As miscues pile up in first skid, Pirates look to navigate 'rough waters'

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Carlos Santana would answer the question in a bit, but he first had to say what was on his mind.

The Pirates had just lost to the Rays at Tropicana Field, 8-1, and the veteran first baseman was sitting at his locker that Wednesday night, still wearing his cleats, pants and t-shirt. It was as if he was inviting anyone who would want to talk to one of the clubhouse leaders after the team lost their third straight game, their longest streak of the season.

The message was simple: "Tampa plays good." Maybe it was a just a dose of reality now that the Pirates lost their most-anticipated series in several years, a square off against the two best records in baseball. Someone was going to lose this series. It's still early in a very long season.

“We have had opportunities to play better, but it’s a long season," Santana was telling me. "It’s the first series of the second month. I’m not worried. My teammates, they’re good. They’re fighting. There’s a lot happening. Tomorrow is a new day.”

This losing streak, which started with Sunday's loss to the Nationals and then continued in St. Petersburg against the team with the majors' best record, the now 25-6 Rays. It's one thing to drop two games on the road to the best team in baseball, but these losses were more a product of miscues than just simply being outplayed.

On Wednesday, that included Rodolfo Castro booting a two out ground ball that sparked a three-run rally for the Rays in the third. It could have been limited to just two free runs, but Bryan Reynolds misjudged how much a ball would jump off the turf in center and it bounced to the wall instead, giving the Rays' runners another bag.

In the fifth, Miguel Andújar pulled up on a Francisco Mejía fly ball down the line that dropped in for a double. Two batters later, Keller got a tailor-made ground ball to a drawn-in Ji Hwan Bae to try to get the out at the plate, but he couldn't get it out of the glove cleanly. He instead made an errant throw to first base, which resulted in Wander Franco advancing all the way to third. Another weakly-hit ground ball would go through a drawn-in infield right after, and Keller would end his night allow five runs over five innings, but only one of them earned.

"I think the more we think about this one, the more it’s going to hurt us," Keller said. "We’ve just gotta flush it, move on and get on the next one tomorrow."

For most of the year, this has been a good fielding team, a point of pride after last year. Going by Fielding Bible's metrics, they had 4 defensive runs saved as a group entering the night. After another multi-error night in the dome, that might be changing.

"We just haven’t played well," Derek Shelton said. "I don’t know if there’s anything specific to it, if it’s the fact that it’s the ball on the turf. There’s a lot of factors to it. We just haven’t played well and they’re really good. If you give them extra outs, they will capitalize on it. With the way their pitching is, you cannot give them extra outs."

Mix in that multi-error performance with leaving eight men on base and going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position --making them 0-for-16 in those situations this series -- and the Pirates haven't taken advantage of their opportunities while giving the Rays plenty of extra ones.

"There's a lot of ups and downs in baseball," Bae said, via interpreter Daniel Park. "The result really matters on the small mistakes. So as long as we catch up on the small mistakes and try not to make any more, I think we will be good."

And while three games is hardly a back-breaking blow, it does qualify for their first legitimate skid of the season.

Perhaps that's going to be the real test they were going to get out of this series, because the road doesn't get much easier from here. The Blue Jays are waiting for them this weekend, as are series with the Orioles and first-place Rangers and Diamondbacks shortly after.

Because these past few years, a couple losses like this tended be the start of something bad. Something that turned a skid into an extended losing streak.

"Every team is going to hit rough waters during the season," Keller said. "How can you get out of it, and how can you bounce back the fastest? The really good teams can flush everything quickly, get back after it tomorrow and not let it snowball. That’ll be the challenge for us, not letting it snowball here over the next few games. We really just have to go after it tomorrow and get it done."

One of the ways to do that is having veterans in the clubhouse. Santana has taken it upon himself to speak to the team at key points this year to make sure they stay even-keeled.

I asked if this might be one of those times.

“Not yet. It’s a long season."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Keller's first loss of the season was about as tough as any he's going to have this year. He was responsible for just six base runners, even with the defense giving the Rays extra outs, and struck out eight, using his four-seamer and his cutter to keep the Rays off balance, sometimes quite literally:

"This is probably the best I’ve felt all year on the mound, stuff-wise. I felt like Hedgie [Austin Hedges] and I did a really good job of limiting damage when we were in situations. We tried to navigate it as best as we could through some of those innings. We all feel really good. 

"It’s baseball. It’s going to happen. We’re going to make errors. We’re going to do dumb stuff. It’s just how can we get out of that mindset, flush it and move on."

In this writer's opinion, that was about the best his stuff has looked all year. Ignore the five runs allowed. This could have been a shutout with proper defense.

• Meanwhile, Shane McClanahan showed the Pirates why he's arguably the best pitcher in the American League, working around an Andrew McCutchen home run to toss six strong innings.

Let's once again go to the Pitch Ninja, who had a field day posting gifs of McClanahan vs. Keller:

He did it mostly with fastballs too, ramping it up to 100 mph before being able to mix in that changeup and his breaking pitches. He struck out nine: Four with the fastball, four with changeups that never cut over the plate from the arm side.

"He’s got really good stuff," Shelton said. "He mixes and matches."

• Three scoreless innings by Chase Anderson to get the save, though? Eh, he's no McClanahan.

• Salvage one Thursday and it's a .500 road trip. The whole month is the real test, not just the one series.

• Factoid of the game: Reynolds doubled in the first, marking his sixth straight game with a double. That's tied for the longest streak with an extra-base hit in the majors.

• Couple of sidebars from Chris Halicke tonight, including a deeper look at the Castro error and why Shelton was ejected from the game (and should be expecting a call from the league).

THE ESSENTIALS

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

THE HIGHLIGHTS

Video to come.

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: 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), RHP Wil Crowe (shoulder)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Connor Joe, LF
6. Rodolfo Castro, SS
7. Miguel Andújar, RF
8. Ji Hwan Bae, 2B
9. Austin Hedges, C

And for Kevin Cash's Rays:

1. Yandy Díaz, 1B
2. Wander Franco, SS
3. Harold Ramirez, DH
4. Brandon Lowe, 2B
5. Taylor Walls, 3B
6. Josh Lowe, RF
7. Jose Siri, CF
8. Luke Raley, LF
9. Francisco Mejía, C

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates will try to salvage at least one this series Thursday when Vince Velasquez (4-2, 3.06) takes on Zach Eflin (3-0, 3.00). First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. Chris and I will be there for it.

THE MULTIMEDIA    

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