Ben Gamel took his lead off third base, less than 90 feet from being the tying run ... but it might as well have been 900.
He'd just taken an extra base following one of the most selfish, stupid swings anyone's witnessed at PNC Park all summer -- Michael Perez and his .140 average hacking away at the first pitch following two walks for a lazy flyout -- but he'd stay stuck right there as Hoy Park whiffed and the Pirates finally fell to the Reds, 1-0, on this Thursday afternoon.
Yeah, I said finally.
Win two, lose the last.
Win two, lose the last.
Oh, and somewhere within that pattern, lose a slew of other games, as well.
Like a lot of stuff about these 2021 Pirates, I've had a tough time making sense of any of it, but this single figure doesn't lie: They're now 0-14 when they've got a chance at a sweep, making them the only team in Major League Baseball without one. And if they proceed to fail in their final five series, they'll become just the seventh team in the past half-century to never once need a broom.
What's that signify?
Well, obviously, it's first and foremost that it's been a bad team. Duh.
But beyond that, I'll run the risk of being pilloried for speaking the truth and point out that winning two of three on any regular basis isn't exactly a negative. And this team's done that -- win two, lose the last -- in five of the past eight series, including all three on this now-complete 6-3 homestand.
Derek Shelton's been touchy at times on the sweep subject, but he sure embraced it when I brought it up after this game.
"It's a lot of wins. And to come home after being swept on the road and win three series?" he began, referencing that rancid 0-6 run through Chicago a couple weeks ago. "I mean we would like to get a sweep, but we're playing a team that's a playoff caliber team, and we beat them two of three, and we had a 1-0 game with a bullpen game today. So I think it speaks to how hard our guys are playing, and they continue to get better. I give them credit."
I thought he was done. He wasn't.
"Do we want that?" he kept going, meaning a sweep. "Yeah. But if you would have told me we were going to come home and win three series, I would've been really happy with that."
I get that. All of it. The Reds, losers of 12 of 17 but still right there in the National League wild card race, arrived here down and desperate. And lost two of three. And it's fair to point out that Shelton and Oscar Marin were forced to patch together a bullpen game on this day, with recently acquired reliever Connor Overton making his first big-league start and going three innings, and four other relievers -- Sam Howard, Cody Ponce, Chasen Shreve, Shelby Miller -- taking the ball, too.
I brought this up with Ke'Bryan Hayes.
“Yeah, I mean, whenever you’re at home and you can get two out of three and whenever you’re on the road and you can get a game or two, that’s how teams make the playoffs," Hayes replied. "Yeah, we haven’t had a sweep all season but, as of late, we’re playing really good baseball. Pitching’s there. Hitting’s there. So, that’s all we can ask for. Put together good at bats and limit walks and things of that nature. That’ll put us in a good position to win ballgames.”
Again, I'm not sure of the significance. I don't have some grand conclusion I'm trying to reach. The Pirates are 54-92, and they'll need to go 9-7 the rest of the way to avoid 100 losses. Which they won't. And in the context of this season, that's the only record that matters.
At the same time, it feels fair to point out that this 6-3 homestand represents one of the three best spurts of the season, along with the 11-5 brief surge above .500 in April and the 7-3 bump around the All-Star break. And that this is the best one after several veterans were traded at the deadline. And that, since Aug. 19, even including the Chicago mess, they're hovering around .500 at 12-13.
I mean, it's not nothing. Consider the alternative and how it'd have looked.
One more time for everyone who showed up late: What's happened in 2021 can't happen again in 2022. Meaning in Pittsburgh, not Indianapolis or Altoona or Greensboro. Right bleeping here. And whether or not it's executed by players who'll be here into the foreseeable future, anything that takes on any winning feel can only be welcome in that context.
JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
Ben Gamel's tagged out at the plate by the Reds' Tyler Stephenson in the second inning Thursday at PNC Park.
• Oh, and I dare say all this reflects well on the manager and his staff. Try to recall this team's outlook after the trade deadline, and then try to envision how anyone back then could've forecast even one mini-snippet of success like this.
• All that said, this one had L written all over it, and not just because of the sweep thing. The offense squeezed out six total hits, all singles, and Cincinnati's Tyler Mahle did what someone with a 12-5 record should do in functioning as a stopper with six scoreless innings, this despite allowing runners in scoring position in the first three.
"I’m always just trying to make good pitches,” Mahle would say to that.
• Funny, but the Reds were even less productive, with five total hits. But one of those was Tyler Stephenson's double off the Clemente Wall to open the seventh off Ponce:
Shogo Akiyama bunted Stephenson to third, and pinch-hitter Asdrubal Cabrera's sac fly sent him home.
