MILWAUKEE -- The issue wasn't whether or not Derek Shelton should've pulled Zach Thompson when absolutely everyone watching everywhere knew he should've.
Nope. That part was the no-brainer.
Rather, the issue was -- and will remain for the foreseeable future -- how these Pirates can best balance wanting to win a single game vs. wanting to see what so-and-so's got in a given setting. Or against a given batter or pitcher. Or over a given time period.
And let's not delude ourselves: It's still all the stuff after every versus.
Proof?
Well, one could scan any of Derek Shelton's lineups over these first 10 games and find Cole Tucker playing right field. And Hoy Park playing ... anywhere. And Anthony Alford being granted relentless reprieves. And this hitter or that pitcher being forced into a status that isn't remotely deserved, if only because this hitter or that pitcher might be standing on his last big-league leg and, within that, management seeks certainty before pushing the big eject button.
But if it's more specific proof that's being sought, here's the meatball -- with marinara, parmesan and parsley -- that Thompson served up to Yelich in the fourth inning Monday night at American Family Field to emphatically decide the Pirates' 6-1 loss to the Brewers:
Awful, right?
Hey, Thompson didn't disagree.
"It was the right pitch," he'd say of the selection, one I was told was aimed at Milwaukee's hitters having laid off the changeup to that point. "I got it just a bit too high."
And too over the plate. And 85 mph. And plenty deserving of the second-deck treatment it got.
But infinitely more awful than any of that was Shelton leaving him out there in the first place.
Thompson had been struck on the right shoulder blade by a line drive in his previous start, forced to exit. And although he'd make clear the shoulder wasn't an issue in this start, he did acknowledge to me that he wore down "a little bit" as the game proceeded. Which shouldn't surprise anyone considering it was his second start of the season after a shortened spring training, the injury KO'd him in the first one at 4 1/3 innings and, oh, by the way ... he'd nosedived from utterly dominant through three innings to loading the bases in the fourth.
His pitch count was at 80 when Yelich, a left-handed hitter, stepped into the box. And Dillon Peters, the Pirates' sharpest lefty in the pen, was hot after a full warmup.
I mean ...
"Yeah I mean we we tried to get him through ... we're trying to get him through Cutch," Shelton began his explanation, referring to Andrew McCutchen, batting cleanup behind Yelich. "And obviously, you know, it didn't work out. And in hindsight, should've probably brought in Peters there. But we tried to get him through, and he lost his arm slot a little bit. Just didn't work out."
Not at all.
(But parenthetically, that's also the second time in the same day here that Shelton accepted responsibility for a mistake, and never, ever, ever presume such a quality to be anything other than a strength. He's a good man, a good manager. And he, like the bulk of his younger players, will get better.)
But what if there's more to this?
See, here's where this gets uncomfortable, particularly for those in charge of the Pirates at all levels, not just out on the field: They know they've still got something to learn about certain players, just as they know it's a stupid waste of potential assets to bench them for an older player who's better in the moment, just as they know how painful it is to see them blossom elsewhere.
But they also know they can't tell me that. Or anyone outside the organization that. Because it sounds borderline scandalous, and that's doubled when the team's tasting even the tiniest blip of success, as it had over this past week.
They don't want to win!
They're tanking for (insert random draft prospect's name here)!
NUTTING!
It's probably a lot simpler and a lot less nerve-wracking, I'd suggest, to look at the roster -- not the active one, but the 40-man -- and consider how many might be routinely disposed and how many might come back to haunt. Not based on the last good/bad thing a guy does, but on the body of work, on progression or regression. And then ask what the team might be thinking in regard to that one player as it relates to, oh, 2023 or 2024.
See where I'm going?
Ben Cherington told me in Bradenton, Fla., a few weeks ago that this process isn't "linear," and that's never made more sense to me than after this game and, really, just this performance by Thompson.
I'll repeat: He was dominant through three innings. Pumping fastballs at 95 mph. Buckling knees with the curve. Wearing out Roberto Pérez's lunge with his slider. Four straight strikeouts in one cross-inning sequence, all swinging.
I asked Thompson if he could take legit positives from this:
"Yeah, absolutely," he'd come right back. "You know, the strikeouts were really good. A lot of my pitches played really well. Something we've been working on was getting more spin. Yeah, the curveball and everything. So the first few innings played really well. Yeah, I'm gonna take the positives. You can't just sit on the negatives for five days."
Good for him. Needs to find some strength and stretch it out.
It was glaring in the fourth that Thompson was wearing down, same as his first start. The fastball plunged to 92 mph, the offspeed stuff was flattening, and the contact was as loud as the command was lousy.
It's not as if Shelton and his staff couldn't see this. There wasn't a soul in this building, including the 21,252 paying customers, who couldn't see it.
But pick apart Shelton's explanation above, and there's a reference to wanting Thompson to "get him through Cutch." That was the objective right there. Because if Thompson could escape this jam, as he did in leaving bases loaded in the the first inning with three of those four consecutive strikeouts ... uh-huh, there's a step.
See where I'm going now?
