ATLANTA -- The best way to bounce back from an obscenely lopsided defeat against a team that’s red-hot offensively would be to get on the board as quickly as possible.
For the second consecutive game, the Braves gifted Adam Frazier, the MLB leader in base hits, a single with an aggressive shift that stationed third baseman Austin Riley in short right field.
Frazier took advantage with a check swing single to left but tried to push for more. He was the first in the sport to reach 60 hits in 2021, but he could not reach second base before Dansby Swanson tracked the roller in short left field and threw to Ozzie Albies at second base to apply the tag.
It wasn’t only a bold attempt to swing some momentum back in the Pirates favor a day after a 20-1 beating. But also a way to get back to what worked for the team’s offense through the early part of the season.
“I like the aggressiveness. They have to make a perfect play to get [the out],” Derek Shelton said. “Because we haven't been scoring runs, sometimes we have to be a little aggressive and try to get ourselves some runners in scoring position. ... They made a good baseball play.”
Not much offense developed from there, unlike their opponents that hit three more homers in the Pirates’ 6-1 loss at Truist Park on Saturday night. Mitch Keller was hit very hard and took the loss as the Pirates fell to 18-26 on the season and 1-4 on their current road swing.
The Pirates scored their only run on a solo shot from Michael Perez. There will be more on that shocking development later. But for the past two nights, as the Braves have left the yard 10 times, the Pirates’ offensive performances have been lackluster. And they don’t seem to be able to string hits together and build innings the way they did when things were going well in April.
On Saturday night, it took until the seventh inning for a hit to be fielded by an Atlanta outfielder. Frazier and Bryan Reynolds each hit infield singles in the opening frame, and Perez went deep in the third.
Once the offense finally broke through against the rookie Bryse Wilson and a trio of Braves relievers, they threatened with two baserunners in each of the final three innings. Each two-out rally came up empty, and was ended by a strikeout -- Perez twice and Gregory Polanco in the eighth.
Watching the contrast between the MLB leader in homers in Atlanta and the team with the lowest long ball total in the Pirates showed why it’s so difficult for a scrappy squad with an “old-school” mentality at the plate to compete in the modern game. When the hits don’t come in succession like they have to, it’s easy to be overmatched.
“We need to bunch together hits and we have not, I think we've gotten away from our approach at times and been a little too aggressive, and when you do that, you put yourself into bad counts or weak contact,” Shelton said.
The skipper is right about the poor contact: The Pirates’ average exit velocity against Wilson was 87.5 mph. There’s an obvious talent disparity, but the past two days have shown how difficult it can be for a jab-reliant offense to compete with a team so adept at landing haymakers.
Reynolds and Wilmer Difo each had two hits in the contest. Will Craig has five hits in eight at-bats in the series. But they’ve all been singles, and the Pirates have not capitalized on the baserunners.
Ke’Bryan Hayes and Colin Moran probably won’t be able to right the ship on their own, but whenever they can return, it’ll bring a welcomed power infusion for this club.
MORE FROM THIS GAME
• Keller was ambushed by Ronald Acuna Jr. on the first pitch he threw in the afternoon. The 23-year-old phenom took over the MLB lead with his 15th homer on a 93-mph fastball that would have been a 50-pointer on a dart board. Clearly, this was not a pitch Keller expected to be offered at, but before the infield dirt was dry the Pirates were already chasing the Braves on the scoreboard.
“Just trying to get ahead with strike one. Acuna is a good hitter. He’s shown in the past that he takes the first pitch for homers. Hats off to him. He took it deep,” Keller said.
He later gave up a two-run shot to Albies -- his first of two in the game -- on another two-strike fastball that got way too much plate.
“Just one spot. Who knows? The whole inning could have been different if I would have just made a pitch,” Keller said.
Once again after a promising outing his last time out against the Giants, Keller was knocked around and charged with six runs on eight hits and a walk. All season, the 25-year-old has been frustratingly inconsistent within an appearance. But he’s weirdly clinging to a pattern from start to start. It’s almost as if the results of the next start could be predicted based on how the previous outing went.
