DETROIT -- If the 20-8 start to the Pirates' 2023 season feels like an eternity ago, it's probably because it's becoming more and more evident that the once promising start was just a mirage. As much as people want to believe the Pirates are actually a good baseball team, it looks more and more like we've all been duped.
The Pirates added yet another tally in the loss column on Tuesday night, dropping the first of a quick two-game series against the Tigers at Comerica Park by a score of 4-0. This time around, in addition to inept offense, the struggles of a young starting pitcher put the Pirates in an early, insurmountable hole.
Luis Ortiz made his second start of the season in Vince Velasquez's spot in the rotation. In his first start, Ortiz dealt with some bad luck and shoddy defense behind him, having three of the five runs he allowed marked as unearned. However, Ortiz couldn't get beyond three innings of work, needing 81 pitches to get only nine outs.
"The fastball command was really inconsistent," Derek Shelton said. "When he tried to go away, he missed in. When he tried to go in, he missed away. His fastball command, he never got in sync."
Ortiz's fastball is his bread and butter. His plus slider plays well off of it, but not if he can't command the fastball. Ortiz's velocity was also down a bit, but that was chalked up to some mechanical issues and making a concerted effort to try and throw it for strikes.
"I was pulling myself open, flying open a little bit," Ortiz said through interpreter Stephen Morales. "When you fly open, you can’t have all the power behind your fastball, and I think that’s what happened tonight. ... But that’s stuff that I can work in the bullpen and be better next outing."
Ortiz battled through everything, and it made the pace of the game drag. In a game that finished in only two hours and 14 minutes, it took nearly an hour to complete the first three innings. The command issues were evident from start to finish, and were even directly responsible for one of the Tigers' runs:
And that came after Ortiz had a costly error that allowed a run to score:
By the time Ortiz left the game after allowing the first two batters of the fourth inning to reach base, the Pirates were down, 4-0. Ortiz has the stuff to become a good big league starter. That was evident last season. But, there will be times of growing pains, especially for a pitcher who's been known to have command issues in the past. It's not an excuse, but it comes with the territory when a team has a young rotation.
The part of the team that has more established veterans is the key culprit behind the Pirates' abysmal 2-11 record in May. Unfortunately for the Pirates, it's the entire lineup. Tuesday night's loss was the third time this month the Pirates have been shutout. In fact, the most runs the Pirates have scored in a game this month is four, and they've done that only once. They've scored three runs only twice. Over these 13 games, they've scored a total of 20 runs. That's barely more than a run and a half per game.
In Tuesday night's game in particular, Detroit starter Michael Lorenzen looked like a healthy Jacob deGrom. The Pirates either froze looking at pitches or struggled to make contact at all.
He did a good job," Shelton said. "He commanded the fastball and didn’t give us very many opportunities. We didn’t take very many aggressive swings."
That lack of aggression might be a bit of overcorrecting by the Pirates' hitters. When the offensive struggles first began, which coincided with the beginning of this 2-11 stretch, hitters were trying to do too much. Every time there was an at-bat with a runner in scoring position, hitters put too much pressure on themselves and began to force things, getting out of their regular attack plan. That -- trying to do more -- is the absolute last thing a hitter needs to do.
"It’s probably the exact opposite. It’s not do more; it’s probably try to do less," Shelton said before Tuesday night's game. "We have to create our own opportunities, which we did in (Sunday's) game. We had some opportunities in a couple of those other games that we just didn’t capitalize on. When you start to struggle offensively -- I can tell you this from experience as a hitting coach -- everybody wants to push forward and try to do more. Sometimes you have to maybe take the foot off the gas a little bit and just go station by station. Figure out how to score runs. Ultimately you need a break or two. You need a ball to fall your way."
There's taking the foot off the gas and trying to simplify things. Then, there's putting the car in park, taking the key out of the ignition and just sitting idle, expecting the car to move by itself. That's what the Pirates did Tuesday night. The offense mustered only five hits and had only six opportunities to hit with a runner in scoring position, in which they obviously did not cash in. In fact, the ineptitude rose to another level when Josh Palacios grounded into a 6-3 double play in the second inning because he froze coming out of the batter's box.
Every player I've spoken with has told me the this team needs to get back to nickel and diming the opposition to death. Singles, stolen bases, constant traffic on the bases -- that's what this team wants to do. They want to constantly wreak havoc on the opposing pitcher. Make him pitch out of the stretch the whole time. That requires an aggressive approach. But, they haven't gotten anywhere close in the past 13 games of figuring out how to balance aggression and patience. It's either one or the other. Nothing in between.
"We’ve gotta figure that out. I wish I had an answer to that," Shelton said. "We have to continue to have better at-bats. Right now, we’re just not having very consistent at-bats. There’s not one thing that you can say that kind of opens it up. It’s just something that we have to take upon ourselves to have more consistent and more competitive at-bats."
• Bryan Reynolds is among the hitters struggling. Really, nobody is immune to the anemic state of the offense. For Reynolds, his last home run came back on April 7 and he hasn't recorded an RBI since April 30. That is alarming.
• However, Reynolds still showed that he can contribute with the glove, making a sensational diving catch to help keep the Tigers off the board in the second inning:
• While Ortiz struggled mightily, the bullpen clamped down on the Tigers' lineup. Yohan Ramirez relieved Ortiz in the fourth and stranded both inherited runners to keep the deficit at 4-0. Ramirez went on to pitch 2 1/3 scoreless innings, then Duane Underwood Jr. followed with 2 2/3 scoreless innings of his own.
In addition to Reynolds' catch, the defense was borderline spectacular. The Pirates turned three double plays, with all of them requiring fine execution from all parties involved.
"Ramirez and Underwood both did a good job, were really efficient with their pitches, so they were able to finish the game for us," Shelton said. "Defensively, we played really well. We turned three double plays. They did a really good job on two turns. [Tucupita] Marcano made the really nice play up the middle. It’s just offensively, we’ve gotta get going."
• It's good to see that in quotes where Shelton compliments the areas in which the team played well, the focus shifts right back to the lack of offense. That could be the former hitting coach in him. But, it really goes to show the problems are evident to those on the inside as well. What they do about it, that's a whole other story.
• The only two wins since the Pirates started the season 20-8 have come when Mitch Keller pitched. Unless human cloning can be perfected in the very near future, the Pirates will have to work their way out of this horrendous funk by swinging the bat. Their ace can only pitch once every five days.
• The Pirates are now 22-20. Enjoy the winning record while it lasts, folks.
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. Andrew McCutchen, DH
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Carlos Santana, 1B
4. Jack Suwinski, CF
5. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
6. Tucupita Marcano, SS
7. Ji Hwan Bae, 2B
8. Josh Palacios, RF
9. Jason Delay, C
And for A.J. Hinch's Tigers:
1. Zach McKinstry, RF
2. Riley Greene, CF
3. Javier Báez, SS
4. Spencer Torkelson, 1B
5. Nick Maton, 3B
6. Akil Baddoo, LF
7. Miguel Cabrera, DH
8. Andy Ibáñez, 2B
9. Eric Haase, C
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates try to avoid the sweep in this quick two-game series against the Tigers tomorrow afternoon. Two southpaws will go at it as Rich Hill (3-3, 4.35) squares off against Eduardo Rodriguez (4-2, 1.57). First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. I'll have you covered once again.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
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