DENVER -- Ke'Bryan Hayes sat at one stall, towel sagging over his head, staring straight ahead. Bryan Reynolds sat a couple stalls away, slumped back and still bandaged up from the strained oblique that's lifted him out the lineup. And strolling along in their direction, but no more or less engaged, was the ghost of Roansy Contreras, who's still with the team on the alleged-taxi-squad basis even though he was technically optioned to the minors a week ago.
There. They matter, those three.
Anyone else?
I paused at the portal to the visitors' clubhouse one last time following the Pirates' 13-2 thrashing by the Rockies on this steamy Friday night at Coors Field and gave it a second try. And all I came up with was Oneil Cruz, who'd just gone 0 for 4 to sink his slash line to .202/.242/.416, and David Bednar, who might as well have been showing scars from all those lasers he'd served up this week in Miami.
Two more. They matter.
I kept going. And all I'd come up with was Mitch Keller and maybe JT Brubaker, both of whom have been terrific of late in any team's most pivotal role.
What's that, a half-dozen and change?
I turned around and headed back toward the tunnel, back out to Blake Street, and back up to the hotel where I'd now intended to write a column topped by this headline: DON'T READ THIS.
Because why would anyone?
Why should anyone?
Let's knife through any nonsense here: Ben Cherington's unquestionably responsible for all these veterans playing again all of a sudden, even after all those youngsters brought all that energy for those fun few weeks. He has to be. He's got two weeks before Major League Baseball's trade deadline, he's got a handful of semi-older players he'd love to unload for whatever they're worth, and he's got no hope of moving them if he doesn't show them.
Whatever. That's just business. I get it. If there's a GM out there dumb enough to take Yoshi Tsutsugo, well, all it takes is one.
But that doesn't mean I'm inclined to care in the slightest about watching any of them. And that applies whether they're good or whether they're Josh VanMeter:
There's legit good in the group, though, and that's topped by Jose Quintana. He's been the rotation's most reliable starter by the same 5,280 feet this city sits above sea level and, odd as this might sound, he might've actually fortified his trade value with this five-inning performance that saw six earned runs, seven hits and two walks.
Why?
Because Brendan Rogers' bases-clearing double in the third broke a 1-1 tie, and came on a soft, one-handed, defensive swing:
Because it came on a down-and-away changeup that'd been almost pristine in execution:
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MLB.com
Because Quintana himself confirmed as much when I brought it up:
But more than anything, because Quintana enthusiastically took the ball for a fifth inning after he'd already run up a pitch count of 90, after the Rockies had extended their lead to 6-1. And he cut down Colorado 1-2-3.
"Get one more inning," he'd say of his motivation. "Save a little bit my bullpen."
Good dude. Good pitcher.
Doesn't matter. Never has. Not beyond whatever market might be manufactured for a 33-year-old bounceback lefty who only recently mowed down the mighty Yankees at PNC Park.
Jake Marisnick doesn't matter, either. Never has. And that's saying something considering he doubled twice in this game and is now 7 for 18 with two home runs and five extra-base hits in five games since missing two months to a left thumb injury. He's 31, he's got a lifetime .282 on-base percentage, and not even his superlative defense can make that amount to much via trade.
And then there are all the rest.
Anyone really need me to rifle through that list?
It's a joke that the likes of Tsutsugo, VanMeter and a few others ever step on a big-league field, much less get placed in the starting lineup. But again, that's where this is. For another two weeks, anyway. The Pirates in July are the Strip District's sidewalk sales, the bargain-bin tees that tell the Ravens and Flyers where to stick it, and they aren't pretending otherwise.
The GM wouldn't admit this, of course, but it's as prominent as Derek Shelton's lineups on a daily basis that make him look preposterous more often than not, even though he's just one cog in the process. He'll run those guys out there again Saturday and Sunday, then coming out of the All-Star break, then right into the deadline.
The GM wouldn't admit this, either, but he saw 2022 as a throwaway well before spring training. And hey, he just might not be wrong.
I'm betting his count in that same clubhouse scene wouldn't have been much different than mine.
I'm also betting he wouldn't have read anywhere near this deep into this column. Because he knows, as much as everyone should, that what we're watching this month doesn't matter.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Coors Field, from the center point of the upper deck before the game Friday.
