Kuhl, pitchers building carryover 'confidence'

For nine innings Thursday, just about everything went right for the Pirates. 

Chad Kuhl delivered seven shutout frames, four different players went deep and rookie reliever Blake Cederlind hit triple-digits with his fastball to close it out.

Not a bad way to close out the home schedule at PNC Park Thursday, defeating the playoff-bound Cubs, 7-0.

“It was a good game for us,” Bryan Reynolds said. “We were driving the ball, getting hits, scoring runs. Better late than never.”

Is it?

After the season they had, winning towards the end may seem more potentially damaging in the long term for the franchise. The Rangers entered the day just two games better than the Pirates for the worst record in baseball, which would presumably result in the top overall pick in the draft and Vanderbilt right-hander Kumar Rocker.

So what’s the benefit of winning a couple down the stretch? Can anything done this week really carry over through the offseason to spring training 2021?

“I think it's confidence,” Derek Shelton said. “When you go out and have good starts or have good ABs, it gives you a little bit of confidence. As we've talked about, it's not just here, this has been a challenging year for a lot of guys. We’re playing in a division that's going to have like four teams, possibly, in the playoffs. We're playing the American League Central that maybe has three of the best teams in baseball. Our guys have continued to go out night in and night out in and fight.”

If there is something that they could potentially take into next season, it could be the strides the rotation has made recently. Over their last 10 games, Pirates starter pitchers have combined to go 62 innings with only 11 earned runs allowed. That’s good for a 1.60 ERA and .156 batting average allowed.

That includes Kuhl’s seven inning gem Sunday where he took a no-hitter into the sixth.

"It felt great,” Kuhl said. “Obviously, I want to finish strong. It just worked.”

Before this stretch of strong starts, the starters had failed to get deep into games, getting only two quality starts. They’ve had six over the past 10.

“I think one of the big factors is that we got healthier,” Jacob Stallings said before the game. “When I heard Mitch [Keller] and Joe [Musgrove] were coming back, I definitely got excited. Our bullpen has been pretty good all year, so those guys have been doing it. It was just about if we could score some runs for them and get our starters going and get some experience... We just need to keep guys healthy because the talent’s there.”

The amount of injuries this season have been unmistakable. Not just with Keller and Musgrove, who missed most of the abbreviated season, but Kuhl was heavily monitored in his first year back from Tommy John surgery. Steven Brault rehabbed a left shoulder strain for the second year in a row and had to make mechanical changes to try to prevent it from happening again. Those two had to piggyback for most of the year, and were only able to reach full starter status for the second half of the season.

Plus, the 2021 team gets Jameson Taillon back.

"It just adds another guy that can be a stopper for us," Kuhl said. "Every time out, every five days, you're going to have that feeling that you're gonna win that ball game, and that's just such a huge feeling to have in that clubhouse."

Plus, pitching is notorious for being contagious. Even if it is just for the rest of 2020, considering where the rotation was for most of the year and 2019, ending on a positive note counts for something.

“It seems like when people start to roll a little bit, kind of everybody starts to roll, because you don't want to be the guy that doesn't do well," Brault said after his final start of the season Tuesday, where he went seven shutout frames. “So it kind of starts to roll a little bit, and watching these guys perform, we're all very different in the way we pitch, but we also keep each other accountable.”

• Kuhl struck out five over seven innings of two-hit ball.

Kuhl will finish the season with a 4.27 ERA, though that doesn't exactly reflect how he has pitched this year. One horrible start in Kansas City and having his innings limited early while in a piggyback role caused his ERA to balloon. 

On of the biggest changes this season has been being able to rely on two breaking pitches rather than just his slider. In the past, he knew how he should throw his slider to get a whiff or contact. The curveball was more of a project, one that really took off during the shutdown and then was improved upon as the season progressed.

"Just being able to have the curveball for an action pitch, strike one or putting people away with it, I think just has been huge," Kuhl said. "That just comes with throwing it more. I really started obviously recently. It's been huge."

Not to mention the strides he has made in the mental side of the game.

"I've gone through a lot, just the past few years," Kuhl said. "I just celebrated the two year mark of my surgery and a lot's going on. I think in the just short time this season I've been able to make strides with everything. Mound presence, stuff like that, that hadn't always been great."

Shelton said Thursday that he thought Kuhl "grew up a lot" this year.

"I thought he did a tremendous job taking different things we challenged with. running with them and embracing them," Shelton said. "I am really proud of him for this last start. It was an outstanding start, to be able to come back after a couple walks in a tight game against a team that's going to win our division To do that (against) that lineup is big sign of maturity that’s really cool to see."

• The bats got going early and often, with Reynolds, Colin Moran, Josh Bell and Adam Frazier all going deep. It was the Pirates' first four-homer game of the season.

Here's Reynolds' shot, which had just enough carry to get over the wall in center:

Strong finishes could potentially help hitters too. Especially for Reynolds, who has had timing issues at the plate all year.

This week he is trying some changes out, not saying what they are. But at least on Thursday he strung together a three hit performance.

"Just trying to go in the offseason with a semi-decent taste in your mouth, knowing that you might have found something that helped you a little bit," Reynolds said. "I'm not saying I've found anything yet. I'm still tinkering with things, but if I can find something even so small that I can build on in the offseason, it'll be better than just going in and having no plan."

• Moran also had three hits, adding a double and a walk to his performance.

After hitting 13 home runs last year and 11 in 2018, Moran is already up to nine, showing a significant power increase. That is partially because of some changes in his approach and swing, including ditching his big leg kick for a toe tap, but also his natural maturation as a hitter.

“I feel like I’ve just matured as a hitter, maybe, to use more leverage and hit the ball harder and try to get into good counts," Moran said. "For the most part, I feel like I’ve been working on squaring up the baseball. That’s been the focus rather than just trying to get hits. Trying to hit the ball hard and see what happens."

• The Pittsburgh chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America announced their Pirates award winners before the game Thursday: Stallings was named the Roberto Clemente team Most Valuable Player and the Chuck Tanner Award for media cooperation. Brault was the recipient of the Steve Blass award for top pitcher.

“I just wanted to thank you guys for voting me player of the year and the Chuck Tanner Award," Stallings said this morning. "That’s pretty cool. Something that wasn’t even on my radar. It’s a nice thing to wake up to."

My ballot was Stallings, Ke'Bryan Hayes and Moran for MVP; Brault, Richard Rodriguez and Chris Stratton for pitcher; and Stallings, Cole Tucker and Brault for media cooperation. Dejan Kovacevic's ballot had Stallings, Moran and Erik Gonzalez for MVP; Rodriguez, Stratton and Sam Howard for pitcher; and Tucker, Stallings and Bell for media cooperation.

• There wasn't an award for best vocal performance, but if there was, Brault would get it for his reworked version of Take Me Out to the Ball Game that played during the seventh inning stretch:

• Factoid of the night: Kuhl is 4-3 with a 2.09 ERA (11 earned over 56 innings pitched) over 11 career afternoon starts at PNC Park.