Baseball, maybe more than any other game, requires consistency. And patience for the process. And an appreciation for how the highest of highs, the lowest of lows ... all mean much the same.
And yet, it can be safely spoken that Carmen Mlodzinski matured in the span of a single pitch.
When I arrived in Philadelphia a week ago to cover the Pirates' final road series of 2023, the clubhouse still hadn't fully recovered from the previous weekend in Cincinnati, particularly the franchise's all-time largest comeback in stunning the Reds, 13-12, after a 9-0 deficit. That was easy to tell. Casual conversation. Jokes here or there. And multiple references to Mlodzinski's magical 11th pitch in the ninth inning to fan Elly De La Cruz, the Reds' wunderkind, with the tying run at third base, the winning run at second:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSvideos) October 6, 2023
Press play on that, crank the volume, and hear Joe Block go appropriately nutso. It's spectacular stuff. Moment of the year for the franchise, I can offer without hesitation.
From the pure baseball standpoint, it doesn't get much better than a pitcher-batter duel sees this sequence after a full count:
MLB.COM
But it's all the prettier, as I'd learn from several talks in Philly with the various participants, that Mlodzinski and batterymate Endy Rodriguez felt, after all that work, and after all of De La Cruz's aggressive swings, that they were left with but a single option.
"Slider, under the fists," Rodriguez would tell me. "Pound it. Let's go. We can't lose him. We can't put him on. We can't load the bases. We gotta beat him."
What's more, they can't lose that game, collectively, after coming all the way back like that. That had to get finished. And it did, with Jonathan India then flying out to center.
The season saw these Pirates finish 10 games under .500, this despite being a dozen above .500 at the end of April. There was disappointment to be had, doubly so in that several young players didn't advance as hoped and some outright regressed. But there also was progress, and I can't think of a more compelling example among the pitchers than Mlodzinski, who'd round out his rookie year with 35 appearances, a 2.25 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP.
This counted extra, for sure.
“That's a huge box that’s checked," Derek Shelton would tell me. "And I think there’s a couple of factors: As you get the ninth inning of a game, we come back from 9-0, we take the lead, they go second and third with nobody out, and Carmen didn’t blink. We gave up the one run, but second and third with nobody out ... if you tell me we’re going to give up one run, I’m signing up for that. And De La Cruz, that was a great at-bat by him. I mean, fouls off five pitches. But Carmen stayed in attack mode the whole time. There was never a time when I thought watching it, like, ‘All right, he feels like this moment is too big for him.’ They continued to go right at it. That’s the stuff that gets me fired up. People have asked me, ‘Are you exhausted?’ No! Because that’s the stuff that fires me up at the end of the year because of what these young kids are doing.”
Henry Davis didn't play that night but seemed as absorbed as anyone.
"Moments like those ... you can't simulate that," he'd tell me. "You can't simulate not hearing the PitchCom. Or having to communicate nonverbally with your teammates on defense. Or not being able to feel your body. Those moments are ... they're invaluable. And Carmen had it. The next time that comes where the environment is like that, he’s got that in the bag. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do anything differently, but having that experience is definitely going to help him and help our team moving forward. Our whole team has it.”
But mostly for the young man on the mound.
“Yeah, it was a cool moment," Mlodzinski would tell me. "But honestly, I was even cooler being able to watch from the bullpen and seeing the offense explode for 13 runs after being down 9-0. The adrenaline and that crowd was … it was really, really cool, special moment."
He thought back to his college days.
"Believe it or not, playing at South Carolina was a good preparation for that, just being 19 years old and pitching in front of a big crowd there. That was such a big step from high school that it prepared me as much as possible for this moment. A big leap's a big leap. Obviously, the crowd in Cincinnati in the playoff-like atmosphere was a little bit more intense, but it was certainly a cool moment.”
As for his days-later recollection of the De La Cruz at-bat, he'd say, “He was definitely in swing mode, so I kinda had that in the back of my head the whole time. Then, once the count went full ... I really wanted to get him with a back-foot slider. I just couldn’t execute it. So we went fastball, cutter and then we went back to the slider, and I saw the swings on the fastball and cutter was like, ‘All right, he’s attacking if it’s in zone.’ So just try to pull a little bit off the zone. I just got lucky."
Uh, no.
"I mean, we had a really good scouting report on him, which we talked about before the at-bat, and even before the game. We kind of stuck to the scouting report with four-seamers and sweepers, but we did mix in the cutter and a changeup there. And you've obviously gotta execute the pitch. Back-foot slider."
