LOS ANGELES -- For the second night in a row, the Pirates stranded the tying run in scoring position, dropping their second straight against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium Tuesday, 4-3.
While he has not been the root cause of those losses, it has been a tough series in particular for rookie second baseman Rodolfo Castro.
On Monday, he went too far up the third base line on a Hoy Park fly ball and wasn’t able to tag up to score. He would end up being stranded at third in the seventh inning of a game the Pirates lost by one run.
The coaching staff had a sit down with him afterwards to address how he should approach that situation going forward.
“We’re looking at a 22-year-old kid that made a mistake,” Derek Shelton said before the game about the play. “It’s part of his development.”
On Tuesday, he went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts. What the stat line doesn’t show is that of the eight pitches Castro swung at on the night only, one was in the strike zone:
It looks like the swing chart of a young player who is pressing. What we know for certain is that Castro is in his first big league slump. In the 19 games since his last home run swing, he is slashing .186/.238/.220 with 21 strikeouts over 63 plate appearances.
"He's learning on the fly,” Shelton said. “Hitting in the big leagues is hard, and it's something that we have to continue to work on... Zone management is one of the challenging things for a young hitter. You get a couple balls that he thinks are off the plate, all of a sudden he gets a little bit too aggressive and starts swinging at some pitches that he shouldn't have."
With the Pirates 36 games under .500, 42-78, there are calls to play the kids. With where the Pirates’ top prospects are, there aren’t a lot of young players who could realistically play in the majors this year. Castro is one.
But it’s fair to wonder if perhaps Castro would benefit from a more traditional development path. He’s never played a game for Class AAA Indianapolis. Even back in July when the Pirates not so subtly telegraphed that Castro would be returning from the minors once Adam Frazier was traded, they sent him back to Altoona instead. The Pirates value those relationships between players and coaches, which played a large role in the decision.
There’s plenty of playing opportunity at second base going forward, which played into the decision to promote Castro for an extended look for the first time last month, rather than as an extra bench player like before.
But it’s still a very rare jump in today’s game.
“It’s going to come back to who we think has earned it, who we think furthers their development by coming up and playing, and who [has] the opportunity to play,” Ben Cherington said recently, addressing the prospect of jumps from Class AA to the majors rather than AAA.
Castro is in that boat. He earned a promotion with the Curve, and there’s an opportunity to play in the majors here. His future is bright, but perhaps this was too big a leap for where he is in his career right now. If it is, the next question should be is it potentially stunting his development? Or maybe getting major league at-bats is best for him right now.
The team might need to make a decision one way or the other if this slump continues.
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MORE FROM THE GAME
• For the second night in a row, Yoshi Tsutsugo picked up a ninth inning double against Kenley Jansen and this time scored on a base hit from Colin Moran. However, neither Ben Gamel or Hoy Park could get the last hit they needed to force a bottom of the ninth or take the lead.
Shelton said it's "frustrating" coming that close again, but liked the effort his team put in at the end.
"Our guys just continue to go and continue to battle," Shelton said. "I give them credit for that."
• The big hit of the night came after a rare mistake from Bryan Reynolds. With a runner on second and one out, Cody Bellinger looped a ball to center and Reynolds was thinking of a play at the plate. The Dodgers weren't waving Corey Seager home though, and since Reynolds did not hit the cutoff man, Bellinger was able to hustle into second base.
AJ Pollock followed with a bloop over the heads of a drawn in infield. Had shortstop Kevin Newman been positioned at normal or double-play depth, it probably would have been an out. Instead, it was a two-run hit.
"That's one that we'll probably have to look at and talk about," Shelton said. "That's a really in-between play, and Cody did a nice job running the bases on it."
Reynolds doubled home a run and scored on a bang-bang play at the plate in the top of the fourth.
• The two who came home on the Pollock single were the only runs charged to starter Wil Crowe on the night. He had to work out of trouble early and often, though, lasting just four innings and needing to throw 58 pitches to get through the first two innings.
"They took some good pitches," Crowe said. "When I was ahead in counts, I didn’t throw great, quality pitches... When it got later in the ABs, I beared down and made some good pitches to get out of ‘em. It’s a good lineup."
Crowe joked that everyone in that Dodgers lineup "has either been an All-Star or is an All-Star." While he was on the hook for five hits and two walks, the Dodgers had just two hard-hit balls on him all night. He kept them mostly in check for four innings.
But it was only four.
"I gotta go deeper in games," he said. "That’s the thing for me. I’ve got to help our bullpen. I’ve got to help our team. I have to go deeper into ballgames. That means I have to throw better pitches in better counts and give myself soft contact. That’s going to contribute to more swing and miss. Being in the zone more is going to help me get deeper into games, and that’s really what I have to keep striving for and pushing for."
• Cody Ponce pitched the fifth and sixth and took the loss when Matt Beaty hit a slow roller up the first base line, just past a diving Tsutsugo.
Ponce's last five appearances have come out of the bullpen, though Shelton hasn't closed the book on him getting more starts in a six-man rotation set up. For now, though, he'll continue to get a look as a reliever.
"He's done a better job of giving us length, which is important in our bullpen," Shelton said.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Kevin Newman, SS
2. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
3. Bryan Reynolds, CF
4. Yoshi Tsutsugo, 1B
5. Jacob Stallings, C
6. Gregory Polanco, RF
7. Rodolfo Castro, 2B
8. Ben Gamel, LF
9. Wil Crowe, RHP
And for Dave Roberts' Dodgers:
1. Trea Turner, 2B
2. Corey Seager, SS
3. Will Smith, C
4. Cody Bellinger, CF
5. AJ Pollock, LF
6. Matt Beaty, 1B
7. Chris Taylor, RF
8. Gavin Lux, 3B
9. David Price, LHP
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates will try to take at least one this series Wednesday night. JT Brubaker (4-12, 5.13) will pitch for the Pirates, and the Dodgers still haven't announced his opponent. First pitch is at 10:10 pm. Eastern. I've got you covered from Dodger Stadium.
IN THE SYSTEM
• Indianapolis
• Altoona
• Greensboro
• Bradenton
THE CONTENT
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