10 frustrations emblematic of Pirates' 10-game losing streak

MIAMI -- As Henry Davis' fly ball flew over the left-center fence at loanDepot Park Thursday, it looked as though relief was near. The Pirates' rookie had been promoted to the majors to give the team a boost and right the ship after a disastrous road trip earlier this week, and he delivered a solo shot to left field to extend the Pirates' lead to 3-1:

Ke'Bryan Hayes would hammer another homer later that inning, and after seven brilliant innings from Mitch Keller, the Pirates appeared to be in position to snap their nine-game losing streak.

Instead, the bullpen collapsed in the eighth, with rookie Carmen Mlodzinski surrendering the deciding home run to Garrett Cooper in a 6-4 Pirates loss to the Marlins.

After the game, Derek Shelton would agree that he thought it was one of the team's toughest losses of the season. Davis has only been with the team these past four days, but is tired of the streak already, giving a concise, two-word answer about the losses: "It sucks."

This loss marks 10 consecutive for the Pirates, their longest stretch of losses since 2021, and before that, 2011. Streaks like this can never be attributed to one thing.

So let's look at 10 things about Thursday's loss that have been all too common of this free fall from first place to near the bottom of the National League Central.

1. For most of the year, Dauri Moreta was one of the Pirates' most reliable relievers, often stranding inherited runners and posting scoreless frames. He has been noticeably out of sync of late, allowing five runs while only getting four outs over his last two appearances.

That ratio got worse Thursday. Moreta entered a clean bottom of the eighth and left with the bases loaded and nobody out. He leaned heavily on his slider, usually his best pitch, but the Marlins weren't fooled by it, picking up a couple hits and drawing a walk before Shelton pulled him.

That slider just wasn't landing where it was supposed to. Generally, it does its best when it's on that low corner to his glove side. He barely hit that spot Thursday:

And when he did, well, Jorge Soler was ready for it:

The slider had a different movement metrics Thursday than it has had most of the year, both in terms of horizontal and vertical movement. In a time when the Pirates need Moreta in that backend leverage role, he has not had his best pitch.

"It doesn't have the action that we probably need it to have and he looks like he's a little in between on it," Shelton said.

2. With Colin Holderman on the injured list, the next man up after Moreta was Mlodzinski, a rookie who was promoted to the majors just a week ago. Bases loaded, nobody out is the worst spot for a pitcher to enter, and he was dealt some bad luck when he was greeted by a Bryan De La Cruz bouncer that snuck up the middle to bring home two.

But it was Cooper's swing that sealed the Pirates' fate:

So why was it a rookie in that spot?

"I mean, it's the way our bullpen is right now," Shelton said. "We're a little depleted down there, especially in leverage and Carmen's thrown the ball well. It's a tough spot for him and unfortunately, it didn't work out."

The Pirates don't have many proven leverage options outside of David Bednar at the moment. Holderman, Jose Hernandez and Rob Zastryzny are all on the injured list. Yohan Ramirez's mechanics went out of sync and he was optioned back to the minors Tuesday. The other options were Yerry De Los Santos (who has been spotty in the minors), Cody Bolton (who was promoted earlier in the day and has struggled in the majors), Roansy Contreras (who is working out mechanical issues) or a lefty specialist in a stretch with several right handers.

An argument could be made that Bednar should have been the guy Shelton went to, and with the benefit of hindsight knowing it would be a bases loaded jam, it makes sense. But Bednar pitched Wednesday to get work in after sitting most of the week because no situation called for him. Two innings was not going to happen. At some point, the Pirates were going to need three outs from another reliever in a leverage spot. Right now, who is that pitcher?

3. While on the subject of injuries, Bryan Reynolds was placed on the 10-day injured list Thursday (retroactive to June 20) because of his lower back inflammation. Make that 11 major-league players on the injured list, including four who started their stint amid this losing streak (Reynolds, Holderman, Hernandez and Zastrynzy). That adds up quickly.

4. We now enter the "wasted" stretch of entries.

As in, Mitch Keller's seven-inning gem was wasted Thursday.

Keller is this rotation's stopper. Some of his best outings have come when the team was down and he delivered once again Thursday. Seven innings pitched, five hits, no walks, one run, five strikeouts. For a team seeing its standing in the National League Central slip away, he showed again why he's the team's No. 1 starter.

"I always want to be the guy that goes out there and gives us the best chance to win every night," Keller said. "Just bringing that mentality of trying to win every day."

The Pirates have gotten a quality start in three of their last four outings, with Osvaldo Bido and Johan Oviedo each going six frames against the Cubs this past series. It doesn't mean that much when the offense doesn't do its share. But more on that in a bit.

