The setup was golden. The execution was not.
Trailing by three runs in the bottom of the eighth Friday, the Pirates had loaded the bases and plated a run before recording an out. Up came their cleanup hitter, representing the go-ahead run. If a team had to be down, it’s about as favorable a position they could be in to come back.
The problem is that their cleanup hitter, Yoshi Tsutsugo, had a sub-.500 OPS on the season.
To Tsutsugo’s credit, he did bring home a run on a bouncing ball, but it was an easy fielder’s choice for an out. That would end up being the Pirates’ last best chance to win, though. The Cardinals' manager, Oliver Marmol, made the switch to his closer Giovanny Gallegos there, who retired the next five batters to seal a 5-3 Pirates loss.
With it, that’s now three losses to the Cardinals in four games this season. This one, though, felt more preventable.
Derek Shelton is in a tough spot with this ballclub, as there is an elephant in PNC Park’s clubhouse: This isn’t the best team of 26 they could be fielding. Shortstop Oneil Cruz, starter Roansy Contreras, first baseman Mason Martin and reliever Yerry De Los Santos, to name a few, could make an impact with the major-league team right now. They haven’t been given that opportunity, excluding Contreras’ early season call-up to pitch out of the bullpen as a hybrid, multi-inning replacement.
The club has routinely cited player development as the reason for why those players, particularly Cruz, a preseason favorite for rookie of the year, are still with Class AAA Indianapolis.
In Chicago this week, I asked Shelton about managing the temptation of calling up someone like Contreras and the line between major-league need and that player’s laid out development plan.
"I think we've talked about this as we continue to lay out development plans,” Shelton responded. “We have to make sure those guys develop to the point where we feel that they can come up and sustain and help us. So it's something we are very aware of and watching all the time."
Like the answer or not, that’s the explanation. Most, if not all, of those players will get their call sometime this year. The players in that locker room are who Shelton has to work with.
But for a team that is open about how they have opportunity here, one has to wonder why are they routinely going to some players when they have failed for a quarter of a season to make the most of that opportunity.
For example, why was Tsutsugo batting cleanup? Of all players who qualify for the batting title this year, his .212 slugging percentage is dead last. The Pirates have some high OBP guys near the top of the order in Ben Gamel and Ke’Bryan Hayes, but they will rarely be brought in by someone with a slugging percentage just about the Mendoza line.
In the cleanup spot, Tsutsugo has a .238 slugging percentage. Of all Pirates players since 1901 who have had at least 70 plate appearances batting cleanup, the only two who posted a lower SLG clip were Pedro Alvarez in 2012 (.233) and Vince DiMaggio in 1943 (.221). He is having one of the worst offensive outputs from a critical spot in the lineup in franchise history.
Daniel Vogelbach is currently banged up with a lower body injury, so he wasn’t available to start as the designated hitter. Tsutsugo got the nod instead because there are only 12 position players on the roster and batted cleanup. When asked pregame if he has given consideration to dropping Tsutsugo, Shelton pointed out that he did that last game in Chicago against the Cubs.
Tsutsugo batted seventh that game and went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. He returned to the cleanup spot after that performance.
“It’s a fluctuation back and forth, depending on who is in there and who is not,” Shelton said.
Instead, Michael Chavis batted sixth Friday despite having the highest OPS of anyone in the Pirates' starting lineup. He homered off Adam Wainwright for the first run of the game. His opportunity in the eighth inning to potentially make it a ballgame again came with two outs against their closer instead.
Or on the pitching side, take a look at the top of the sixth. Zach Thompson stayed hot, delivering five solid innings of one-run ball. However, his pitch count hit 80, and since he hadn’t been 100% health wise his last two outings, battling an illness, Shelton went to the bullpen. Again, a tough situation, but given the circumstances, protecting a pitcher’s health is always the right call.
The arm he went to, though, was Heath Hembree, who retired just one of his three batters faced. The other two would eventually come home to score with Anthony Banda on the hill. A 1-0 game became 5-0, and the Pirates went on to lose by two.
So why Hembree, an 8.10 ERA and nearly as many walks (nine) as strikeouts (10)?
