MILWAUKEE -- So close and yet ... not really?
Not at all?
Look, even beforehand, I couldn't conjure up the slightest suspense for this non-clash of two terribly mediocre teams that'd somehow been swapping places atop the Central Division all season. And that sure wasn't altered by the Pirates' 5-4 loss to the Brewers on this Friday night at American Family Field. To the contrary, this first meeting served only to stretch further what we'd already seen from both all summer: Mostly lousy pitching vs. mostly lousy hitting vs. mostly lousy defense vs. mostly lousy baserunning ... and may the lesser team lose.
Also, may the lesser team be the one that drops down for the day:
MLB.COM
Oh, my! And now the Reds are in this, too? The Reds?
Seriously, what's anyone want to read about this? Which way's the finger supposed to swing?
Conveniently, maybe, at Rich Hill, the old guy who isn't part of the franchise's future, for a wild first inning in which he conceded three runs?
Too late. He's got everybody beat:
"Yeah, six walks," he'd start, referring to his game total that doubled any previous season-high. "Terrible. Can’t do that. Can’t go out there and pitch like that. Nitpicking, not executing, right out of the gate. Three walks in the first inning, terrible. That’s it. I don’t know what else to say other than … it was just not good."
Eh. I found that unduly harsh. He couldn't land the curve early on, but did for the final out of the inning and was fine from there. I'll happily take a line of five innings and three earned runs anytime. (There also was an unearned on an first-inning-sustaining catcher's interference call on Austin Hedges, the latter's ridiculous fourth such mishap of the year. He's now got one more of those than he has caught-stealing assists in 27 attempts.)
Hill's been fine, he wasn't that bad here, and he'll be fine again.
Want to know what isn't fine? And what might not be fine for the foreseeable future?
Buckle up, my friends, because we're going back through both of the absolutely brutal at-bats that finished this one out. Just make sure, please, there are no impressionable children wandering about this little web-based backwater of ours.
Let's start with the good:
As in really good. Because that's how a duel between a division's top two teams should look, with Jack Suwinski working a one-out walk, and Josh Palacios walloping a double to the base of the fence in left-center.
Why didn't Suwinski score? Or get waved?
Well, that depends on the angle. From the press box here -- about 60 feet to the right of home plate -- it'd been apparent Palacios' drive was slicing away from Milwaukee center fielder Joey Wiemer and that it wouldn't be caught. But according to everyone at field level, including Suwinski and Shelton and third base coach Mike Rabelo, that was impossible to know.
"No. You look back at it now, the ball kicks away from Adames," Shelton began when I brought this up, referring to Willy Adames, the rocket-armed shortstop who'd set up for the cutoff. "But if Willy catches that ball anywhere, with the way he throws, Jack's out. I don’t know from your vantage point, but off the bat, I don’t think it was a sure double. Jack can’t get a full run. Honestly, I thought Wiemer was going to catch it. If it’s a sure double, Jack’s probably at full speed, and then it becomes a different situation. But if he catches that ball and Jack's going full speed, then we run into a situation where we get a catch, an out and a double play. Jack made the right read. Rabs made the right read."
Shelton's right. He really is. As I was leaving the office, he asked me more about the press box angle, and I assured him it wasn't anything anyone on the field could've seen, that it was lined up right with the path of the ball.
Whatever. In a normal scenario, it wouldn't matter. Because the hitters who'd follow would execute basic, fundamental practices to, at worst, push the tying run across. Sac fly. Grounder a certain direction. A hot priority on contact, contact, contact. And if the count gets to two strikes, by God, protect the zone.
Nope:
That's Ke'Bryan Hayes looking at strike three with runners at second and third, one out, game on the line, first place on the line.
Infield.
Back.
Conceding.
The.
Tying.
Run.
Even when fairly weighing that Hayes came through with a two-run single his previous time up, that's beyond indefensible. Or, as Shelton, who seldom criticizes an individual, would word it, "One out, we gotta have contact, especially with them playing back. They were conceding us a run at home and giving us the opportunity. We have to make contact in that situation."
