Crowe's collapse vs. Yankees puts role into question

NEW YORK -- Perhaps Wil Crowe's season is best told as a season of two halves. Or perhaps it is best told in two roles.

For most of the first half of the season, Crowe was one of the most reliable arms in the Pirates' bullpen, often going multiple innings to bridge the gap from the starting pitcher to the backend leverage pitchers. But his strong performance, coupled with several departures and injuries among those leverage arms, led him into more of a late inning role since the All-Star break.

There, he has struggled, perhaps no more so than Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. Inheriting an 8-4 lead in the bottom of the ninth, Crowe led off the frame with a home run to Aaron Judge before Giancarlo Stanton walked it off with a grand slam, leading to a 9-8 Yankees comeback victory.

Despite throwing 23 pitches, Crowe did not record an out.

"Just have to keep grinding, I guess," a somber Crowe said at his locker postgame. "I thought I threw some good sliders. I thought I threw some good changeups. They just spat on them and didn't swing at them, so they put me in the position to throw the ball over the plate. I felt like I made a couple good pitches, but then at the end I throw a changeup that's probably a little up, and the guy [Stanton] puts a swing on it like he's supposed to."

During the postgame on-field interview, Stanton said Judge's historic homer changed the dynamic of the inning for the Yankees, who had fallen behind the back-and-forth contest and stagnated for some time before. 

After falling behind Judge 3-1 to start the at-bat, Crowe tried getting a fastball past Judge, but he connected. The Yankee Stadium crowd got back into the game, and Crowe wasn't able to consistently hit his spots.

"He's the best hitter in baseball right now, but for me, I can't put him on," Crowe said. "I've got to try to go after him, and that's what I was trying to do. Just made a bad pitch, threw it right down the middle. Started away. I was trying to go in. Who knows what he does if I throw it six inches farther inside. I'm just trying to go after guys, especially up four at that point. He put a good swing on a bad pitch and did what he was supposed to do."

A late inning blow up has become far too common for Crowe of late. Four of his last 12 outings have resulted in a loss, a blown save or both because he allowed multiple runs. He has allowed 14 runs over his last 13 outings dating back to August 10, totaling 14 2/3 innings.

"[The ninth inning] is a different animal and we have to figure out a way to get those outs," Derek Shelton said.

It has been a stretch where the Pirates desperately needed some stability in the back of the bullpen because most of changing personnel. The opening day backend trio was David Bednar, Chris Stratton and Heath Hembree. They are, respectively, hurt, traded and long released. 

Even Tuesday, without a clear sequence of pitchers to get through late innings, the Pirates held onto a late lead with clean frames by waiver wire claims Robert Stephenson and Yohan Ramirez. Crowe would seem to be the best bet of that trio, but was once again hit hard in a leverage spot.

Because to put it in perhaps the most black and white terms, when Crowe is pitching from the first through seventh innings, he has a 1.51 ERA. In the eighth inning on, it's 6.63. 

And while win-loss records far from tell the whole story of how a pitcher is performing, it's telling that Tuesday's was Crowe's 10th loss of the season. The only other Pirates to lose double-digit games in a season are Roy Face (1956, 1961) and Kent Tekulve (1980).

It's also worth considering that Crowe is also in a new role this year, moving from the rotation to the bullpen. While he may have thrown fewer innings this year, the workload taxes players differently, and Crowe entered the day with the most innings as a reliever in the National League (71 2/3).

When asked if Crowe's workload and role are playing a part in his slump, Shelton said he didn't know, but pointed out he's been effective at various parts of the season.

"And this situation," he followed up, "it's an inning and we have to cover it."

Crowe pitched his way into a late-inning opportunity, but hasn't done well in that chance. When asked postgame what Crowe's future role is with the team, Shelton was non-committal.

"I think that's something we'll talk through and figure out what's the best situation for us," Shelton said.