“We had a run there for Heath there that we thought was really good, and it just didn't work out," Shelton said, pointing out he faced three right-handed hitters.
Even if David Bednar and Chris Stratton are unavailable because they’re late inning arms, the Pirates have other right-handers. Wil Crowe and Duane Underwood Jr. did pitch multiple innings Wednesday, so they might have been unavailable. But Chase DeJong has pitched to a sub-2.00 ERA so far this year. Tyler Beede is a new guy getting a look. They both had scoreless outings Friday, after Hembree.
Players have opportunity in Pittsburgh. Not all of that opportunity is going to players who have earned it. One of the organization’s buzzwords in 2021 was “meritocracy.” Earn your keep. Earn your chance.
Some players have been doing that in Indianapolis but won’t get the call. Some players in Pittsburgh are being given multiple chances and are posting very poor results.
At least one of those two needs to change. If it doesn’t, how will this team get better?
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Two plays from this one are worth chronicling.
The first came in the first inning. With runners on the corners, Nolan Arenado lifted a fly ball to shallow right field. Tommy Edman, the runner on third, tagged and made a break towards home, but pulled up when it was clear he would be out. First baseman Michael Chavis caught Suwinski's throw, but it was high and he had to jump to catch it.
Paul Goldschmidt, the runner on first, was caught between first and second after trying to tag himself, and while the Pirates were able to complete a successful rundown, it came after Edman had scored.
"I'm waiting to hear from the people behind me on what's going on and everything like that," Chavis said, talking about the play. "I never heard like, ‘Let it go,’ or anything like that, so I just waited for the plan unfold. I saw the out opportunity up ahead and I just took it."
"We talked about it after the play," he also said. "It might be one of those things where if it was the ninth inning, we’d try to save that run."
• The other play came in the fifth. After a two out hit by Rodolfo Castro, the infielder was able to pull off a delayed steal on Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright.
After Gamel walked, Hayes came up and got ahead 2-0, but Castro tried to pull off another delayed steal and was thrown out at third to end the inning.
"I think it's a young player trying to make an aggressive move," Shelton said. "His read on where Nolan was, was really good. The one thing that we talked about afterward is he had delayed once on Yadi. We're talking about a guy that's a Hall-of-Famer and has really good awareness. It's probably not going to happen the second time. [Molina's] going to be aware, and he just got too aggressive."
• In his last 10 starts against the Pirates, dating back to July 24, 2019, Wainwright is 10-0 with a 1.14 ERA.
"Yeah, it was tough," Shelton said. "I mean, he did a good job. We had some opportunities early on when I don't think is command was as sharp as we've seen him in the past, and then he got really sharp. We made a mistake in the fifth on the bases after Gamel had the really good at-bat. He kind of locked it in after that."
Chavis gave credit to the backstop, too.
"There's times where it almost seems like they're not even calling pitches. It seems like they're just on the same page and they roll through it. It's cool to watch it."
• The Pirates announced Friday that Roberto Pérez underwent surgery to his left posterior thigh to repair a ruptured hamstring tendon. He is projected to return to full baseball activities in 6-9 months.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 10-day injured list: OF Jake Marisnick (thumb), SS Kevin Newman (groin)
• 60-day injured list: OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery), Roberto Pérez (hamstring, out for season)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Ben Gamel, LF
2. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
3. Bryan Reynolds, CF
4. Yoshi Tsutsugo, DH
5. Josh VanMeter, 2B
6. Michael Chavis, 1B
7. Jack Suwinski, RF
8. Michael Perez, C
9. Rodolfo Castro, SS
And for Marmol's Cardinals:
1. Tommy Edman, SS
2. Brendan Donovan, DH
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Juan Yepez, LF
6. Nolan Gorman, 2B
7. Dylan Carlson, RF
8. Yadier Molina, C
9. Harrison Bader, CF
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates are Cardinals are back at PNC Park Saturday, with Jose Quintana (1-1, 2.19) set to face Matthew Liberatore in his big-league debut. First pitch is at 6:35 p.m. Jarrod Prugar will have you covered.
THE CONTENT
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