire them, only to fire them again in the same act, just to make double-damned-sure it sticks.
OK, obligatory prequel out of the way ...
This game, like the one the previous night, was as airtight as could be expected these days, tied at 1-1 until the bottom of the sixth. Which is precisely when a good team wins a game and one that's hitting historic lows does what the visitors wound up doing.
It opened with promise, Bryan Reynolds turning in this terrific throw to nail fleet-footed Dexter Fowler at second:
That kid's good at everything. It's almost as if he'd been drafted and developed through some other team's system, huh?
He's humble, too. When I asked about the odd technique to that throw -- like a shortstop in the hole -- he credited recently traded Corey Dickerson.
"It's something I learned from Corey, and he and I would work on it together before games," Reynolds told me. "It's not a play you see too often, but the more you prepare, the more you're ready for something like that."
Wonderful stuff.
Followed, somehow naturally, by this three-car crash-and-burn with Joe Musgrove's next batter, Tommy Edman:
In Little League, they call that a home run. In the majors, everything they call that is unprintable.
Edman smacks what should have been a double to the fence in center, Starling Marte scoops it up and sends it to Kevin Newman, the correct cutoff man, efficiently enough that Edman settles for second.
Play over, right?
Not for Newman. He whirls toward third base and throws. Even with Adam Frazier right in his face with both arms raised and shouting, as I'd later learn, "No! No! No!" Even with Edman not only stopping at second but also skipping back to touch the bag with his right spike.
The throw, needless to say, never needed to be made. He could've eaten the ball or, if he'd felt the slightest concern over Edman, he could've run the ball back into the infield himself.
Yeah, I asked:
He made fair points: "Edman's a good runner. Once the ball got to the wall, I thought there might be a play at third. Frazier was telling me what to do, but I couldn't hear him over the crowd noise. So I turned to third ... and the throw came up short."
One thing I've learned about Newman: He's not an excuse-maker. Don't read him that way. It'd be dead wrong.
But he blew it, and he knew it, both with the decision and the execution.
And, as Clint Hurdle would call out, "There were probably three disconnects on the play." Which is supported by another, slower look:
The throw's low, but Colin Moran's got to position himself in front of that ball like a soldier on a hand grenade.
"I probably just didn't block it well enough," Moran said.
I asked if maybe it had taken an unexpected turn.
"I didn't block it well enough."
Surprised to see a throw?
"I've got to get in front of it."
OK, then. But there was a third point: Musgrove, a superior athlete who takes pride in all facets, initially had moved toward backing up a potential throw ... then paused at the third base line. So once the ball got by Moran and rolled into the Pirates' dugout -- formally handing Edman home plate and, presumably, a stop at the ice cream parlor -- Musgrove was in no position to stop it.
"I stopped at the foul line when I saw him pull up," Musgrove said, referring to Edman at second. "If the throw goes to third -- that's kind of the last thing I expect there -- I need to be backing up third base. There's no excuse for it. I've got nowhere else to be but there. That's my job."
This might never end.
• I'd ask Neal Huntington about his job, but he didn't bother accompanying the team on the trip. No team executive did, actually. That's how they roll. They let the manager and the players answer for the collective lack of talent.
• Are they still in it?
Believe it or not, that assessment was made by the National League's most tenured general manager all of 10 days ago.
• Musgrove got through a bases-loaded first inning with one run allowed on a 5-4-3 double play, exactly as Chris Archer had the previous night. He also bounced back to put up four high-quality zeroes -- struck out the side in the fourth on 10 pitches -- before the decisive sixth inning.
"He was better than his line," Hurdle said of Musgrove's 5 1/3 innings, three runs and six hits, but I'm not there. What Musgrove needs, more than anything, is consistent command of his fastball. Not for an inning or two. Not for a start or two. That's why the Astros, who are run by people as smart as the Pirates' people think they are, moved him from starting to relief.
It helped in this one that, as Musgrove told me, he worked in more than a dozen changeups to great effect, including his first pitch of the night.
"I haven't had that in a while," he said of the changeup. "I've put a lot of work into it the past couple of weeks, and I feel like I've found a better key to keeping it down in the zone."
Adam Frazier homers on the first pitch Saturday night. - DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS• Frazier homered on the first pitch of the game by Adam Wainwright, as I captured above if only because I always snap the first pitch ... and the Pirates didn't score again.
"I don't believe I've ever seen that," Hurdle would observe.
• Fifth inning, based loaded, one out, and Marte screams a ball ... right into the glove of leaping Paul DeJong at short.
Next batter, Josh Bell, gets frozen by an inside fastball from Wainwright.
"Just a good pitch," Bell told me. "It was coming inside, then it went back over. He got me."
• Steven Brault, the Sunday starter, will try to replicate his encouraging return start Tuesday at PNC Park -- two runs, three hits in 5 1/3 innings vs. Brewers -- by pounding the zone with more fastballs. Meaning even more than 68 out of 81 pitches, as was the case against Milwaukee.
"For me, having fastball command is my best pitch," Brault told me Saturday. "I need to throw it to both sides, throw both kinds, throw it when I want. Throwing both the four-seam and the two-seam, with how they work off each other, has allowed me to build up confidence this year as a starter."
• As for the starter after that, Mitch Keller, our Jason Rollison has an excellent breakdown of what's held him back in a new Mound Visit. What I love most about it is that it illustrates there can be more to keeping a prospect down than service time or Super-2. There can be real lessons that still need to be learned ... and can't be in the majors.
• I swear, I shot this video just to show it every time someone suggests feeling sorry for reporters who cover a losing team:
It’s another beautiful day for baseball at Busch Stadium. Cardinals taking BP right now. #DKPS #Pirates pic.twitter.com/bTtRCtjJm5
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) August 10, 2019
The whole concept is crazy, even beyond journalism having nothing to do with whether a team wins or loses.
This is the job. And it's the best job in the world, from this perspective.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE INJURIES
• Clay Holmes (10-day IL, triceps)
• Gregory Polanco (10-day IL, shoulder)
• Francisco Cervelli (60-day IL, concussion)
• Jameson Taillon (60-day IL, elbow)
• Rookie Davis (60-day IL, forearm)
• Lonnie Chisenhall (60-day IL, left cake out too long)
Here's the most recent full report.
THE SCHEDULE
It's Brault vs. Miles Mikolas in the series finale Sunday. First pitch is 2:15 p.m. Eastern time. Clubhouse opens to media at 9:45 a.m., and Hurdle will speak shortly thereafter. And then, it's off to Anaheim for three with the Angels. I'll have that one, too.
THE COVERAGE
All our baseball coverage, including Mound Visit by Jason Rollison, Indy Watch by Matt Welch, and Altoona Watch by Jarrod Prugar, can be found on our team page.
