Twenty total runs were scored, there was a tie through five full innings, and yet this was never in doubt after the first two batters.
And yeah, I meant two batters.
This won't take long, since it seldom does:
Now, I don't want to say Mitch Keller's final misfire of an eight-pitch walk to Kolten Wong was high, but I ducked up in the press box.
That can't happen. Not to lead off the game. Not when seven of those eight pitches were standard four-seamers. Not when the opponent manages to foul off half of those eight fastballs because they're a good 2-3 mph slower than the pitcher's peak velocity.
Because this happens next:
That also can't happen. Not with an 0-2 count on Willy Adames lugging a .194 average into that box. Not when Roberto Perez sets a target at the knees, but the pitch arrives at the belt, splitting the plate.
Because a loss is what almost always happens next, as it did with the Brewers the Pirates, 12-8, on this Tuesday night at PNC Park.
Because a lousy start tends to be the pretext, as it was with Keller lasting all of 4 2/3 innings, charged with four runs on five hits and two walks.
And because that's now the set-in-stone template for this team that's somehow found a way to sit at 8-9 near April's end despite starting pitching that's been so catastrophically awful it'll soon combust all else that's been encouraging.
Like Wil Crowe and Dillon Peters devouring the middle innings.
Like David Bednar and Chris Stratton doing likewise at the back end.
Like ... everything.
"Yeah, we I mean, we can't do that," Derek Shelton replied when I'd asked if he can afford to continue deploying one or more of those four guys night after night, generally in the fifth inning, to try to salvage these starts. "We have to rely on different people. You know, I mean, Crowe wasn't available today. Peters wasn't available today. And that's gonna happen when you have guys that go multiple innings like they do."
Yep. They're human, even if the combined statistics of those four -- two earned runs, 42 strikeouts, 12 walks in 37 1/3 innings -- currently suggest otherwise. They'll need rest and recovery, or they'll falter or, worse, they'll get hurt. As a team, the Pirates have logged 78 2/3 relief innings, tied for fourth-most in Major League Baseball. And Crowe and Peters rank second and sixth in the majors, respectively, in relief innings.
It stopped being 1972 a half-century ago. This is just how the game goes now. Pitchers' health matters.
But it also ain't a half-century ago when it comes to starters. Less is expected of them than ever when it comes to workload. Pitching wins are fossilized. Quality starts -- six-plus innings, three or fewer earned runs -- are now an oxymoronic official stat.
And still, this rotation of Keller, JT Brubaker, Bryse Wilson, Zach Thompson and whatever's left of Jose Quintana can't come close to the most mediocre of modern standards, reeking in a way I'm not sure I've seen in a lifetime of following this franchise:
• Keller: 0-3, 6.62 ERA, 1.64 WHIP
• Brubaker: 0-2, 6.46 ERA, 1.63 WHIP
• Wilson: 0-0, 6.35 ERA, 1.76 WHIP
• Thompson: 0-2, 10.80 ERA, 2.70 WHIP
• Quintana: 0-1, 3.86 ERA, 1.50
Collectively, that amounts to an 0-8 record, a 6.59 ERA and a 1.79 WHIP, or walks and hits per inning pitched. That last one's worth absorbing in that it means the starters average nearly two batters reaching base every single inning.
And I didn't even mention that their average start amounts to ... 4.02 innings. Or that not one of these guys has topped six innings yet. Or that the team hasn't registered one of those old-fashioned pitching wins since the 19th of September in the Year of our Lord Twenty and Twenty-One.
Catastrophically awful is too kind, in hindsight. That's a farce.
The obvious, and maybe convenient, culprits in this are the pitchers themselves. They might be terrible. All of them. I'm in no position to rule that out, and I don't think anyone else is, either.
But if that's the case, then why were they all given these jobs, in essence, with minimal competition in Bradenton? Who did the evaluating? Who settled?
And if it isn't the case that they're all terrible, then how can anyone explain why their struggles seem to be so spectacularly similar?
Hm?
Check this out: In the first inning of the Pirates' first 17 games, they've now given up 19 runs. And in the second inning, they've now given up 25 runs. Both figures are the majors' worst, and the bow on top is that the cumulative WHIP for those innings is 2.29, a veritable conga-line on the basepaths from the moment the anthem's sung.