A source told me that Bednar just completed his rehab assignment and will rejoin the team in Pittsburgh. Bringing back an All-Star closer will certainly free up Crowe for a different role. One that he is perhaps better suited for.

But for someone who had worked hard and pitched well for a chance as a leverage arm, Crowe's showing late could play a role in how the Pirates build their bullpen for 2023 and beyond.

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Let's watch some history:

That's 60 for Judge, something only Babe Ruth and Roger Maris have also done in American League history. Congrats to him.

• If there's a positive from Tuesday for the Pirates, it's that Luis Ortiz did not look at all intimidated by the light of the big apple. 

In just his second big-league start, the right-handed continued to pump gas, like this 100 mph fastball to Stanton at the knees...

... and was able to keep the Yankees off the barrel. The only two innings he allowed came in the fifth and stemmed from when Bryan Reynolds and Diego Castillo both ran too close to a ball in right-center, resulting in the former dropping the fly. On the night, he allowed just three hits and a walk over five with five strikeouts.

He was removed after five innings because his innings are being limited at the end of the season. Shelton said he would have just five innings if he would have made this scheduled start in Indianapolis.

"I thought he did a good job," Shelton said. "He stayed under control. He executed pitches. It was another positive sign. There's not many bigger stages than this, especially with the situation they're in, with it being September and them being in a pennant race, what what Judge is doing. I was really happy, really pleased with how he threw the ball."

After the game, Ortiz said he had dreamed of pitching in Yankee Stadium his whole life, but was able to maintain focus and composure in order to keep attacking hitters.

"Throughout my career I've noticed that anytime I let the game speed up on me and I overdo stuff, I lose myself," Ortiz said via interpreter Mike Gonzalez. "So just being mindful, maintain being calm, maintaining control of something [even if] it doesn't go my way, being quick to flush it and just reset. I just continue to stick to my plan, whether it's executing certain pitches or attacking the zone. I truly believe that's what's giving me the most success right now."

• Reynolds made up for that dropped fly ball with four hits, including a game-tying home run on the first pitch of the seventh after Duane Underwood Jr. gave up the lead and a go-ahead base hit in the eighth that rolled through the 5.5 hole. Rodolfo Castro then delivered what looked to be the game-sealing blast in the eighth to put the Pirates up four, but it was obviously not quite enough:

• And speaking of Class AAA Indianapolis, Quinn Priester, Endy Rodriguez, Malcolm Nunez, Matt Gorski, Colin Selby and Aaron Shackleford were all promoted to Indy from Altoona Tuesday.

• Factoid of the game: Going by Baseball Savant's calculations, the Pirates had a 98.4% chance of winning going into the bottom of the ninth.

• With the loss, the Pirates are now 55-93 on the season. They need to go at least 8-6 down the stretch in order to avoid a second straight 100-loss season.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: RHP David Bednar (back), RHP JT Brubaker (right arm inflammation)

• 60-day injured list: Yerry De Los Santos (lat), OF Canaan Smith-Njigba (wrist), RHP Colin Holderman (right shoulder), RHP Blake Cederlind (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), C Roberto Pérez (hamstring)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Rodolfo Castro, 2B
4. Michael Chavis, 1B
5. Diego Castillo, RF
6. Kevin Newman, DH
7. Oneil Cruz, SS
8. Greg Allen, LF
9. Jason Delay, C

And for Aaron Boone's Yankees:

1. Aaron Judge, RF
2. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
3. Glebyer Torres, 2B
4. Josh Donaldson, 3B
5. Giancarlo Stanton, DH
6. Oswaldo Cabrera, LF
7. Harrison Bader, CF
8. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, SS
9. Jose Trevino, C

THE SCHEDULE

One more in New York. Roansy Contreras (5-4, 3.24) will face his former team and Luis Severino (5-3, 3.45) at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday. I'll wrap up the road trip and then head back to Pittsburgh Thursday morning.

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