• They flew home to Cincinnati after a 3-6 trip through Central opponents and, given that they were so distraught about losing to the Pirates in the opener of this series that the manager David Bell called a team meeting ... only to lose again to the Pirates, one can only imagine their relief at not becoming their first sweep victim.
"It was really important,” closer Mychal Givens would say of the W. “We needed this one."
Six more between these two teams. Three there, three here.
• That selfish, stupid Perez swing deserves extra dirt shoveled over it, so bear with me, please.
After Colin Moran struck out to open the ninth against Givens, Gamel and Kevin Newman worked consecutive full-count walks.
Consecutive.
Full-count.
Walks.
And in Newman's case, he'd seen eight pitches, meaning Givens was already at 17.
And then, this ...
What the ... ?
Look, I'm not about to blame Shelton here. Perez had been 2 for 3 with a home run in his career against Givens, and batter-pitcher matchups always take priority. But man alive, take at least one pitch. Put at least some additional pressure on the guy.
Understand, too, that's 100% on the player. There's no such thing as ordered red lights in the big leagues. Not one manager of any of the 30 teams specifically instructs a batter beforehand whether to swing or not.
• Really, I know it's been Ben Cherington's thing to collect sub-Mendoza backup catchers, but there's no reason Perez should've been able to amass 197 plate appearances anywhere in the majors, even here. He's got as many total bases, 55, as he does strikeouts.
And this, by the way, is one of countless reasons I'm convinced Cherington and staff won't keep Henry Davis at catcher. There's no precedent in this GM's tenure to suggest he values hitting at the position, and Davis is universally seen as a project behind the plate.
JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
Connor Overton pitches in the first inning Thursday at PNC Park.
• Overton opened with three zeroes -- two hits, three Ks, a walk -- and continued to keep his big-league ledger clean for 2021: In six appearances, four with the Blue Jays and now two with the Pirates, he's yet to be charged with an earned run in 10 2/3 innings.
To boot, in 22 minor-league appearances, seven of those starts, he had a 1.99 ERA, along with 52 strikeouts and 11 walks in 58 2/3 innings.
Seriously, other than his being 28 years old, what's the major malfunction that keeps him from steady employment?
I asked him something pretty much along those lines and, to his credit, he replied with a smile, "I'll just keep doing what I’m doing. I can’t really control that. All I can control is focus on what I can control, and that’s coming out here and trying to be the same guy every day and making quality pitches and keeping hitters off balance. That’s really it."
OK.
• Hayes went 2 for 4 and, in 10 games now atop the order, he's 14 for 42 with seven runs, two walks, a sac fly and a .356 OBP. One drawback: Still waiting on that pop, with just one double in there. But hey, it's not like there's some long line formed for leadoff candidates in 2022.
Not wild about his getting picked off second on this day, either, as he hasn't exactly excelled on the basepaths through his rookie season. But hey.
• Gamel went 2 for 3 with a walk, a steal and, in turn, set up my daily reminder that he really, really ought to be brought back.
• Shelton's as ego-free as it gets, as evidenced by his having maintained some Clint Hurdle staples, such as wearing other Pittsburgh teams' gear on some trips as a show of support:
Reppin' the Burgh on the trip.#BurghProud pic.twitter.com/iFqueqponN
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 16, 2021
That's it from this place for a while. The flight they were heading to catch in those pics will be part of a 10-game triangular trek from Miami to Cincinnati to Philadelphia.
Don't worry. Ballpark's in good hands:
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
The Wilmer Difo banner on General Robinson Street outside PNC Park, after the game Thursday afternoon.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Yoshi Tsutsugo, RF
3. Bryan Reynolds, CF
4. Colin Moran, 1B
5. Ben Gamel, LF
6. Kevin Newman, SS
7. Michael Perez, C
8. Hoy Park, 2B
9. Connor Overton, RHP
And for Bell's Reds:
1. Jonathan India, 2B
2. Max Schrock, LF
3. Nick Castellanos, RF
4. Joey Votto, 1B
5. Mike Moustakas, 3B
6. Tyler Stephenson, C
7. Kyle Farmer, SS
8. Shogo Akiyama, CF
9. Tyler Mahle, RHP
THE SYSTEM
THE SCHEDULE
That's it for the Pirates' penultimate homestand, and now it's off to Miami, then Cincinnati, then Philadelphia for the final road trip. Alex Stumpf will be activated from the 10-day IL to fly around for the whole thing.
THE CONTENT
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