There's no way to hide it: The ugly losing streak gets even uglier

ST. LOUIS -- Make that seven in a row.

This loss was the most improbable, if not preventable. After building up a 5-0 lead, the Pirates gave it all back in the bottom of the sixth before eventually losing to the Cardinals, 7-5, Monday night at Busch Stadium.

That’s the Pirates’ seventh straight loss, their sixth that was decided by two runs. That would insinuate the Pirates were at least close. They should have escaped with at least a couple wins.

“We're just in that stretch where we have to make our own breaks, and we have not done that," Derek Shelton said.

Perhaps all it will take is one win to right the ship, but right before this streak started, the Pirates had won a pair of series against the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, sweeping the former, the team was within arm’s length of .500. Now they’re 24-35.

I go back to my conversation with Wil Crowe in San Diego where he said they believed they were “a good f—ing team” and that they just needed three good weeks to prove it. They did it for one. The next week undid that.

2. I thought Shelton had done a good job managing the bullpen this season for the most part. The quick hooks for starters can draw ire, but the hybrid plan has enabled pitchers like Crowe and Dillon Peters to use their stuff better and get outs.

These past few games though, I’m not following what he’s doing. Trying to protect a lead Saturday, he went with Duane Underwood Jr. for two frames after pulling Zach Thompson, who was at only 67 pitches. It backfired. The next day, Crowe was used for two innings when the Pirates were trailing. They never got the lead back.

That usage is mixed up.

With a couple runners on in the bottom of the sixth, Shelton took the ball away from Mitch Keller, who was at 97 pitches, to go to the left-hander Anthony Banda against the bottom half of their order. 

It backfired. Lefty Brendan Donovan brought home the Cardinals’ first two runs with a double, and two batters later, switch-hitter Dylan Carlson went deep batting right-handed, which has traditionally been his strong side (.868 career OPS against lefties, .700 against right-handers).

"We had the matchup that we wanted with the left, and we just didn't get the guys out that we should have gotten out,” Shelton said.

Tuesday’s looming doubleheader surely created some challenges on how to manage Monday, but this had the feel of Shelton going to a pitcher he hasn’t used in a lot of leverage situations and paying for it because he tried to keep his more traditional backend relievers fresh for Tuesday.

You can’t do that when you've already lost six in a row. You need to go for the slump-buster.

3. For his second straight outing, Chris Stratton gave up the key homer, this time to Paul Goldschmidt in the seventh, the eventual game-winner:

That’s a 5.68 ERA for the man who started the year as one of the team’s informal closers alongside David Bednar. Factoring in this loss and his performance Saturday where he didn’t record an out, his win-probability-added is down to -0.58 this year, in the bottom 30 among qualified relievers.

“He got behind [in the count], and that's the thing,” Shelton said on the commonality between Stratton’s recent struggles. “He got behind Goldy 3-1 and then he hit a 3-2 pitch out. We have to make sure he stays ahead in the count."

Stratton has the support of his teammates, but he hasn’t pitched as well as last year for any significant stretch. This team needs late inning arms so he will continue to get those opportunities, but how long can they afford to do that with a pitcher who most likely isn’t part of their long-term future?

GETTY

Mitch Keller delivers a pitch.

4. Keller deserved better.

After an underwhelming start to his season, he’s pitched to a 2.82 ERA (7 earned runs over 22 ⅓ innings) with 20 strikeouts over his last five appearances, three of which were starts. He’s using all quadrants of the zone more effectively with the sinker, and he’s able to attack hitters more effectively.

He allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk across 5 ⅓ innings Monday, striking out two. It wasn’t his best outing, but in his first four innings he put a runner in scoring position and stranded them there because he executed pitches when he needed to. He looked confident doing it, too, coming through in the biggest moments of the game.

“In big situations, too, just taking a step back and really thinking about the situation, knowing who’s on deck and what to throw, I think that’s helped a lot,” Keller said about performing in those potential run-scoring spots.

I get the skepticism, or pessimism, around Keller, but I'm of the opinion that once he strung together three or four good starts, it could be the start of something for him. This was his third straight start of at least five innings pitched and two earned runs or fewer. He might be breaking out.

5. Keller didn’t have a good feel for his slider early, so he transitioned to the curveball and threw a career-high 23 of them. 

I wrote in a recent Mound Visit how he had shied away from that pitch and how it might be worth bringing it back. He showed that if he needs spin, he can still turn to his original breaking ball, and this could be a sign of another change to his pitch mix.

“Just knowing that pitch is really good and I can get some outs and I can get some strikeouts with it,” Keller said. “Definitely something to look into.”

He should. Good things tend to happen when Keller experiments.

