Six takeaways (throwaways?) from first six games of Pirates' season taken in Cincinnati  (Pirates)

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Wilmer Difo is out at the plate Wednesday against the Reds.

CINCINNATI -- The Pirates' losing streak hit five games Wednesday against the Reds, walking out of Great American Ball Park swept by a final score of 11-4.

Thus concludes a series where the Pirates were outscored, 30-8.

"We’re definitely ready to get out of Cincinnati,” Derek Shelton said.

At least the Pirates are homebound now, thus concluding their first road trip -- and the first week -- of the 2021 campaign.

So what should be taken away from this first mile marker of the season?

WHAT HAPPENED TO SPRING?

One of the first things Shelton talked about this spring was being more aggressive on the basepaths. Talking to Ke’Bryan Hayes in Bradenton, Fla., he said the team really wanted to improve on defense, especially turning two.

To their credit, the Pirates looked greatly improved in these two facets of their game early in Florida. Good fundamentals are hardly exciting, but it’s a foundation to build on for the future. A step in the right direction for a rebuilding club.

That’s all changed since leaving the sunshine state.

Entering play Wednesday, the Pirates had made six errors as a team, tied for the most in baseball. Wilmer Difo made it seven in the first inning, throwing away an easy toss across the diamond. Those errors don’t even take a couple misplays by Adam Frazier -- like Tuesday’s failed double-play on a one-hopper to him -- into account.

“We need to field the ball,” Shelton said Tuesday night. “We need to catch it. We’ve talked about it.”

Difo also made a baserunning blunder Wednesday, getting thrown out at home on a Phillip Evans double, even though he was starting at second base. Nick Castellanos tried to make a diving catch in right, but the ball ticked off his glove. The issue isn’t that it took Difo so long to read the play, but that he was camped out so close to second base and couldn’t get started on his break back towards third. Maybe he should have just stayed at third at that point.

There have been more examples. Bryan Reynolds made a really bad break on a stolen base attempt Monday and was way out. Dustin Fowler failed to tag up on a potential sac fly in the opener until it was too late for him to potentially score. 

It’s one thing for other teams to simply outplay the Pirates right now. They’re in the early stages of a rebuild and there isn’t as much talent on the major league roster right now. It’s expected. It’s another when these poor fundamentals keep popping up. That can’t happen over the full season.

WALKS ARE A KILLER

This almost was labeled “starters aren’t going deep into games,” but that was somewhat expected since it’s early in the season. That doesn’t mean they were projected to go four or fewer innings in five of the first six starts, but it’s splitting hairs over really just a handful of innings. It's why the Pirates have a nine-man bullpen.

No, instead let’s focus on the walks. They issued five free passes Wednesday and averaged 5.05 BB/9 over their first five games -- the third worst rate in baseball. Last year, they had the worst walk rate in baseball, handing out 4.37 walks per nine. 

Before his first start of the season, I asked JT Brubaker about the direction the rotation is heading in, and he responded by talking about how they are going to throw more strikes.

“Let them beat us swinging the bat if they're going to beat us,” Brubaker said on the team’s mentality. “It's a lot harder to beat somebody if you're gonna have to swing. You're only going to get on three out of 10 times. Free passes is what's going to kill you, and I think we're going to make guys swing the bat."

It’s early, but that hasn’t happened. Free passes are not only going to lead to more runs against, but also higher pitch counts and fewer innings pitched. The Pirates can’t afford that, especially when a lot of those walks come from guys like Brubaker and Mitch Keller.

BULLPEN IS ... MEH?

There were plenty of holes on this team going into the year, but the bullpen looked like a strength. A couple bad pitches can skew results early in the season, so don’t focus too much on ERA at the moment. 

Newcomers like David Bednar and Luis Oviedo have shown some serious stuff. Richard Rodriguez and Kyle Crick have looked good in a limit sample size. Just about everyone has shown at least a spark of potential thus far.

“Until last night, I thought our performance overall has been pretty good,” bullpen coach Justin Meccage said Wednesday morning. “I've been really impressed. we’ve got a good group of guys that gives you a little bit different look. It's an exciting group.”

That said, 13 runs in two games doesn’t look good, regardless of the circumstances.

It’s early. The bullpen is going to be in flux all season. Let’s see which players stick, and which ones might be let go.

EVANS WAS THE RIGHT CALL

They’re not all negative, OK?

It was more than a little surprising when the Pirates chose to bring Evans north over veteran Todd Frazier this spring, especially since Evans still had minor-league options remaining. But the Pirates wanted defensive versatility on their shortened bench, and Evans provided that better than anyone else on the roster. 

Evans has been thrust into an everyday-ish job bouncing around the diamond and has done quite well, hitting .438 with a couple homers. On Wednesday, he hit a double and had two assists in left field, one of which was unassisted. Sure, Todd Frazier would have brought veteran leadership, but that doesn’t compare to legitimate results.

Evans isn’t the only hitter who has done well so far -- Reynolds is hitting the ball hard and Colin Moran has a couple homers -- but he’s the one who has been the most locked in. Saying Evans is the team’s best hitter so far says more about the team than Evans, but he’s looked good.

"It feels great," Evans said about the opportunity. "Hope to see Key back as soon as possible, but I'm here, and I'm doing what I can to help the team win every night."

OH, GREGORY

It seems wrong to pick on just one guy here. Anthony Alford is hitless so far. Kevin Newman is off to a slow start after his torrid spring. Jacob Stallings, Adam Frazier… Polanco isn’t the only guy in the lineup who has been off so far.

But he was absolutely overmatched by Reds starter Luis Castillo Wednesday, and he gave some of the ugliest swings we will see this season:

Polanco hasn’t found his timing since rejoining the team halfway through spring training, and if things don’t turn around eventually, then the Pirates are going to have to decide between starting him or abandoning their meritocracy talk.

“I think the big thing is staying positive, trying to identify things that are going to help and make it better,” Shelton said on working with Polanco. “Sometimes those things don’t instantly happen. I know you figure, hey, you go work on something, then the next day it’s going to translate into three hits and a homer. Sometimes it automatically transfers. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time. You just have to keep working on it.”

LIFE WITHOUT HAYES

In my preseason feature on Hayes, I wrote that he was the best reason for Pirates fans to tune in any given game.

Watching the Pirates performance in Cincinnati only reaffirms that. Hayes is on the road back from his left wrist injury, though his injured list stint may be longer than 10 days like originally envisioned. 

At the risk of treading on too much of the same ground as Tuesday’s article, there are a lot of people on this roster who aren’t going to be here for years to come. These are the first stages of the rebuild, and only a handful are going to be around for the end of it.

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