In an ironic twist of fate, the sun literally hadn’t been out in Pittsburgh since the Pirates were on the wrong end of viral fame. But after a 4-3 loss to the lowly Rockies on Sunday, Richard Rodriguez faced the music with shades on, like a prizefighter that took a few too many punches.
While there were encouraging developments from the Rockies’ visit to PNC Park, fans of the tank should be thoroughly disappointed by what was proven this weekend.
Despite Sunday’s lapse, the Pirates have shown how to not be the worst team in baseball. In fact, there should be stiff competition for that No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft among a handful of teams that are not the Pirates.
There are a lot of bad teams in baseball. Generally speaking, the Pirates likely fit that mold, especially if some of the expected trades involving important players like Adam Frazier and Rodriguez actually materialize. But there is a lot of ugly out there: Baltimore and Arizona have gone a combined 6-43 since May 4, seven teams are at least eight games below .500 and 10 have 23 wins or fewer.
These are still major leaguers out there on the field, regardless of their record, but the Pirates can certainly be a more complete team than what’s at the bottom of the barrel.
It’ll obviously help to have Ke’Bryan Hayes and Chad Kuhl return this week. But in order to be on the right side of that fine line that separates the very bad from the surprisingly effective, they’ll need Sunday’s bullpen effort to be an anomaly.
“I think if we thought we were going to go through the whole year and we weren’t going to have a tough outing by our bullpen, we would be kidding ourselves,” Derek Shelton joked in a moment of levity. “Tonight, we were a little bit challenged. We didn’t make the final pitch to execute things. But as good as they’ve been all year, one game kinda got away from us.”
The results for not only Rodriguez but the four key relievers that covered some outs in the loss were at the very least uncharacteristic. It had really been the first time that Rodriguez took a metaphorical punch having blown his first save of the season. But his was simply the last in a line of oddly shaky performances from the Pirates’ most reliable group.
“You would prefer that it doesn’t [all] happen in one day, but today was just one of those days,” Shelton said.
The Pirates did not trail the Rockies on the scoreboard for the first 22 1/3 innings of the three-game series. They were the beneficiaries of historic shutouts in both ends of a doubleheader the day prior, then jumped out to a 3-1 lead thanks to a surprisingly excellent debut by Chase De Jong.
First, it was Sam Howard, who succeeded in keeping an inherited runner from scoring in the sixth -- his 11th in as many chances. But he did not succeed in ending the inning. After a pair of walks and a pair of strikeouts loaded the bases, Clay Holmes needed to bail him out with a huge strikeout of Brendan Rodgers.
Then, it was Holmes who needed the assist from Chasen Shreve in the seventh. And Kyle Crick, after putting the tying run on third with a bases loaded walk in the eighth, required a bail out from Rodriguez.
There was too much bend to expect there wouldn’t eventually be some break.
“When the many opportunities are created, you started to think, ‘Is it going to be a walk? Is it going to be a hit by pitch? Is it going to be a bloop hit?’” Shelton said. “We’ve done a really good job of managing traffic, and today we just didn’t.”
Although the constant threats made a breakthrough seem inevitable, the manner in which it occurred was fairly unexpected. Rodriguez, in his first attempt at a four-out save this season, put the tying run on base by issuing his first walk since opening day.
“It's part of the game,” Rodriguez said through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez. “I'm giving everything I have. And sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.”
From there, Rodriguez couldn’t stop the tipping cow from falling over completely. Charlie Blackmon doubled off the fence in right center to drive home Yonathan Daza for the tying run, then scored on Matt Adams’ base hit through the shift on the right side of the infield.
The bullpen -- particularly that quartet of Rodriguez, Crick, Holmes and Howard -- has easily been the most consistent facet of the major league club this season. They’ve been good enough that they should know exactly how to avoid this sort of struggle again and get back to what’s working.
“This isn't an easy game. This is a tough game, and I don't think that this has a huge reflection on us,” Rodriguez said. “This is something that we'll evaluate, we'll study and we'll come back stronger and even more equipped.”
Rodriguez's minuscule ERA shot up to 1.61 as he allowed as many runs Sunday as he had all season. And all five relievers boast ERAs less than 3.00. At this point in the season, the Pirates can either be an obvious 100-game loser or a pleasant surprise. Odds are that designation will likely be determined by their bullpen's performance moving forward.