• Beautiful place. Have to say it every time I'm in town, but anyone omitting it from the five best in baseball ... probably hasn't been here.
• Leave it to the Pirates to have three players hit three home runs in a game, all in June, only to have two of them demoted on the same day the very next month.
Jack Suwinski was optioned to Class AAA Indianapolis earlier Friday, as was Michael Perez. In the corresponding moves, Cal Mitchell was recalled from Indianapolis, and Tyler Heineman was activated from the Family Medical Emergency List.
Obviously, Suwinski's the far bigger deal, with his 14 home runs leading all big-league rookies, but there also was the not-so-small matter of a .198/.288/.428 line, capped by the 0-for-29 drought he dragged on the way out.
I asked Shelton what went into management's thinking.
"A little bit of a reset," he began. "I mean, he was scuffling right now. The league had made some adjustments to him. You know, he came up from Double-A, and I think, honestly, he was probably here longer than he expected. And, you know, Jack's really important to us. He's a good player, and he's going to be a good player for us. But it's important for us to let him get his bearings underneath him a little bit, because he started to tinker with things a little bit mechanically, and we need to make sure that he stays solid."
I asked for elaboration on that.
"I think the thing we started to see, over the last probably six, seven games was him being in-between. And when a hitter gets in-between, like in Miami, he had a couple check swings, you know, just didn't start to look like himself. And when that starts to stand out, then it's like, OK, we need to do a little bit of a reset. And that's what we decided to do."
He laughed then and added, "And I assume he’ll be back at some point, because, you know, he's a big part of our outfield future."
I take zero issue with this. With there never having been a day in Class AAA, I can't believe this didn't come sooner.
• Delay shoving Perez to the minors is a comparative footnote, but the former's now at .296/.321/.407 through just 11 games and ... I mean, that's better than anyone else, small sample sizes be damned. He had an RBI single in this game, too.
"He's executed at the plate and gotten some big hits for us," Shelton explained. "We just thought that he deserved a little longer runway to continue to catch here."
• C.J. Cron and Rodgers went deep back-to-back off beleaguered Dillon Peters to make it 9-2 in the seventh, after which Oscar Marin made a mound visit ... and covered his mouth through the entire conversation.
Yeah, wouldn't want any of that magic formula getting intercepted by the enemy.
• The Rockies are 42-49, but they're 9-6 in July, in large part because of pitching like they got here from German Marquez, who kept the Pirates on the ground and limited them to two runs over 6 2/3 innings.
“There's a little charge from those fellas,” Colorado's manager, Bud Black, said of his pitchers. “Our defense has been very good over the last six weeks. And the hitting -- you’d like to have it as often as you can. It was a big night tonight.”
Speak for yourself, Bud.
Sorry.
• All concerned continued to insist Bednar's fine, with Shelton telling me he expects Bednar to pitch here this weekend.
OK.
• Want someone/something that matters?
Here's Mitchell robbing Kris Bryant in the third:
I hope I'm trusted in saying it was so much more electric live than any video footage I've seen. And I heard from subscribers on the scene who expressed the same. It was spectacular.
• As ever, I climbed up to the Purple Row, the precise mile-high point that rings the upper deck:
• Thanks for reading my baseball stuff. Especially when I advise against it.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 10-day injured list: OF Bryan Reynolds (right oblique)
• 60-day injured list: OF Canaan Njigba-Smith (wrist), OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery) RHP Max Kranick (elbow), C Roberto Pérez (hamstring)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Josh VanMeter, 1B
2. Ben Gamel, LF
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
5. Oneil Cruz, SS
6. Kevin Newman, 2B
7. Cal Mitchell, RF
8. Jake Marisnick, CF
9. Jason Delay, C
And for Black's Rockies:
1. Connor Joe, RF
2. Kris Bryant, LF
3. Charlie Blackmon, DH
4. C.J. Cron, 1B
5. Brendan Rogers, 2B
6. Jose Iglesias, SS
7. Ryan McMahon, 3B
8. Randal Grichuk, CF
9. Elias Diaz, C
THE SCHEDULE
Back to the hill for the best version of Mitch Keller we've ever witnessed, having allowed three or fewer earned runs in six of his past eight starts. Clubhouse opens at 10:30 a.m. No Derek Shelton before this one. I'll be all over it ... because why not?
THE CONTENT
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