All Hayes had to do was to apply a solitary splinter of his bat to the ball.
Bae then walked to load the bases in a transparent move by Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell to have his closer, Devin Williams, go after Jason Delay, who'd just entered the game as the backup catcher.
That went well:
That's Delay. Which rhymes with DFA. Which rhymes with ain't no way ... I've witnessed a less competitive at-bat, at least not by a position player, in a long time.
It's not about clutch. Don't talk to me about clutch. Don't talk to me about any intangibles, much less the lack of some sort of magical DNA when it comes to toughening up at the plate.
That up there is a player who shouldn't be carrying a bat in the bigs, and I'll accept that. But more ominous by far, that up there's part of a trend that courses through most of these Pirates' veins. Not because they've shrunk from some spectacular challenge or whatever but, rather, because they don't know what the hell they're doing. Or they aren't being taught what the hell to do. Or, if they are being taught, it isn't being absorbed or enforced. Or ... it's all of that.
I've got diagrams ...
Two innings earlier, with Hayes at third, two outs and trailing by a run, Ji Hwan Bae inexplicably tried to lay down a bunt:
MLB.com
On a 2-1 slider. Practically in the dirt. While clumsily pirouetting out of the box as if he'd just thought of that mid-pitch. And before anyone suggests a squeeze might've been in play, it wasn't. Hayes stayed planted on third throughout.
Bae proceeded to strike out.
Earlier still, Hayes took a third-strike stab at this baby:
MLB.com
And here's an honorable mention to that climactic Delay hack on a changeup that nearly plunked him in the privates:
MLB.com
I could do this all day. From this game. From all 68.
Setting aside Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Santana and Bryan Reynolds, everyone employed to use a bat in this operation makes messes like these consistently. The results aren't always there for all of those three, but the approaches are. Not for anyone else, though. Not Hayes, even when he's hot, as he'd started this month. Not Suwinski, even though he's got those 15 bombs. And most definitely not anyone who arrives from within the system.
What sets Cutch, Santana and Reynolds apart?
Don't make me say out loud that Cutch and Santana have been around forever, and that Reynolds was raised in the San Francisco developmental system. Don't make me do that.
But tell me: What else could be the commonality, when a problem's so common, if it isn't instruction?
In the Pirates' structure, Oscar Marin's the pitching coach at the big-league level while also establishing and overseeing a pitching philosophy for the entire organization. As hitting coach, Andy Haines is charged with the same day-to-day duties, as well as the same organizational oversight.
Where are the results?
Who's responsible?
Who's holding anyone accountable?
See, it's easy to get up in arms over Henry Davis being stuck in Class AAA, doubly so when Hedges and Delay are here burning at-bats at his natural position. I'm no different. I do it all the time. I think it's justified.
But that shouldn't distract from the broader scope that these Pirates as a whole, whether they're in first place or not, remain butchers at the basics in the batter's box. And it'd take a ton of top-tier talent to change that.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 15-day injured list: RHP Colin Holderman (wrist), LHP Rob Zastryzny (forearm), RHP Vince Velasquez (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. Tucupita Marcano, SS
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Jack Suwinski, CF
6. Josh Palacios, RF
7. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
8. Ji Hwan Bae, 2B
9. Austin Hedges, C
And for Counsell's Crew:
1. Owen Miller, 1B
2. William Contreras, C
3. Christian Yelich, LF
4. Willy Adames, SS
5. Luis Urias, 3B
6. Brian Anderson, DH
7. Blake Perkins, RF
8. Joey Wiemer, CF
9. Andruw Monasterio, 2B
THE SCHEDULE
Middle match has Mitch Keller (8-2, 3.41) facing lefty Wade Miley (3-2, 3.67), 4:10 p.m. Eastern first pitch.
THE CONTENT