Know what?
I could do this. I really could.
I could seize upon that sweet scene snapped above and kid myself that it's all that occurred.
I could concoct a full column about how proficiently though far-from-pristinely Paul Skenes pitched in his much-awaited Major League Baseball debut Saturday evening at PNC Park, striking out seven through four-plus innings. And I could color that column with his new teammates coming through with an inconceivable five home runs of support. And I could crown that column with a cap-tip to the Pirates for staving off the Cubs, 10-9, and all the warmth and fuzziness I'm sure will characterize coverage elsewhere.
And hey, as a show of faith, here are all seven of Skenes' Ks:
Paul Skenes strikes out 7 in his first career start! pic.twitter.com/4WIqGRjgSf
— MLB (@MLB) May 11, 2024
But I'm sorry, my friends, and beg pardon on the buzzkill. I'm not there.
No, I'm a lot closer to the literal tens of thousands of people who were sickened enough by the fifth inning that a few fans started a chant calling for Derek Shelton's firing.
To be clear, I'm not near that extreme on the manager's status yet and, for what it's worth, the cadence faded fast. It began just to the left of the press box, it became picked up in a couple other parts of the stadium, and it was gone almost as soon. But it'll gain attention, since the TV/radio broadcast audio's collected in the press box, and it was unmistakable:
#FireShelton pic.twitter.com/2U22bAC68a
— Joey Wagner (@TheTruthSwagner) May 11, 2024
Why the chant?
Well, I'm not about to speak for the fans, but Shelton was booed only slightly upon heading to the mound to take the ball from Skenes after the Cubs opened the fifth with a double and single. Didn't seem to be much to the sentiment, maybe because the home team was up by 6-1, maybe because Skenes was at 84 pitches and never really had his peak command, and it changed instantly to cheers as Skenes made his walk to the dugout.
But the firing chant, that came after Shelton watched Kyle Nicolas, his chosen reliever, do this:
BASEBALL SAVANT
Get a good look at that. The field manager sure did.
After two outs, that was a hit batsman, then a dozen straight balls, all from the same hand and -- get this -- all without Shelton having anyone else up in the pen. Even though Nicolas has a history of command issues in the minors. Even though everyone knew Skenes wouldn't pitch much longer entering that inning.
Three consecutive Chicago runs came across on walks. Three.
In plain sight of 34,924 paying Pittsburghers, TV audiences on both the local and national scales and, in reality, the whole baseball world.
"It's one of those things he will be better for," Shelton would say of Nicolas, without elaborating. "It may have taken a year or two off my life during the process of it, but the reason we stayed with him is that we're in the fifth inning there and I mean ... David pitches there, Ortiz is the only guy left, so in that kind of situation, he's got to get through that inning, and it's something we're definitely going to talk about and reflect on."
I'd sure hope so.
This was embarrassing. Or it should've been.
David Bednar got the save in the ninth. Luis Ortiz would've been available beyond him. Josh Fleming, Colin Holderman, Aroldis Chapman and Hunter Stratton would also pitch. And switching to a six-man rotation, as Shelton would also broach in this context, wouldn't alter a thing. Not one thing prevented Shelton from lifting Nicolas with the game vanishing in front of everyone.
By the time Shelton finally summoned Fleming, yet another bases-loaded walk and an infield single brought two more Chicago runs, a 6-6 tie and, most remarkably, within seconds ...
BOOM!
A bone-rattling thunderclap from above prompted the fans to cheer with seemingly comparable volume and matching snark, their obvious message being to bring down the rain and spare everyone any more of what they'd been witnessing. The clouds opened right then, as if to oblige, and the deluge brought a delay of two hours and change.
It took no more than a minute, from there, for people to pour out of the place. They were streaming back across the Sixth Street Bridge by foot to Downtown, others down to the subway station on General Robinson, all while cars were at a standstill trying to exit the nearby lots.
Been years since I'd experienced a fire-drill-level exodus like that here. And what I'd overhear when I went out there myself after a spell was not anything about Skenes and not anything nice.
Embarrassing. Or it should've been.
So was Colin Holderman doling out two more bases-loaded walks once the delay was done, making for six of those in a single inning. No other team in the majors has six of those on the season, and the Pirates achieved it in an inning. This also was two more bases-loaded walks than any team's issued in an inning in at least the past half-century, per Elias Sports Bureau.
