On the heels of a mid-April stretch that had the Pirates scratch and claw toward a winning record, the club has fallen into a brief skid at the first turn of the calendar. But in order to make this three-game losing streak merely a hiccup and get back to playing expectation-defying baseball, the club needs to find ways to pick up its strongest unit in the early going.
The Pirates stumbled out of the gate and suffered an ugly finish in a 12-5 loss to the Cardinals on Saturday night at PNC Park. The back-to-back losses to St. Louis marked the end of a streak of six series in which the Pirates either won or tied, and they’re back under .500 at 12-14 on the season.
When things were going well for the Pirates, the situational hitting and defense were clicking while the bullpen was rock steady. Between April 13 and the 2-1 victory against the Royals on Tuesday that got them their winning record, the Pirates’ reliever group held a 0.97 ERA, the lowest in the National League over that stretch.
That was not a sustainable pace. Plain and simple. There was bound to be some regression. But when that inevitability occurs, the team must find ways to win without leaning so heavily on the bullpen.
“That’s one of the things about bullpens — they can be really good and then they can hit rough patches,” Derek Shelton said. “We’ve just got to make sure that we try to put guys in the right spots and get back rolling again.”
Even during this three-game skid, the bullpen has -- for the most part -- kept the team in games, even without posting consistent zeros. First, consider Sean Poppen an outlier here. Shelton said that he used Poppen in what resulted in a five-run ninth inning for St. Louis on Saturday because he didn’t want to burn one of his high-leverage guys in a multi-run deficit. Sure, maybe the two-run hole the Pirates’ entered the ninth inning with was still close enough to be considered a high-leverage situation, but the decision was made. Game’s over.
But without counting the runs charged to Poppen -- which is four over 2 ⅔ innings between Wednesday and Saturday -- the other, more prominent figures in the Pirates’ bullpen yielded seven earned runs over 12 ⅔ innings in the skid. Sam Howard, Duane Underwood Jr. and Chris Stratton pitched 2 2/3 innings Saturday with a pair of runs charged to Howard.
That’s a 4.97 ERA. In a very limited sample, it’s an ugly figure. And sure, it still remains to be seen whether or not this group’s true abilities more closely resemble this or the significantly better, longer stretch they had in the two weeks leading into the skid. But over a 162-game season, this is unavoidable.
Whether it’s three games, six games or a month, like Shelton said, these rough patches will occur. This is the bullpen’s first real crack in the armor since the Cincinnati series that sunk their record to 1-6 at the start of the season. But when the relief pitching won’t be there to stop the bleeding, the Pirates will need to excel in other areas to steal some of those games.
So far, the timely hitting has actually come through. After falling into a four-run hole before getting an at-bat, the Pirates held only a two-run deficit between the third and eighth innings Saturday, even matching the two runs the Cardinals scored in the seventh on an RBI double from Bryan Reynolds and single from Colin Moran in the home half of the inning. This offense has proven time and time again that they can keep the team in the game.
“We'd like to get to the starting pitchers a little earlier than what we've been doing,” Adam Frazier said. “We've proven over those three days, and over the whole season, that we're never out of the ballgame. They score a couple, we score a couple and we're right back in it. So it's just a matter of making a few plays earlier in the game, and later on in the game for that matter, to limit their amount of runs."
The defense, despite what it may have looked like from Ka’ai Tom’s perspective, actually remained steady. Again, looking beyond Poppen here, which also includes his spiked throw on a would-be double play ball in the ninth. But Frazier made a play in short left field -- yes, he was playing second base at the time -- that would make Derek Jeter blush, and Phillip Evans made another excellent play on the bare hand at third base Saturday night. Couple that with the dazzling plays from Reynolds in center and Erik Gonzalez at the hot corner in the past few days and there’s evidence to suggest that the sturdy defense is still there.
Even Moran has shown steady improvement at first base -- at least over the defense the Pirates had at the position last year.
“He's still learning. We throw questions at each other every day. We work on that stuff. But he's getting better every day,” Frazier said of Moran, who made difficult picks on the receiving end of some of the Pirates’ best defensive plays of the week. “I think he's eager to learn, and that's what makes him get better every day. I think he's excited about being in the lineup everyday over there, and getting better.”
Sure, Tom has had better weeks in left field. But in the past two games there has only been one ball hit in his direction that had an xBA lower than .550 -- the two-run, wind-aided, pop up double by Nolan Arenado on Friday night after a miscommunication with Kevin Newman.
So, while they’re still hitting on some of the areas that were working during their fortunate stretch, it’ll take a different unit to try and pick up some slack when the bullpen can’t.
So far, the starting pitchers have mostly failed to make life easier on the relief unit. And that dynamic appeared in full force Saturday.
Trevor Cahill began his outing with another blow-up inning from which the Pirates could not recover Saturday. It’s been a common issue throughout the season, not just for Cahill but for Mitch Keller and Chad Kuhl. Cahill and Keller have each allowed 10 first-inning runs through five starts so far this season (18.00 ERA). Kuhl’s opening-frame ERA is at 20.52 in four starts before he hit the injured list last week.
Paul DeJong highlighted the Cardinals’ four-run opening frame against Cahill with his sixth homer of the year to the deepest part of the park in left center.
“It was just a bad pitch, and obviously, you see the scoreboard. It’s not fun, but I usually just try to, no matter what, look at the next guy and keep going until skip takes me out of the game,” Cahill said. “I’m trying to go deep in the game. I’m trying to throw 100-plus pitches every time, and 100-plus quality pitches. If that’s five innings, no runs, or that’s nine innings, two runs -- it is what it is. You just keep executing pitches and it makes the game, as far as emotionally, just a little bit easier when that’s your only mindset.”
Cahill has shown an ability to settle down after ugly opening innings so far this season. He was able to last 5 ⅓ innings Saturday night and exit in a one-run game in the middle of an at-bat against opposing pitcher Jack Flaherty in the sixth. But that’s been a pattern for the 33-year-old veteran. His 7.40 ERA on the season shrinks to 5.12 without the bad fortune in first innings.
“A little dagger to the heart right there in the first,” Cahill said. “I was able to settle down and at least get into the sixth.”
Cahill struck out five but walked three while limiting the Cardinals to just one more run after the opening frame. But those early deficits, especially on a night where the bullpen can’t exactly be lights out, truly must be limited.
THE ESSENTIALS
Box score
Video Highlights
Scoreboard
Standings
Statistics
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
Adam Frazier, 2B
Phillip Evans, 3B
Bryan Reynolds, CF
Colin Moran, 1B
Gregory Polanco, RF
Kevin Newman, SS
Ka'ai Tom, LF
Michael Perez, C
Trevor Cahill, P
And for Mike Shildt's Cardinals:
Tommy Edman, 2B
Dylan Carlson, RF
Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Nolan Arenado, 3B
Paul DeJong, SS
Tyler O'Neill, LF
Andrew Knizner, C
Harrison Bader, CF
Jack Flaherty, P
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates and Cardinals wrap up their series Sunday afternoon at PNC Park. Rookie Wil Crowe (0-0, 3.86 ERA) starts against the veteran Carlos Martinez (1-4, 4.76 ERA) with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. in the finale. From there, the Buccos head west to San Diego for a three-game set with the Padres from Monday to Wednesday. Dejan Kovacevic will have you covered from the west coast.
THE CONTENT
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