Amid historic offensive slump, Shelton delivers 'motivational' message

BALTIMORE -- Following the Pirates' 2-0 loss to the Orioles Saturday at Camden Yards, Derek Shelton did something he doesn't normally do. He held a group meeting.

The Pirates manager isn't big on group speeches, often doing most of his business in smaller group settings or individually. But the team had just suffered their 11th loss in 12 games, this time wasting a strong outing from Roansy Contreras because the offense was once again vapid. Just once did they have multiple runners on base and they were held to only three hits.

The message was only about two minutes. In Ke'Bryan Hayes' retelling of what was said, it was a reminder that "y’all are playing hard. I’m not gonna yell at y’all or anything like that. Y’all are playing as hard as y’all can. It’s one pitch, one little play away."

"It’s very rare up here, where you have a little meeting like that after," Hayes said. "I think everyone was kind of just wondering what it could be. It was more motivational."

It has been a historic cold spell for the offense. They have scored just 18 runs over the last 12 games, something that was last done by this franchise in August of 1908. While batting average is hardly the be-all, end-all stat for evaluating offenses, it's telling enough that the Pirates' .177 batting average over their last 12 games is a stretch that's barely been touched in the modern era of the game. Looking at streaks in the same season, the only time when they recorded a lower average over a stretch of at least 12 games was Sept. 13-22 in 2020 and a stretch from Sept. 21 to Oct. 1, 1904.

In the process, the Pirates dropped from 20-8 to 21-19. From first-place in the National League Central to FanGraphs projecting them to finish the year in fourth with 76 wins.

"Early in the year we were kicking peoples’ a--," Hayes said. "Now we’re not having some luck. You just have to move forward and can’t really dwell on it too much."

Luck was part of it Saturday. In the seventh, Miguel Andújar drove a ball off of tiring Orioles starter Tyler Wells that looked like an extra-base hit off the bat. With two men on and two outs, it could have tied the game, but Anthony Santander made an impressive catch at the wall instead. With two outs in the eighth and Tucupita Marcano on third base, Hayes lined a ball to right that had a .790 expected batting average, according to Baseball Savant. If it fell in, a run would have come home and Bryan Reynolds would then come to the plate representing the go-ahead run. Instead, the liner hung up in the air and Santander again made the catch.

"We have to continue to grind, we have to continue to create our own breaks," Shelton said. "And I'm confident in this club being able to do it. We saw it earlier in the year. When you have young players, sometimes they put a little pressure on themselves. We have to relax and go pitch by pitch."

"Pitch by pitch" or some variation of that phrase popped up multiple times during Shelton's postgame availability. "We cannot try to score four runs with nobody on base," is how he would put it at one point. 

It's also been brought up several times this road trip that one good break or a lucky bounce could be all they need to jumpstart the offense again.

But it hasn't all been bad luck. Wells got 18 whiffs, tied for the second-most by any pitcher facing the Pirates this year (Nick Lodolo got 22 on April 1 and Hunter Greene had 18 on April 23). Wells also coasted for most of his outing with little offensive production or even loud contact to counter. The Pirates struck out 11 times. The team is in a terrible rut with runners in scoring position, and they barely even created those opportunities Saturday. Symptoms like these have been common for an anemic offense.

An offense that managed to score 22 runs in the doubleheader two weeks ago against the Nationals, the final day before this losing stretch started.

"Our focus has to stay consistent," Shelton said. "It has to stay on the individual pitch and work off of that, because if we try to work too far ahead of that, ... you go even farther down. We have to make sure that we just focus on what our process is and claw our way out of this."

While the clubhouse was far from lively, it did not seem as somber as it had been after some of these recent losses. Shelton's words probably had something to do with that. It's the same mantra, taking the game pitch by pitch, but it's not grating. The message is still being heard.

"Whenever you’re playing good and playing hard, it’s not as bad," Hayes said. "If you’re getting beat by eight-plus runs every night, then it would be. But last night, they had a big three-run home run. Otherwise, we’re right there. Tonight, we had a chance to tie it and a chance to go ahead. 

"I think as long as you’re playing good baseball like that, giving yourself a chance to win, what can you say? It’s just one pitch or one big hit that you need."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• It was buried in that lede, but Contreras pitched much better after stumbling his last few outings. While he wouldn't hold his fastball velocity the entire night, he did ramp it up to 96 mph several times and the slider was up a couple ticks as well, to 85 mph.

"I felt stronger today with my fastball and that gave me the opportunity to use it more," Contreras said, via interpreter Stephen Morales.

"His last couple starts, he just had not attacked with his fastball," Shelton said, "and tonight he went out with a mindset of going right after 'em."

A couple early home runs by Adley Rutschman and Gunner Henderson were all the Orioles would need on the day, but Contreras battled through to go seven innings with five hits and one walk allowed.

"I think tonight was probably the best stuff Ro's had all year long," Shelton said. "He gives up two solo homers and then two balls in the middle of the plate. But other than that, I thought he was outstanding. He was pretty much in control other than that. Not a lot of contact, he got fly balls and he did a really nice job."

• As previously mentioned, the Pirates didn't have a lot of chances with runners in scoring position, but they went 0-for-3 Saturday, dropping their average to .121 (8-for-66) in those situations during this 12-game stretch.

• Stealing this for the factoid of the game:

• Time of game: 2:04. Seriously, praise be to the pitch clock.

THE ESSENTIALS

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

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow), Rob Zastryzny (elbow)

• 60-day injured list: 1B Ji-Man Choi (Achilles), RHP Wil Crowe (shoulder), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Connor Joe, RF
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Jack Suwinski, CF
6. Miguel Andújar, DH
7. Ji Hwan Bae, 2B
8. Chris Owings, SS
9. Jason Delay, C

And for Brandon Hyde's Orioles:

1. Cedric Mullins, CF
2. Adley Rutschman, C
3. Anthony Santander, RF
4. Ryan Mountcastle, 1B
5. Adam Frazier, 2B
6. Austin Hays, LF
7. Gunnar Henderson, 3B
8. Jorge Mateo, SS
9. Ryan O'Hearn, DH

THE SCHEDULE

Mitch Keller (4-1, 2.72) will try to salvage the finale of this series Sunday against a pitcher the Pirates targeted this offseason, Kyle Gibson (4-2, 4.40). First pitch is set for 1:35 p.m. I'll have you covered before handing the ball off to Chris for the Detroit series.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

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