It's hardly a secret that the Pirates have heavily leaned into using openers over the past month, partially out of necessity. Injuries have thinned the rotation and workloads are being monitored, so it's a way to manage innings and play matchups.
So while this opener renaissance is mostly bore out of necessity, it likely won't go completely away in 2024, even if it is, ideally, slowed down.
"When we’re closer to the team that we want to be and winning more games, more than likely, we’re gonna have fewer days where we are using openers, matching up in different ways early in the game. But it won’t be zero," Ben Cherington said to traveling media during this most recent road trip. "Playoff teams are doing that right now. There are gonna be days where we do that. I think it’s the nature of modern baseball."
Bailey Falter might be one of those pitchers worth considering in that opener/bulk man role moving forward. Opener Colin Selby was shaky Wednesday, allowing a three-run home run in the top of the first against the Brewers, but Falter quickly righted the ship in the second, setting the pace for a Pirates 5-4 comeback at PNC Park.
Derek Shelton said postgame that Falter was going to be capped to about 50 pitches since he was not on normal starter's rest, having last pitched Sept. 2. As a result, he was pulled after just 3 2/3 scoreless frames, but he allowed just one hit and struck out a trio.
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSvideos) September 6, 2023
Falter has made seven appearances with the Pirates since being acquired for Rodolfo Castro at the trade deadline, four as a starter and three out of the bullpen. The sample size is small, but he's done better in the latter, allowing just two runs and 13 strikeouts over 13 1/3 innings in his starts where he had an opener, compared to 12 earned runs allowed over 17 innings as a starter. In fairness, the starter stats are askew because of a bad outing against the Cubs on Aug. 27, and he has a couple of one-run performances mixed in there.
"He's done a good job in both the roles that he's done," Shelton said. "Today he continued to execute pitches, he threw balls on both sides of the plate and got through a very tough lineup."
On Wednesday, the key for Falter was high four-seam fastballs and more spin pitches than usual. While he aims for that 50-60% range with his fastball, we have seen the Pirates lean into a more breaking ball-heavy approach with their starters this year.
So while the right-hander Selby started with sinkers and a slider that is more horizontal, the southpaw Falter leaned on four-seamers up and breaking balls that generally bite down. It was a change in the sight-line and worked well. Ideally, that is how an opener and bulk guy duo would work. In this case, it did even though Selby stumbled.
Falter doesn't much care when he enters a game or how he is used, but said that this adjustment to occasionally having an opener has been easier because he pitched primarily out of the bullpen as a rookie in 2021.
"If it would've been my first time, I probably would have been a little shaky, but I just went back to what was going well for me in '21 and remembering what the guys were telling me," Falter said. "Go out there and throw a baseball. You've just got to be ready when your name is called. That's it."
Falter's scoreless frames set the pace for the rest of the Pirates bullpen, who got clean frames from Cody Bolton and Carmen Mlodzinski to follow. Colin Holderman was tagged for a run after some ground balls got through the outfield, but he got Rowdy Tellez to ground into a double play to end the inning before David Bednar got the save in the ninth.
On offense, Ke'Bryan Hayes homered to get the Pirates on the board before Joshua Palacios tied the game up in the sixth on a base hit and Ji Hwan Bae gave them the lead with a seventh-inning triple.
With the series win, the Pirates are now 7-2 over their last nine and are playing perhaps their best stretch of baseball since April.
"I think we’re playing well against really good pitchers," Bae said. "Just give them tough at-bats and grind it out. I think that helps a lot to score."
It also helps to get good pitching. Falter has had a mixed track record as a starter in his brief major-league career, but this could potentially be a fit for him while the Pirates look to build a 2024 rotation, which will have potential openers in the back of their mind.
"If our team is full of five or six guys who will take the ball and give eight innings every time out and shut the other lineup down, we won’t be opening," Cherington said. "That would be great. But we want to win games first and foremost. We have to be open-minded with how we do it."
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THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 10-day injured list: RF Henry Davis (thumb)
• 60-day injured list: SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), INF Tucupita Marcano (knee), LHP Angel Perdomo (elbow), RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Ji Hwan Bae, CF
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Jack Suwinski, DH
5. Joshua Palacios, RF
6. Liover Peguero, 2B
7. Alfonso Rivas, 1B
8. Alika Williams, SS
9. Jason Delay, C
And for Craig Counsell's Crew:
1. Christian Yelich, DH
2. WIlliam Contreras, C
3. Carlos Santana, 1B
4. Sal Frelick, CF
5. Willy Adames, SS
6. Mark Canha, RF
7. Brice Turang, 2B
8. Andruw Monasterio, 3B
9. Tyrone Taylor, LF
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates are off Thursday before traveling to Atlanta for a three-game series with the Braves starting Friday, where Mitch Keller (11-8, 3.93) will get the ball game one. First pitch is set for 7:20 p.m. I'll have you covered on the road.
THE MULTIMEDIA
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