It's this:
And then, as if by magic, it isn't. The pitcher finds his groove, puts a couple zeroes up, earns a pat on the rump from Shelton on the way to the dugout, and all concerned vow afterward that they'll all be better in the next start for the lessons learned in this one.
I asked Keller after this start, in contrast to the questions I had after his uplifting previous start in Milwaukee, what went wrong right off the bat:
"Yeah, just first at-bat, just a walk ... obviously not trying to walk him," he recalled. "I’m trying to be competitive in the zone. Just trying to find it still. And then to Adames, I mean, that's … I mean, that’s a spot we've all talked about, like, what we game-plan for is right there. And hats off to him. But yeah, I'm not even honestly mad about that. The only pitch I'm really mad about on the night was to him again in the next at-bat."
That was the center-square slider Adames stroked to left for the two-round double in the fifth.
"Yeah, it's just got to execute a little bit better. And then again, it's just a ball on the line. I mean, what am I … ?"
Hard fade.
And what, I followed up, has to occur for this whole rotation to get over this bug?
"We've just gotta be in attack mode from the first pitch on. Whether we've gotta find something that we're doing that's not allowing us to do that, or something that makes some guys feel comfortable or whatever it is ... we need to figure it out quick. Because once we can get through the first thing, I think we've proven, we're a pretty good pitching staff. I mean, the first inning is kind of haunting us here lately."
Since the first inning of the April 7 opener in St. Louis, to be precise. When the Cardinals scored a run. And the second inning, in which they scored three.
Know what all this looks and sounds like to date?
Like nothing's being learned, and no one's getting better. That's a statement I've been making about Oscar Marin since soon after he was hired two years ago, and all that's changed in the interim is additional exclamation points.
Don't talk to me about relievers, who are both fickle and fungible. Show me a pitching coach who can't get the most of his rotation, and I'll see a pitching coach who's digging five separate holes toward the same unemployment line. As Spin Williams, who held the post here a couple decades ago, once told me, "I'll last on this job as long as Oliver Perez lets me." And sure enough, when Ollie fell off, so did old Spin.
If the pitching coach is the problem -- or even part of the problem -- then by God, ship him out before Roansy Contreras arrives for good on these North Shores. Or Quinn Priester. Or any of these other promising prospects in whom so much has been invested.
But don't go downplaying or dismissing each bad performance in isolation, as if it's just a bad start here, a bad inning there, a bad pitch here, some bad luck there. That's dangerous. That leads to much larger mistakes along the way.
In other words, don't do what Shelton did when I asked him after this game if he can identify any broader problem with these first two innings, including a lack of preparation.
"Yeah, I don't think it's preparation. I think we're doing a good job preparing," he replied. "We have to figure it out. I can't tell you an exact answer. I think the big thing is we can't walk guys early. You know, we walk the leadoff hitter, and then we get a two-run homer. I think it's more about putting put the ball on the plate. And we -- our starters -- have not done that early in games. And it's led to runs."
It just hasn't led, as best I can tell, to any full accounting as to why that is.
• On the bright side, if a tree falls in the forest ...
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Blue seats, PNC Park, Tuesday night.
... did the event really even take place?
Official attendance: 8,493.
Actual attendance: Well, take a look.
• Not that anyone should've expected to be walking on sunshine with the baseball day beginning with the news that Bryan Reynolds and Cole Tucker were placed on the COVID injured list.
That doesn't mean they've got COVID, as Shelton went out of his way to stress after the game, but it did mean the Pirates would go without their best player, and that they'd have to face a couple logistical challenges in replacing both in time for first pitch: For one, Class AAA Indianapolis was playing out in Des Moines, Iowa, while Class AA Altoona was a 90-minute drive away in Akron, Ohio. For another, the 40-man roster pointed to two positional possibilities on the Curve, and those were outfielder Jack Suwinski and utilityman Tucupita Marcano.
So, those players, both having been acquired from the Padres last summer in the Adam Frazier trade, got the call. And for Suwinski, it'd represent his big-league debut, his first big-league start, and then, in the ninth, his first big-league hit, a soft single into shallow left.
The kid was every bit as excited as one might expect, even if the day didn't go at all that way, as I found out:
“I haven’t stopped moving since the morning,” Suwinski said. “We were up so early packing for that road trip, so we were on the go all day.”