In talking to Oscar Marin, the optimism that Keller will figure things out comes from the work being done in between starts. That’s the path to consistency.
If this is the case, why is it being sorted out at the major league level?
For Keller, it’s not potential. It’s capability. The Pirates know what’s there. He’s capable of having the best stuff on this staff. And he showed it in the third inning with back-to-back strikeouts of Riley and Swanson.
The Swanson at-bat was particularly impressive. Although he didn’t get the same result as Acuna, the Braves’ shortstop also went first-pitch hunting in his first at-bat, and he’d already had six hits in the series to that point.
So, Keller dropped a first-pitch curveball over the heart of the plate with a strike, scraped a slider across the zone that drew an indecisive half-swing that the internet’s Pitching Ninja would dub a, “sword.” And then pumped 96-mph heat through the outer corner at the top of the zone.
That’ll get it done at this level. Where it goes from start to start? At-bat to at-bat? Pitch to pitch? Figuring that out will unlock a whole new and unrecognizeable pitcher in Keller.
• It was getting really close to an appropriate time to give up on Perez, if it, honestly, hadn’t already reached that point earlier in the 0-for-26 skid he brought into Saturday.
But the Bucs’ backup backstop turned around a 93-mph fastball from Wilson a couple inches above the zone and crushed a no-doubter to the seats in right.
“It felt great. … I’ve been working really hard,” Perez said through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez. “More than anything just not allowing the bad at-bat or the challenging at-bats to discourage me. Just continue trusting in my work and continue to remain confident. The results will show up.”
It was the only hit in four at-bats for Perez, but he probably bought himself some more chances.
As ugly as the offensive numbers are for Perez, the defense might actually be worse. Freddie Freeman, a not-so-swift-of-foot first baseman, stole his way into scoring position before coming around on Riley’s base hit in the opening inning. So far, Perez has not thrown out any of the eight runners to attempt a steal against him.
• Whenever it seems like every other unit is struggling for the Pirates, the bullpen has a way of proving it’s the toughest of the bunch. Although Albies spoiled Sam Howard’s homecoming with his second homer of the game in the seventh, the unit still boasts an impressive six relievers with an ERA+ north of the league-average 100.
“I think that we know that we're a solid group, and we try to pick each other up as best we can,” Chris Stratton said. “I think we're just kind of feeding off each other and trying to put the zeroes up on the board because at the end of the day that's all that really matters.”
Stratton is the Pirates' latest reliever on a hot streak. The right-hander struck out Acuna to end a scoreless sixth inning on nine pitches. That efficiency has been the key to a stretch of eight consecutive appearances in which he hasn’t allowed a run over 10 total innings.
“I think I was just getting a little bit predictable in some counts,” Stratton said, explaining that he’d been leaning too much on just his fastball and curveball and not taking advantage of his four-pitch mix. “And now, just with the ability to throw the slider and the changeup, even to righties, has kind of opened the door a little bit for me. I think that just going after people, not messing around and just trying to get outs.”
Stratton lowered his ERA to 3.47 in Saturday’s loss.
THE ESSENTIALS
Box score
Video Highlights
Scoreboard
Standings
Statistics
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
Adam Frazier, 2B
Kevin Newman, SS
Bryan Reynolds, CF
Gregory Polanco, RF
Will Craig, 1B
Ben Gamel, LF
Wilmer Difo, 3B
Michael Perez, C
Mitch Keller, P
And for Brian Snitker's Braves:
Ronald Acuna Jr., RF
Freddie Freeman, 1B
Marcell Ozuna, LF
Ozzie Albies, 2B
Austin Riley, 3B
Dansby Swanson, SS
William Contreras, C
Ender Inciarte, CF
Bryse Wilson, P
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates conclude their six-game road trip in the finale at Truist Park on Sunday. JT Brubaker is in line to start against left-hander Max Fried with first pitch scheduled for 1:20 p.m. After that, the Pirates return home for an off-day Monday before opening a series against the Cubs on Tuesday.
THE CONTENT
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