It took all of seven pitches for the Pirates to find themselves in a seemingly insurmountable hole Tuesday.
With Mitch Keller on the mound, the Guardians pounced on the Pirates' All-Star early and often, rattling off three hits in the first six pitches:
Fastball to Steven Kwan: Ball
Fastball to Kwan: Foul
Cutter to Kwan: Double
Fastball to Amed Rosario: Ball
Cutter to Rosario: Single, run
Sink to José Ramírez: Single
The seventh pitch of the evening, a curveball to Josh Naylor, ended up giving the Guardians more than enough insurance in what would be a 10-1 rout at PNC Park:
"They came out really aggressive and he didn't come out extremely sharp and left some balls right in the middle the plate, and they didn't miss them," Derek Shelton said.
That would continue for most of the night, as Keller would allow 10 hard-hit balls (an exit velocity of 95+ mph), a rarity for the pitcher who ranked third among qualified starters in lowest average exit velocity coming into the night (86.7 mph).
"Just felt like they were on everything," Keller said. "Put some good swings on pitches. I probably could have executed a little bit more."
Keller would end up muscling through six innings despite allowing eight runs. Given the recent performance of the offense, those first seven pitches were a deep enough deficit.
The offense could only get six runners to reach safely the entire night while striking out 11 times. Eight of those punchouts came from the bottom third of the lineup, which consisted of rookies Endy Rodríguez, Nick Gonzales and Liover Peguero.
"It's a challenging game up here and there's a lot of good players," Shelton said. "They have to stay with it. Don't let four at-bats, five at-bats, 10 at-bats, whatever, kind of define what your thought process is. We're gonna go through stretches. We had six rookies in the lineup today and it takes a while to get your footing."
But those offensive woes have extended long before this recent turn to a youth movement, as the team has been held to three runs or fewer in eight of their 14 games this month, which has resulted in a 2-12 July record.
"We’ve talked a lot," Connor Joe, who provided the only offense with a sixth-inning solo home run, said. "We talked when we were going really well that hitting is contagious. It can also go the opposite way. Just staying specific to not trying to do too much. Everyone is maybe trying to be the hero every night. Staying within ourselves and trying to get back to grinding out at-bats and passing the baton."
And with this July collapse dropping the Pirates into last place in the National League Central, a season-high 13 games under .500 (41-54) and almost surely the position of trade deadline sellers, this most recent cold spell may be the one that puts the focus on 2024 and beyond.
"It's frustrating," Keller said. "Obviously nobody wants to be in the position we're in. We've gotta find some answers. I don't really know, off the top of my head, what those answers are right now, but we need to find them and we need to find them quick."
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THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 10-day injured list: 2B Ji Hwan Bae (ankle), 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes (lower back)
• 60-day injured list: SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), RHP Wil Crowe (shoulder), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Connor Joe, LF
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Carlos Santana,1B
5. Henry Davis, RF
6. Jared Triolo, 3B
7. Endy Rodríguez, C
8. Nick Gonzales, 2B
9. Liover Peguero, SS
And for Tito Francona's Guardians:
1. Steven Kwan, LF
2. Amed Rosario, SS
3. José Ramírez, 3B
4. Josh Naylor, 1B
5. Andrés Giménez, 2B
6. Josh Bell, DH
7. Will Brennan, RF
8. Myles Straw, CF
9. Bo Naylor, C
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates will try to avoid another sweep Wednesday when Rich Hill (4-9, 4.76) takes the bump against Aaron Civale (3-2, 2.65). First pitch will be at 12:35 p.m. DK will have covered for the matinee.
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