MORE FROM THIS GAME
• The long, strange road through spring training, the alternate site and Class AAA might seem like a hectic and winding path. But compared to what De Jong had been through to get to the Pirates’ organization in January, that progression actually looks stable. But looks can be deceiving.
“This is a tough industry. My career is a fine example of that. I’ve kind of internalized the fact that I’ve had to take the grinder mentality -- alt site, taxi squad, up and down, things like that,” the 27-year-old journeyman said. “There isn’t really stability in any of this.”
Lacing up for his fourth major-league team in the past five years, De Jong looked tremendous against a reeling Rockies’ lineup that scored just three runs in their previous five games. He allowed only three hits and a pair of walks while striking out five over five-plus innings in his debut with the Pirates.
“Any time I get to take the ball on a major league mound is a privilege, and to be back here is exactly that,” De Jong said. “I didn’t take it lightly. I really enjoyed being back out there with another team and I just consider myself very blessed to have this opportunity.”
In Sunday’s start, De Jong went with what brought him back from the proverbial baseball grave. He worked at the top of the zone with his fastball and dropped a couple well-placed sliders and curveballs in key spots.
Things were going swimmingly until, like his bullpen, he found himself in a jam in the fourth. Blackmon represented the go-ahead run after a one-out, RBI triple, but De Jong struck out Josh Fuentes and Rodgers to get out of the jam with the score tied.
“That’s a momentum builder. To be able to get out of that like that, you definitely want to build off of it -- the adrenaline and stuff like that,” De Jong said. “I wanted to be able to take the ball the next inning and stay within myself. You don’t want to get too high, but yeah, be able to ride that wave.”
Momentum had shifted in the Pirates’ favor as the team put up a pair of runs in the bottom half of the frame -- both on balls his to the first baseman, Adams. Perhaps just as impressive as his ability to wiggle out of the jam, De Jong cruised through the shutdown inning in the fifth and retired the side in order.
Having bounced around from organization to organization, De Jong has taken up the mentality that every outing is like a job interview. The Pirates’ injured list is shrinking, and while Ben Cherington feels there may be some “runway” for De Jong with the club, there are fair odds that he’s back on the market before too long.
“Every time you step on the mound, somebody’s watching and you’re competing for the next contract,” he said. “That’s just part of the game at this level and how I pitch and where I’m at in my career. It’s a good thing because that puts it in my court. I’m like, you know what? If I can do well, I can keep this job a little longer.”
So far, he’s shown more to be excited about in one start than some of the other hurlers that have gotten a chance in this club’s rotation. So has Miguel Yajure. And Cody Ponce. It’s evident that whatever Joel Hanrahan is doing with the Indianapolis pitching staff is working. And perhaps, for a team in the midst of a rebuild, that’s a more encouraging sign that anything the major league product will show in a day.
• Frazier has been tearing the cover off the ball in May, but until the Rockies came to town his now-.364 batting average in the month had not done much for the Pirates’ run production.
He collected a pair of RBIs on Sunday on a third-inning double and ground out in the following frame. It was first time since May 11 -- when he homered for the first time all season -- and just the fifth time all year that he’s produced multiple RBIs in a contest.
THE ESSENTIALS
Boxscore
Highlights
Scoreboard
Standings
Statistics
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
Adam Frazier, 2B
Kevin Newman, SS
Bryan Reynolds, CF
Jacob Stallings, C
Gregory Polanco, RF
Will Craig, 1B
Erik Gonzalez, 3B
Ka'ai Tom, LF
Chase De Jong, P
And for Bud Black's Rockies:
Raimel Tapia, LF
Yonathan Daza, CF
Ryan McMahon, 2B
Charlie Blackmon, RF
Joshua Fuentes, 3B
Matt Adams, 1B
Brendan Rodgers, SS
Dom Nunez, C
Kyle Freeland, P
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates have a quick road trip to finish up their season series with the Royals for two games in Kansas City. Chad Kuhl is expected to make his return from the injured list in the first game Monday. Alex Stumpf will have that series covered from Kauffman Stadium.
THE CONTENT
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