Embarrassing. Or it should've been.
So was the non-sellout, as long as I'm at it. Not that I'll blame a solitary soul for not buying a ticket when the Pirates served as their own scalpers in hiding behind the 'dynamic pricing' that a ton of teams do ... but a ton of teams that aren't the Pirates. Who don't need the extra bodies in the seats, versus the short-term cash. Who don't need the extra good will. Who don't need Skenes to see wholly empty sections as he'd embark upon his first start:
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Embarrassing. Or it should've been.
So was the day opening with the conveniently timed move to designate for assignment Roansy Contreras, another recent pitching prospect with promise, whose development's been bungled by Ben Cherington and staff at every turn. Here's hoping the Rays pick up this terrific young man and build him back to what'd been expected here. I'll bet they'd pull it off by, oh, mid-June.
Embarrassing. Or it should've been.
So was this endless ramble from Cherington when asked earlier in the afternoon about the offense that'd been historically inept for a month straight, which I'll print here in its entirety without presuming anyone will read it:
"It's never one thing. We know we need to get better. Believe we will. Believe we can. Believe we will. Ultimately, I'm responsible for that. I'm the person who leads baseball operations, the person who is ultimately responsible for all of this. It's definitely something I'm putting on myself more than anything to try to help figure out what we want to do this year, to accomplish what we want to accomplish. We've got to be better in that part of the game. There's no question. We believe we can be. We believe the combination of position players we have give us every chance, and it should be, but we need to do it. I think that I'm privy to the work that happens. I'm privy to the communication that happens. I'm privy to the effort that goes on every day. There's no shortage of any of that. I'm confident of that. I believe this is an accountable group. They're taking it seriously. They want to be better, too. We're all accountable for it. Ultimately, I'm accountable for it. It's got to be better. I believe it will be, but it's gotta be, and we know that. From past experience, longer-term, certainly, the way to get better here is for the players here to get better and improve and perform more consistently, and we believe that can happen. And then there's also the responsibility that we have, and that I have, to over time make the roster better and deeper, and that's always going to be part of the job. So those two things will constantly be focuses. Look, a lot of the guys that are here are going to be here. We're going to get this thing going, largely with the group that we have here. We believe in that group. We just have to do it. I think much shorter term, at least from my experience in the past, usually where our energy is best focused on is not on, 'how do we get this hitter's OPS from .600 to .800 in a week?' That's hard. Over time, we try to do the things that would help that happen. Shorter-term, generally where the energy's better focused is, 'How do we play a team game? How do we rely on each other?' It's that whole thing. Trust the guy behind you in the lineup. Fight this at-bat so the next guy has a better chance. Move runners. Play the team game. In the short term, in my experience anyway, that's where you want the energy to go. That's certainly been part of the messaging lately, and we'll continue to make it part of the messaging. I'd still bet on this group to get better, and we know we need to."
That really happened. All those words. And no stated plan. No specific regrets regarding acquisition, instruction, philosophy, etc. Nothing but buying time for freaky, five-bomb outputs like this one to stave off any perceived pressure on him, on Shelton, on Andy Haines, on everyone responsible. Just some nonsense about how they can move runners along ... when there aren't any runners to move along.
Embarrassing. Or it should've been.
Maybe it'll change. Maybe Cherington will be forced into taking concrete action, by Bob Nutting or Travis Williams. Maybe they'll all step back and all-the-way realize what they'll be wasting if they don't, given a rotation that's now founded on Skenes, Jared Jones, Mitch Keller and even more. Maybe they'll, for the first time since Nutting cleaned house in late 2019, prioritize the team winning games over ... whatever the hell the priorities are now.
But maybe not. Maybe they'll make the massive mistake of settling for management that can't prove trustworthy of talent like this.
Maybe they'll just get used to seeing Jones as frustrated as he was in the series-opening loss Friday:
Jared Jones wants to win. pic.twitter.com/LtQXbmS8Vm
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) May 11, 2024
Or Skenes' expression from the same dugout while watching Nicolas walk the world:
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Embarrassing. Or it should be.
• I'll take Sunday off, then fly out to cover the three-game set in Milwaukee.
• Thanks for reading, as always. Never taken for granted.