Good for him. And for Marcano, by the way, for a double off the Clemente Wall as a late entry, followed by throwing a runner out at home from left.
• Other recent promotions haven't piqued my interest much, but Suwinski really earned it. He'd been swinging as well as anyone in the system, as Shelton pointed out, slashing .353/.421/.686 with three home runs, eight doubles and 13 RBIs.
It's been so long since the team had an outfield prospect of any pedigree I can't even recall. Probably Reynolds himself.
• Beau Sulser, a 27-year-old reliever promoted over the weekend from Indianapolis for the series in Chicago, finally made his own big-league debut, delivering 2 2/3 innings with two unearned runs, four strikeouts and a walk.
He was a 10th-round draft pick in 2017.
“I don’t know if it’s really sunk in,” he'd say of the appearance, which included a strikeout of Andrew McCutchen.
• Cutch had told me in Milwaukee he saw his 200th stolen base as a proud milestone, and he'd been sitting on 199 at the time, right until he secured it on home soil in the ninth off Sulser and Perez.
He acknowledged it meant a little extra in Pittsburgh, where the small crowd still gave a warm ovation with his first at-bat, and he doffed his helmet in response.
“I was like, ‘We have three games here, and I gotta get it.’ " he'd say. “I thought I had it the first time.”
Nah. Perez nailed him in the fourth.
• Adames flipped that .194 average into a franchise-record-tying seven RBIs for the Brewers: The initial two-run home run, the two-run double that Keller regretted more, and a three-run home run off Heath Hembree.
It's also fun to note that Adames homered in his final at-bat Monday against the Giants in Milwaukee.
“We've been working a lot, so I'm happy to see some results," he said. "I'm going to continue to work and to try to be better.”
• Ke'Bryan Hayes went 3 for 3 with a double, a walk and a sacrifice fly, raising his slash line to a gaudy .364/.438/.473 in the wake of that mega-extension.
He also saw the first duty at shortstop of his entire professional career, sliding over when Kevin Newman aggravated a groin injury in the seventh. That's something Shelton had suggested early in spring training he'd try on occasion, just in case of future emergencies.
"I've got no problem with it," Hayes told me with a soft smile. "I kind of expected it for a while now."
• Newman's injury followed a 2-for-3 night at the plate that included a lasered two-run single to tie the score, 4-4, in the fifth. Shelton didn't make the matter sound serious, saying Newman basically wore down an existing condition as the game proceeded.
• Yoshi Tsutsugo went 1 for 5, but don't let that lone single detract from the ugliness of his two early strikeouts against Brandon Woodruff, lunging far outside the zone on both. He also failed to catch a Hayes throw across the diamond that would've wound up an above-average play for the third baseman.
Tsutsugo's at .192/.286/.212, and his next home run will be his first.
• Major League Baseball's active rosters will be lowered from 28 to 26 players on May 2, as had been agreed upon before the season, but teams can still choose to carry a maximum 14 pitchers -- rather than 13 -- through May 30:
By agreement between @MLB and the @MLBPA as the parties monitor player health, the maximum of 13-pitchers on Active Rosters set to begin on May 2nd will instead go into effect on May 30th; a 14-pitcher maximum will be in place from May 2nd-29th.
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) April 26, 2022
Awesome. Find some different starters. Or pitch better. Or teach people how to pitch better.
• Thanks for reading my baseball stuff, as always.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• COVID injured list: CF Bryan Reynolds, RF Cole Tucker
• 10-day injured list: 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. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
2. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
3. Ben Gamel, LF
4. Yoshi Tsutsugo, 1B
5. Kevin Newman, SS
6. Josh VanMeter, 2B
7. Roberto Perez, C
8. Jack Suwinski, RF
9. Jake Marisnick, CF
And for Craig Counsell's Crew:
1. Kolten Wong, 2B
2. Willy Adames, SS
3. Christian Yelich, LF
4. Andrew McCutchen, DH
5. Rowdy Tellez, 1B
6. Tyrone Taylor, RF
7. Omar Narvaez, C
8. Lorenzo Cain, CF
9. Jace Peterson, 3B
THE SCHEDULE
Middle match of the series comes with another 6:35 p.m. first pitch. Bryse Wilson vs. righty Aaron Ashby. Alex Stumpf will cover.
THE CONTENT
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