KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Bryan Reynolds still stood at the plate, shaking his head. Kevin Newman was more animated, putting both his hands on his helmet, also in disbelief.
They thought the Pirates had just scored. Instead, the rally was over, even though Reynolds never swung the bat.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth, Royals reliever Kyle Zimmer bounced a breaking ball that catcher Salvador Pérez couldn’t keep in front. Newman dashed in from third, and the Pirates thought they cut the deficit to 8-6 while moving the tying run into scoring position.
Instead, home plate umpire Dan Bellino ruled that Reynolds, who backed away from the batter’s box as the play developed, interfered with the play and called him out, killing the rally.
The Pirates would never find their groove offensively again, and lost at Kaufman Stadium Tuesday, 10-5.
“The explanation that we got was that Reynolds should have stayed in the box on it,” Derek Shelton said.
Shelton had to get that explanation relayed through bench coach Don Kelly after Shelton barked about a strike three call to Michael Pérez earlier that inning.
The Pirates have been involved in more of their fair share of brain boggling plays this year. Will Craig’s failure to touch first base. Multiple calls of a runner being out of the baseline while going to first.
This is another. Shelton took exception to it for two reasons, the first being that he thought Reynolds did have to try to get away from the play.
Assuming, of course, that there actually was a play.
“There was never an attempt on Newman on that play,” Shelton said. “The attempt the entire time was on Reynolds on the check swing. It was already checked. It was not a check swing. Because of that, there was no play on Newman.”
More from an eventful day at the ballpark...
EATING CROWE
This was the other bases loaded scenario that ultimately decided this one.
Wil Crowe appeared to be in a groove early, giving three strong innings and working at his own pace while the Pirates built him a 4-1 cushion. He was tagged for a two-run homer by Salvador Pérez in the fourth, but still left the inning with the lead.
It unraveled in the fifth, losing the lead and loading the bases to the Royals’ No. 3 hitter, Andrew Benintendi, with nobody out.
“When the game started picking up, it got quicker on him and just became a little bit more challenging,” Michael Pérez said through translator Mike Gonzalez. “He threw some pitches that he didn't want to land in those spots.”
Despite already letting one run in before recording an out, Shelton wanted to see if his starter could get out of the jam and let him pitch to Benintendi. The Royals’ slugger put a hanging fastball in the home bullpen for a grand slam.
“In retrospect, probably should have made a move,” Shelton said.
Crowe allowed eight runs on eight hits and a pair of walks. He struck out three.
After some encouraging starts to begin his Pirates career, Crowe has hit a rough patch of late. It started with a five inning, four run performance against the Braves, and was followed by being pulled after just four outs against the Cubs.
He described that Cubs start as an “out of body” experience, claiming he never felt right.
“This one,” Crowe said, “I actually felt really good, and that's actually what's the worst part about it.”
GOING, GOING, GONE
Through the first 42 games of the season, Pirates pitchers were doing a fairly good job at keeping the ball in the park, allowing just 44 long balls, the eighth-fewest in baseball.
Since the start of the Atlanta series, though, they have allowed 24 homers over just 12 games, including three Tuesday night. That’s the most in baseball in that stretch. The total is inflated because of that Braves series, but the Royals have the fewest home runs in the American League. It had been a whole month since the last time they hit a trio in a game.
“I think the common thread would be missed location,” Shelton said. “Early in the year we did a better job of locating our pitches. As of late we’ve missed some locations. It seems like when we’ve missed locations, they’ve been hit out of the ballpark.”
The Benintendi grand slam was definitely a misplaced pitch. You can see it by how much Pérez moved the glove:
The mark was for a high and away fastball. It cut in and over the center.
“If that pitch is up and away, like we were looking at, or really just up more, I think it's a pop up,” Crowe said. “He hit that one good, and that's in his nitro zone.”
For a team that has just 37 homers on offense all year, the widening gap in homers is only going to make the season tougher.
