WASHINGTON -- The goal for the 2023 Pirates was always to get better. Even after a stumble against the Nationals Sunday, missing out on a sweep on the road with a 7-2 loss at Nationals Park, it's undeniable that's happened so far.
But to go from a 100-loss team to finishing April with the best record in the National League? Well, just about everyone outside of the clubhouse probably say that as a longshot at best, but at 20-9, that's the case.
When evaluating what constitutes "better," however, it wasn't just going to come down to wins and losses yet.
"[We] didn’t think about any record," Ben Cherington said, speaking to the two Pittsburgh outlets that regularly travel for road games. "Didn’t think about any prediction for April. We did want to get better. We wanted to improve. I think for the most part we’ve controlled the things that are within our control to give ourselves a chance to improve. How that’s added up to the record, it’s a month of good play.
"In order to improve, we knew we were going to control the strike zone better on both sides of the ball. Our hitters are striking out less and walking more than we did last year. On the pitching side, we’re walking fewer guys. That is not totally controllable but somewhat controllable. It has been intentional and has been part of the improvement. We’ve had some players just perform really well and step up. [It's a] long season. We’re gonna stay in the moment. But it’s been encouraging to see the guys go out and execute the way they want to."
The talk of getting better every day has been a staple of Cherington conversations for years by this point. Even he admits that keeping it can get a bit boring at times. But this team was not set on needing to win X amount of games to show growth. There may not be a better indicator of that than extending Derek Shelton's contract earlier this month, but starting those conversations in spring training.
So the focus remains more on improving at what they deem as controllable over just wins and losses. Of course if the Pirates still find themselves well above .500 down the road this year, that could change.
"At some point in the season, if the outcomes are good, you have to look at that," Cherington said. "Every season is precious. We’re certainly at a point in the year now where we just want to continue to focus on the things that have given us a chance to show that improvement."
For example, base running. Building a more athletic roster has been a goal for this team for years, one that started well before the pitch clock and new engagement rules caused stolen bases to spike across the league. No team has more stolen bases than the Pirates (41), but they have done it with mostly the same personnel they had a year ago. Seven players have at least three stolen bases, including veterans Andrew McCutchen and Carlos Santana.
The way Cherington and the coaching staff saw it, this was an area that was primed for development and one that could be influenced by culture. If everyone is stealing bags, it should be celebrated and put pressure on players to do the same.
"There's no reason a team like the Pirates can't be good at that," Cherington said. "Nothing's standing in our way of being good at that. So let's just do that."
In the Pirates' way, it is very similar to teams like the Rays and Guardians, teams that consistently rank near the bottom of the league in payroll but are often in the mix for the playoffs. And when it comes to the Rays, the Pirates are heading to Tampa to begin a three-game series Tuesday that will feature the two teams with the best records in each league.
"Cleveland and Tampa are the teams that we’d see as teams that have been successful in a sustainable way for the longest period of time," Cherington said. "Yeah, there might be a little dip here and there, but they’ve been able to recover pretty quickly. It’s no one thing that those teams are doing. It’s a lot of things that build on itself over time.
"Time is a critical part of it because if you think about those two teams in particular, you’ve got things that they’re doing today that are quite different than what they were doing 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago. But in both time periods adding up to an advantage in some way, which gets to that idea that it’s just gotta be continuous improvement over time. Never stop innovating. Never stop getting better. Whatever it is."
Those are two teams the Pirates try to pull from when building what they believe will be their new model of success. It's worked so far this year, not just because the Pirates have the top record in the National League at the 1/6th mark of the season, but how they've gone about it and done it.
"We’re resilient," Shelton said. "We play hard. We’ve had really good pitching. Our bullpen was good today... I think there are a lot of things we’ve done well. We’ve caught the baseball. We’ve executed. We just have to continue to do that as May starts."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• It was not Johan Oviedo's evening. Rain pushed the 1:35 p.m. start to 4 p.m., and Oviedo's stuff just wasn't as sharp, allowing seven runs on 2 1/3 innings. Twice he had chances to get out of the first two frames without any damage against him, but gave up two-out, two-run hits to Jeimer Candelario and Luis García instead.
"Execution, especially execution of the breaking ball," Shelton said. "Just left some breaking balls up. We had the opportunity to get out of at least two of those innings, and we gave up two-out hits. We just can’t do that and expect to win games."
More on this in the Freeze Frame.
• Meanwhile, Josiah Gray went six innings of one run ball, keeping the Pirates' off-balance for most of the afternoon to limit the hard contact. Outside of a rally in the third, where the Pirates were able to get one run home and load the bases for Jack Suwinski who blistered a ground out to first baseman Dominic Smith, they could not do anything against the young Nationals right-hander.
"The fastball’s sneaky," Shelton said. "He has that low release. Got a little ride to it. Once he got the lead, he went right at people."
• This catch by Austin Hedges on a bunt attempt in the second demands its own bullet:
Austin Hedges... Wow. Absolutely ridiculous catch. pic.twitter.com/FuGwTzwiKM
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) April 30, 2023
• Before the game, the Pirates traded Tyler Heineman to the Blue Jays for infielder Vinny Capra.
Heineman was one of the Pirates' primary catchers a year ago, and while he ultimately lost the battle for the backup job to Jason Delay, he was briefly recalled to the majors after Hedges went on the concussion injured list.
Capra, 26, is a utilityplayer whose offensive production is based more on walks and on-base percentage than power. He played in parts of eight games in his major-league debut last year and is currently slashing .167/.357/.222 over 70 plate appearances for the Blue Jays' Class AAA affiliate.
Additionally, Drew Maggi was officially returned to Class AA Altoona.
• Factoid of the game: The Pirates swiped 41 bases this month. The last time they had that many in any given month was September/October 1985.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 15-day injured list: RHP Wil Crowe (shoulder), RHP Chase De Jong (lumbar spine), Rob Zastryzny (elbow)
• 60-day injured list: 1B Ji-Man Choi (Achilles), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card for game two:
1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, DH
3. Miguel Andújar, RF
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Jack Suwinski, CF
6. Connor Joe, LF
7. Tucupita Marcano, SS
8. Ji Hwan Bae, 2B
9. Austin Hedges, C
And for Dave Martinez's Nationals:
1. Alex Call, LF
2. Luis García, 2B
3. Keibert Ruiz, C
4. Joey Meneses, DH
5. Jeimer Candelario, 3B
6. Dominic Smith, 1B
7. Lane Thomas, RF
8. CJ Abrams, SS
9. Victor Robles, CF
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates have a travel day Monday as they down south to Tampa. Their three-game series will start Tuesday, though neither club has released their starting pitcher schedule. First pitch Tuesday will be at 6:40 p.m. Chris Halicke and I will be double covering this series.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
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