As Derek Shelton sat in the visitor's dugout at Angel Stadium this afternoon, he was asked what gives him confidence that his team can bounce back after losing three straight to the Guardians at PNC Park.
He quickly said: "Our starting pitching."
He then turned his attention to the offense and how they were able to come back in their final game of that three-game set against Emmanuel Clase, one of the premier closers in the game. However, he followed that up with saying his offense needs to be more consistent.
"We need to take those aggressive swings, we cannot get caught in between and I think at times we get caught to in between," Shelton said.
Understanding how inconsistent the offense has been to start the year, I asked if there was anything else this offense could do to get going here in California. Shelton answered with a response that was similar to what Ben Cherington shared over the course of the weekend.
"Yea, we can get a ball or two to fall. I think that helps it too," Shelton said. "If you want to look at it, we haven’t been the luckiest group over the course of the first three weeks of the season. We need a ball to kind of squirt through. The ball (Enmanuel) Valdez hit the other day, we need that ball to get down. So, we just have to continue to go and those balls are going to fall."
I touched on this yesterday and described how the Pirates have underperformed their expected statistics. But, at the end of the day, the results are the results.
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THE ASYLUM
Greg Macafee
1:15 am - 04.23.2025ANAHEIM, CALIF.Shelton: Aggressive swings, please
As Derek Shelton sat in the visitor's dugout at Angel Stadium this afternoon, he was asked what gives him confidence that his team can bounce back after losing three straight to the Guardians at PNC Park.
He quickly said: "Our starting pitching."
He then turned his attention to the offense and how they were able to come back in their final game of that three-game set against Emmanuel Clase, one of the premier closers in the game. However, he followed that up with saying his offense needs to be more consistent.
"We need to take those aggressive swings, we cannot get caught in between and I think at times we get caught to in between," Shelton said.
Understanding how inconsistent the offense has been to start the year, I asked if there was anything else this offense could do to get going here in California. Shelton answered with a response that was similar to what Ben Cherington shared over the course of the weekend.
"Yea, we can get a ball or two to fall. I think that helps it too," Shelton said. "If you want to look at it, we haven’t been the luckiest group over the course of the first three weeks of the season. We need a ball to kind of squirt through. The ball (Enmanuel) Valdez hit the other day, we need that ball to get down. So, we just have to continue to go and those balls are going to fall."
I touched on this yesterday and described how the Pirates have underperformed their expected statistics. But, at the end of the day, the results are the results.
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