SOME GOOD AND BAD NEWS
Tuesday was the last time the Pirates played without Ke’Bryan Hayes on the active roster hopefully for the rest of the year. The rookie third baseman is finally going to be activated off the injured list Thursday, the first day he is eligible to be brought back.
It doesn’t sound like he’ll be playing every single game, though.
“We'll have to be smart when he comes back about how much he plays and what he does,” Shelton said.
He took ground balls and swung the bat against the rehabbing Trevor Cahill pregame Tuesday.
Colin Moran and Phillip Evans got their rehab assignments started with Indianapolis Monday. Both got two at-bats and played five innings in the field -- Moran at first and Evans in right.
On Monday, Shelton gave a seven to 10 day timetable for their return to the Pirates’ lineup.
“We'll kinda play it day-by-day on how they're doing,” Shelton said. “They are not going to play every single day. We are going to build them up.”
Things were finally looking up injury wise for the Pirates, until Miguel Yajure was scratched from his next start with right elbow discomfort. Things are still in the evaluation stage, and this only popped up following his last outing, so the severity is not yet known.
Anything involving the elbow for pitchers is going to be a cause for concern, especially for Yajure, who missed the entire 2017 season after Tommy John surgery. Baseball America has him ranked as the Pirates’ No. 10 prospect, and he’s arguably the best pitching prospect that Ben Cherington has brought into the system.
Having him miss a significant amount of time would be a serious blow to the rotation, both short- and long-term.
In other injury news, left fielder Ka'ai Tom exited with left wrist discomfort after being hit by a pitch in the third inning. He is day-to-day.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The Pirates are going to have to sort out their rotation once JT Brubaker returns from the bereavement list. He, Mitch Keller, Tyler Anderson and the recently activated Chad Kuhl all have spots, leaving one up for grabs. Crowe is definitely a candidate, and with Yajure down, the only other option from AAA is Cody Ponce.
Cahill threw his first live batting practice Tuesday. On Sunday, Chase De Jong earned a promotion back to the majors, and he can’t be optioned back down. The Pirates aren’t going to let him go right away, so it needs to be seen if they proceed with him in the rotation or the bullpen.
Unless Cahill is ready to make his next start, it looks like it will be between De Jong and Crowe for the last rotation spot right now.
On offense, when Hayes hit the injured list back in April, the Pirates’ shortstop situation looked clear. Newman had a historic spring and won the starting job, while Erik González would get looks as a utility infielder. Once Hayes went down, González stepped into an everyday role.
While both have done a good job on defense, neither has hit well enough to merit keeping a starting job. Newman is batting .215 with a .511 OPS. González is hitting .214 with a .536 OPS.
So who gets the starting job?
“We'll manage it probably on a day-to-day basis,” Shelton said. “The fact that Kevin can go over and play second and Gonzo can play multiple other positions, I mean he's playing first tonight, gives us some flexibility, but we'll probably take it as a day-to-day thing.”
Looks like the shortstop competition is back on.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
Adam Frazier, 2B
Ka'ai Tom, LF
Bryan Reynolds,DH
Gregory Polanco, RF
Ben Gamel, CF
Wilmer Difo, 3B
Kevin Newman, SS
Michael Pérez, C
Erik Gonzalez, 1B
And for Mike Matheny's Royals, with Mike Minor on the mound:
Whit Merrifield, 2B
Carlos Santana, 1B
Andrew Benintendi, LF
Salvador Perez, C
Edward Olivares, RF
Hunter Dozier, DH
Kelvin Gutierrez, 3B
Michael A. Talylor, CF
Nicky Lopez, SS
THE SCHEDULE
It's a rare Wednesday off-day for the Pirates, who will be coming back to Pittsburgh Thursday to take on the Marlins for a four-game set. Tyler Anderson (3-5, 4.63) will deliver the first pitch at 7:05 p.m.
THE CONTENT
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