5. The one run Keller allowed was a tough-luck run as well, one that Shelton said should have been charged as unearned run. Rodolfo Castro was back at shortstop and could not get Jon Berti's roller into the glove in the second inning, resulting in what was called an infield hit. With men on the corners and one out, Joey Wendle lifted a sacrifice fly to open the scoring. It would have been a tough play for Castro, and perhaps Berti would have beat the throw anyway. We won't know though because Castro whiffed on getting the ball in the glove, and a run came home because of it.

This has been a recurring problem all season. The Pirates are 29th in baseball in Outs Above Average from their shortstops (-11) and 28th among their second basemen (-7). They are getting good defense from the corners, but if you don't have fielders who can make the routine plays up the middle, it's going to haunt you.

6. Also wasted was this aggressive play by Carlos Santana. After tying the game with a double in the fourth, Santana risked breaking a cardinal baseball and tried to steal third with two outs. It worked out perfectly, as Nick Fortes misfired on the throw down and Santana came in to score the go-ahead run:

It's the type of play you hope to see from a veteran to spark a team. If it wasn't that run, it would be Santana diving out to make a diving pick and stop for the final out of the fourth inning.

"If you have the opportunity to give me the space to steal the base, the mentality is to play hard," Santana was telling me. "Do what I can do."

And yet, those big plays have been just footnotes with the losses taking center stage.

7. From the veteran to the rookie. Davis running down the dugout, sword in one hand, the other high-fiving his teammates, should have been one of the highlights of this past month:

He was brought up because the team thought they could help them win now. He's played well out of the gate, but in these four games, his contributions have been wasted.

"Yeah, it was a good moment," Davis said about the homer. "I just wish we would have won the game."

8. Marlins starter Braxton Garrett struck out a career-high 13 Pirates over his seven innings of two-run ball, allowing just four base runners the entire night. Still, a four-run performance was technically one of the better performances of late.

That isn't saying that much, though. The Pirates scored just three runs in the previous series against the Cubs, being shutout twice. Garrett has terrific stuff, and the Pirates couldn't get much started against the southpaw.

"We know he's a strikeout guy and the sinker, especially the comeback sinker, was elite today," Shelton said. "It had a ton of movement, he executed it on both sides of the plate and Mitch matched him pitch for pitch."

There have been problems throughout the lineup. Castro is more or less a platoon now but took some ugly hacks in a hitless performance. Jack Suwinski wore the golden sombrero, striking out four times, and is now hitless in his last 25 at-bats. The No. five through nine spots in the order combined to go 1-for-17 with a hit by pitch, with Davis' home run being the only hit and the only hard-hit ball.

That one-through-nine mentality is what made that April offense work. Not getting production from at least half of the lineup most nights has led the Pirates to scoring the fewest runs in baseball since the start of May (150).

9. The Pirates took 23 strikes against Garrett. That's tied for the most called strikes they took from any pitcher this year. I'll refer to DK for why that's an issue.

10. Shelton has a rule that he lets himself be upset for 30 minutes after a loss. After that, the focus has to go on the next game. 

"It's been a little longer than a half hour over the past couple days," Shelton confessed pregame.

There's been a lot of talk from Shelton and veterans about taking things one day at a time and that it's a long season during this stretch. They've done a late report day, burned sage in the clubhouse, tried other things to keep things loose.

But the feeling that losses are carrying over can't be shaken.

"We've got to act like we're on a 10-game winning streak," Keller said. "We've just got to come out, play with some swagger. Just a different attitude."

Need an attitude to emulate? Look at the newest Pirate.

"We're a good team," Davis said. "Better than we've played recently. Today doesn't dictate tomorrow. So tomorrow, come out with that energy, come out with an edge and compete our tails off."

THE ESSENTIALS

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

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 10-day injured list: OF Bryan Reynolds (lower back)

• 15-day injured list: LHP Jose Hernandez (calf), RHP Colin Holderman (wrist), LHP Rob Zastryzny (forearm), RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow)

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

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

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

And for Skip Schumaker's Marlins:

1. Luis Arráez, 2B
2. Jorge Soler, DH
3. Bryan De La Cruz, LF
4. Jesus Sanchez, RF
5. Garrett Cooper, 1B
6. Jon Berti, 3B
7. Joey Wendle, SS
8. Nick Fortes, C
9. Jonathan Davis, CF

THE SCHEDULE

Luis Ortiz (1-3, 4.40) will start Friday against Jesus Luzardo (6-5, 4.09), with first pitch coming at 6:40 p.m. Head's up that this is an AppleTV exclusive game. I'll have you covered.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

Visit our team feed for all the latest around the clock and our team page for everything else.