Look, this might be right. It might not. And either way, I don't like any of it anymore than most will. This is Year 3 of this management team and manager, and I'm more invested in seeing evidence of upward trends on a scoreboard than anywhere else.
And yet, I also get that only one of the two teams sharing this diamond has a prayer of contending for a pennant, and the other's got more relevant goals at hand.
GETTY
Dillon Peters throws to third base Monday night in Milwaukee.
• The baseball gods are terrible and vindictive gods. They'll magnify mistakes, make them hurt all the more.
So yeah, of course, in the wake of Shelton's decision, Peters was awesome in relief of Thompson, putting up three scoreless, hitless innings with three strikeouts, a walk and -- get this -- 23 of 33 pitches for strikes.
"I thought he was really good, really efficient, commanded the ball on both sides of the plate," Shelton would say. "I mean, he's been good for us all year and was good for us again tonight."
Three appearances, seven innings, zero runs, zero hits, and this was the best of those.
My two minutes with Peters after the game:
He's 29, by the way. Which is like 24 in lefty years.
• There's no way I should've gotten through that entire lede entry without mentioning that Bryan Reynolds and Cole Tucker, on back-to-back plays in the critical fourth inning, failed to make catches that both acknowledged they could've made.
This was Reynolds:
"I didn't go to it the way I wanted," Reynolds told me, "and then it maybe knuckleballed a little. I'm not sure."
This was Tucker:
"I had it. I felt it. It felt good, the run, the whole thing," Tucker told me. "It just came right out."
Neither was charged with an error, but those would've been the second and third outs of the inning that undid Thompson.
That said, both of those, especially the second one by Lorenzo Cain, were stroked, so it's not as if Thompson was his best self.
• Diego Castillo's first big-league home run, in the fourth inning off Milwaukee starter Eric Lauer, became the latest one-up he's performed on his own remarkable 2022 to date:
More impressive, the previous pitch saw him struck on the knee -- through a swing and miss, oddly -- and hobbled for several seconds before returning to the box.
“I dreamed about this moment,” Castillo would say with a smile as broad as the stall behind him. “I’m proud that I got my first home run in the big leagues. I’m gonna add it to the best-moment-of-my-life list.”
When I reminded him that he's used that line maybe a dozen times over the past dozen days, beginning with making the roster in Bradenton, he beamed all the more.
He's now 9 for 29 -- .310 -- with a home run, three RBIs and above-the-bar defense.
Play. This. Kid.
• In hindsight, there was no need to omit Kevin Newman from my list up there of players maybe on their last big-league leg. At least as a starter. His glovework at his position will keep him employed, but another 0-for-4 has him at .185 through 27 largely quiet at-bats.
• Tucker's at .194, but another hit here has him on a 6-for-21 semi-surge. No need to lump them together.
• Yelich's home run was the season's first for a former National League MVP who's still trying to dig out from two tough years from the power standpoint.
“You want to get rid of all those zeroes as fast as you can,” Yelich told reporters on the Milwaukee side. “It's out of your control, but it's definitely nice to get the first one ... especially like that.”
• Let history record that, had the 5-5 Pirates prevailed, they'd have been two games over .500 for the first time since May 24, 2019, that following a 10-2 loss to the Dodgers at PNC Park.
One never knows when the final experience without a losing record in a given season will come, so go hug a loved one or something.
• Great to see and speak with Andrew McCutchen. Think of him anytime asking some rhetorical question about what great player would ever want to play/stay in Pittsburgh.
• Happy 80th birthday to the one, the only Steve Blass. No franchise has ever had a finer -- and funnier -- multigenerational ambassador.
• Love this place. Always have. Maybe baseball's best sight lines. Some of the friendliest humans. No rain delays. Bratwurst in the press box after the third inning.
Also love, more than anything, being able to do my job properly and work both clubhouses for all of the original material that can be found above.
Happy, happy columnist:
FRIENDLY SECURITY OFFICER
Happy, happy columnist, Monday evening outside the press box at American Family Field, Milwaukee.
• Thanks for reading my baseball stuff, as always.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Luis Oviedo, reliever, was reinstated Monday afternoon from the 10-day injured list (right ankle sprain) and optioned to Class AA Altoona.
• 10-day injured list: OF Anthony Alford (hand), LHP Sam Howard (back), RHP Duane Underwood (hamstring), RHP Max Kranick (forearm)
• 60-day injured list: OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Brian Reynolds, CF
3. Michael Chavis, 1B
4. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
5. Diego Castillo, 2B
6. Kevin Newman, SS
7. Jake Marisnick, LF
8. Roberto Perez, C
9. Cole Tucker, RF
And for Counsell's Crew:
1. Kolten Wong, 2B
2. Willy Adames, SS
3. Christian Yelich, LF
4. Andrew McCutchen, DH
5. Rowdy Tellez, 1B
6. Hunter Renfroe, RF
7. Omar Narvaez, C
8. Lorenzo Cain, CF
9. Jace Peterson, 3B
THE SCHEDULE
Middle game of this series is Tuesday at 7:40 p.m. Eastern. JT Brubaker takes on Corbin Burns. I'm here for it.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