6. Where are the right-handed hitters? Are there any to pull from?

On Monday, the Cardinals started lefty Zack Thompson. The Pirates had three left-handed hitters in the lineup (Tucupita Marcano, Daniel Vogelbach and Jack Suwinski), and two switch-hitters (Bryan Reynolds and Tyler Heineman). The other four members of their bench were left-handed swingers. That was the best they could do to get the hand advantage.

If you’re wondering why Yu Chang is on this team, the fact that he’s right-handed is a factor.

Looking at the players for Class AAA Indianapolis who could potentially be a call up candidate, their hottest hitter is Bligh Madris, another left-handed swinging outfielder. Utilityman Ji-Hwan Bae swings left-handed, as do Travis Swaggerty (who was optioned back to the minors Monday) and first baseman Mason Martin. Infielder Rodolfo Castro is at least a switch-hitter, but he’s in the minors right now after not showing consistent hustle in the majors and because he made some key mistakes. He’s not getting called up right now.

So there is no right-handed help on the horizon. As a result, someone like Voglebach, who entered with a .135 batting average and .495 OPS against southpaws, is almost forced to start. He went hitless Monday.

We won’t even go deep that the Pirates optioned their other lefty reliever, Aaron Fletcher, before the game, putting Banda in that spot in the sixth. It’s one thing to work with a young roster. It’s another to work with an unbalanced one, especially with something like which side of the plate do batters swing from.

7. I don’t get the logic of calling up Canaan Smith-Njigba just to keep him on the bench all game. It’s a different situation than last week when Swaggerty had to make a mad dash to the ballpark to get there on time and was running on one hour of sleep. Smith-Njigba got to the field this morning and had an opportunity for a full day. He didn’t appear in the game.

8. Actually, let’s go back to the fourth thought. There were plenty of players who deserved better today.

Michael Chavis took a ball off the face in the third when Diego Castillo’s throw on the double-play attempt short hopped its way to him and took a funny bounce. He stayed in the game, and two innings later hit a no-doubter to left-center to build a 5-0 lead:

Castillo also went deep Monday, but more impressively, he made one of the smoothest double-play turns we’re going to see across baseball.

Marcano got on base a couple times out of the leadoff spot. Ke’Bryan Hayes had an RBI and scored. Chang made a solid defensive play up the middle.

There were some solid individual efforts, but it’s a team sport. And as a team, they weren’t good enough.

9. 96 degrees and humid is no way to play a baseball game.

“It seemed as the game got on, it got more hot because the wind wasn’t blowing anymore,” Keller said. “It just felt like super dead head in there.”

Time for triple digits, humidity and a doubleheader Tuesday.

10. This isn’t the best roster the Pirates could be fielding. Utilityman Hoy Park was promoted alongside Smith-Njigba. Shelton maintained the same player development point as for why it wasn’t Oneil Cruz.

"As we've talked about, we're continuing to work on things with Oneil and we'll continue to do that,” Shelton said when I asked why Park instead of Cruz. “And we're seeing positive signs.”

The major-league team needs positive signs too. Cruz is about two days away from being unable to reach the Super Two thresholds the league saw from 2019-2021. Super Two is an inexact science, but that’s a really good baseline.

Cruz will almost surely be up next homestand, possibly for the start of it. It’s overdue, and his absence in the majors thus far this season has cost this team wins.

Don’t believe me? With two outs in the ninth, the Pirates needed a pinch-hitter for Chang. They sent up Michael Perez, who is hitting .107. It was probably still the right call considering Chang’s own set of struggles. If it was Cruz batting there instead, with the top of the order due up, maybe that would have broken this streak.

THE ESSENTIALS

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THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 10-day injured list: OF Ben Gamel (hamstring), RHP Heath Hembree (calf), OF Jake Marisnick (thumb), 1B Yoshi Tsutsugo (lumbar muscle strain), Josh VanMeter (finger)

• 60-day injured list: Kevin Newman (groin), 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. Tucupita Marcano, LF
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Michael Chavis, 1B
5. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
6. Diego Castillo, SS
7. Jack Suwinski, RF
8. Tyler Heineman, C
9. Yu Chang, 2B

And for Oliver Marmol's Cardinals:

1. Tommy Edman, SS
2. Nolan Gorman, 2B
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Tyler O'Neill, LF
6. Brendan Donovan, 3B
7. Juan Yepez, RF
8. Dylan Carlson, CF
9. Andrew Knizner, C

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates and Cardinals will play two Tuesday, making up for the rainout from the opening series. JT Brubaker (0-6, 4.60) will go game one against Matthew Liberatore (1-1, 5.54) in game one, with first pitch coming at 1:15 p.m. Eastern. Bryse Wilson (0-3, 7.53) will be the 27th player for game two and start against Miles Mikolas (4-4, 2.93) at 7:35 p.m. Eastern.

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