In the same breath, though, Mlodzinski added, "Since you have the experience now, you do have something to rely on. That's true. But I don’t think that makes the situations any easier in the future, to be quite honest. I think you could ask guys with more experience, like David Bednar and Ryan Borucki and guys who have been in the high-intensity modes, it’s like, yeah, you have the experience now in your back pocket, but you still gotta execute the pitch and that crowd's still just as loud as the first time.”
STEELERS
• The locker room's looking inward. From within minutes of the lousy loss in Houston, players were congregating and conferring with each other, and what I thought was occurring would, in fact, eventually be confirmed by Kwon Alexander: "We need to figure out what we need to do right. And from there, we need to play for each other. And if we do that, I'll be honest with you: I feel like we're gonna figure it out. Just come together. Figure it out together." ... Read into that what one will.
• I wrote from Houston that Mike Tomlin, even after his public, "Hell, yeah, we gotta make some changes, man," that he'd proceed to change absolutely nothing. Well, I'm here to apologize, as I was mistaken: They practiced in pads. And waived ninth-string wide receiver Dez Fitzpatrick. Then signed Fitzpatrick to the practice squad. I'll strive to be better in the future.
• Although Tomlin's words aren't always to be taken seriously -- obviously -- I've never heard him come closer to putting a coordinator or any coach on notice than the other day when asked if he'll have any change in playcaller or playcalling and he replied, "Not at this juncture, no." He had a million ways to address that issue and two days to prepare for it, and that was the result. Not an accident. Not a slip.
• Tomlin can't/wouldn't fire Matt Canada without consulting or even getting the blessing of Art Rooney. The same, because it'd be in-season, applies in the reverse. Rooney's only ever made moves of that scope unilaterally in the offseason, and almost always early at that.
• Joey Porter Jr. won't start Sunday, as Teryl Austin confirmed yesterday, and it'll be because of his tackling. Whether he's right or wrong in this instance, Tomlin's never had any stomach for secondary players who can't/won't contribute to stopping the run. He's not about to let someone named Porter slip through that standard.
• Look for Nick Herbig to get involved a little more Sunday.
• My goodness, T.J. Watt's in a bad way. But then, so's everyone around here, right?
PENGUINS
• I'm in love with the concept of the umbrella formation on the power play, with Erik Karlsson at the top scanning the entire zone. But hockey concepts are as fluid as the next sequence, and most sequences so far have sputtered, notably in that 0-for-6 output the other night in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Still, no matter what happens tonight in Buffalo or even into the regular season, expect to see Mike Sullivan stay patient. I brought it up with the head coach a couple days ago, and he replied, "“We’ve had a lot of conversations about this. We’re excited about the potential that this group could be very good for us, and could be a difference-maker for our team. We also anticipated some bumps, and we just want to make sure that we exercise a little bit of patience, giving them and us an opportunity to work through stuff. And, we will. ... But, at the end of the day, performance matters."
• End the suspense right here: When Jake Guentzel's healthy, I'm told, he'll be on PP1 no matter what Rickard Rakell does. And that's saying something, considering Rakell had 10 power-play goals last season and would wind up basically quarterbacking it.
• No, Guentzel's not going to surprise everyone and return sooner than expected. He's right on schedule following ankle surgery, and that's ideal without accelerating it. It's one thing to come back from an injury, another from a surgery. Precedent's heavy. Variables are fewer. That's why neither Sidney Crosby nor Evgeni Malkin returned early from their recent offseason procedures, even though they'd had ample time practicing with full contact. The date's the date. It'll be later this month.
• I asked Reilly Smith about skating alongside Geno, which hasn't always been easy over the years. He didn't see it that way from his own brief experience: "He wants the puck. All great players want the puck. And because he'll create a lot east-west, he wants the wingers in front of him to force the issue, to push forward. That's just fine for my game."
• Sullivan would love for Colin White, a veteran two-way center on a tryout contract, to make this roster. He'd love to have him centering the fourth line. And given the quiet internal priority between Sullivan and Kyle Dubas of stacking the third and fourth lines with defensive types, White's a far better fit than, say, Radim Zohorna.
• Improved roster. Really strong vibe in the room. As Lars Eller told me, "Just look around at who's in here. Watch how hard we're working, how we're communicating. I'm excited about this."
Tuesday night, kids.
