The Pirates had a nice little stretch in which the team started playing a better brand of baseball. That resulted in a few series wins, including a shocking sweep of the Phillies, who own one of the best records in baseball.
But now, this team has started slipping back to the same old Pirates that were providing no hope for the fan base in April and May. The latest installment, a 3-2 loss to the Rangers today at PNC Park, further exemplifies the many things that are wrong with this team.
Mitch Keller's now gone nine straight starts in which the lineup has given him two runs or less of support while he's on the mound, which helps explain his ridiculous 1-10 record. It doesn't matter how well he pitches, the lineup has been incapable of giving him a chance to win games, giving him just 1.4 runs of support per game. They've done very similarly with Paul Skenes, a legitimate Cy Young candidate, giving him 2.06 runs of support per game.
Today, the Pirates went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position, despite getting the first guy on base four times in the first six innings. They've also now gone 25 straight innings without an extra-base hit. That's a bad recipe for winning baseball.
"We need to find a way to score some runs," Don Kelly said. "We just have to find a way. We’ve got to find a way to come through with guys on base. We had some early baserunners and we just need to come up with that big hit."
The problem is the solution after these losses is always "we have to find a way." Even after this game, Keller somehow put some of the blame on himself, pointing to the sixth inning when he allowed a base hit and walked the next batter on four pitches, which led to the Rangers taking a 2-1 lead.
"We gotta figure it out," Keller said. "Whether that's myself with the four-pitch walk and giving up a couple runs, that was the turning point tonight. I gotta be better right there. Just gotta be better as a collective."
While Keller could have been better in that spot, the Pirates could have had a 1-0 lead at that point, which could have changed the whole situation. In the third inning, Adam Frazier was the latest Pirate to make a critical mistake on defense, allowing the Rangers to score the game's first run:
Here's the real issue: Whatever brand of baseball the Pirates are playing, it lends itself to these mistakes being the deciding factor the majority of the time. It's one of the main reasons why they are now 14-18 in one-run games.
What makes it even more sad is this is a group that admittedly tries to be a contact-first, fundamentally-sound team.
"We don't have a power team. We're not going to hit a lot of home runs," Kelly said prior to today's loss. "How do we stay on a line, gap to gap, continue to work through that, and continue to get better at the other things as well? Working hard on the defense and the pitching is going to continue to drive us."
For a team constructed the way it is, that requires players to be fundamentally sound. That requires full, 100% effort at all times from all nine players in between the lines. When they record an out, they have to make the other team earn that out. No easy at-bats. Force the opposing defense into more situations in which they can make mistakes by running hard on the bases, trying to steal, executing hit and runs, etc.
This team doesn't do any of that well. They rank in the top five in just one basic stat, thanks to 71 stolen bases. They also have the fifth-most strikeouts in baseball and are dead last in doubles. While the Pirates are only 12th with 38 errors, because games are so tight all the time, those errors cost them a lot more than it might for the Padres, who have the same number of errors. That's because the Padres average 1.04 more runs per game than the Pirates.
"If we're playing in close games, that means we're right there. Just gotta find a way to win," Keller said. 'Whether that's myself, bullpen, defense, hitting, collectively as a group we just gotta figure out how we're gonna scratch across a couple more runs or one more run to make the difference in those games. I think that's the turning point of good teams, of winning teams is winning those one-run games and we're kind of on the other side of it."
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THE ASYLUM
Chris Halicke
12:51 am - 06.22.2025North ShoreGoing Deep: No room for error
The Pirates had a nice little stretch in which the team started playing a better brand of baseball. That resulted in a few series wins, including a shocking sweep of the Phillies, who own one of the best records in baseball.
But now, this team has started slipping back to the same old Pirates that were providing no hope for the fan base in April and May. The latest installment, a 3-2 loss to the Rangers today at PNC Park, further exemplifies the many things that are wrong with this team.
Mitch Keller's now gone nine straight starts in which the lineup has given him two runs or less of support while he's on the mound, which helps explain his ridiculous 1-10 record. It doesn't matter how well he pitches, the lineup has been incapable of giving him a chance to win games, giving him just 1.4 runs of support per game. They've done very similarly with Paul Skenes, a legitimate Cy Young candidate, giving him 2.06 runs of support per game.
Today, the Pirates went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position, despite getting the first guy on base four times in the first six innings. They've also now gone 25 straight innings without an extra-base hit. That's a bad recipe for winning baseball.
"We need to find a way to score some runs," Don Kelly said. "We just have to find a way. We’ve got to find a way to come through with guys on base. We had some early baserunners and we just need to come up with that big hit."
The problem is the solution after these losses is always "we have to find a way." Even after this game, Keller somehow put some of the blame on himself, pointing to the sixth inning when he allowed a base hit and walked the next batter on four pitches, which led to the Rangers taking a 2-1 lead.
"We gotta figure it out," Keller said. "Whether that's myself with the four-pitch walk and giving up a couple runs, that was the turning point tonight. I gotta be better right there. Just gotta be better as a collective."
While Keller could have been better in that spot, the Pirates could have had a 1-0 lead at that point, which could have changed the whole situation. In the third inning, Adam Frazier was the latest Pirate to make a critical mistake on defense, allowing the Rangers to score the game's first run:
Here's the real issue: Whatever brand of baseball the Pirates are playing, it lends itself to these mistakes being the deciding factor the majority of the time. It's one of the main reasons why they are now 14-18 in one-run games.
What makes it even more sad is this is a group that admittedly tries to be a contact-first, fundamentally-sound team.
"We don't have a power team. We're not going to hit a lot of home runs," Kelly said prior to today's loss. "How do we stay on a line, gap to gap, continue to work through that, and continue to get better at the other things as well? Working hard on the defense and the pitching is going to continue to drive us."
For a team constructed the way it is, that requires players to be fundamentally sound. That requires full, 100% effort at all times from all nine players in between the lines. When they record an out, they have to make the other team earn that out. No easy at-bats. Force the opposing defense into more situations in which they can make mistakes by running hard on the bases, trying to steal, executing hit and runs, etc.
This team doesn't do any of that well. They rank in the top five in just one basic stat, thanks to 71 stolen bases. They also have the fifth-most strikeouts in baseball and are dead last in doubles. While the Pirates are only 12th with 38 errors, because games are so tight all the time, those errors cost them a lot more than it might for the Padres, who have the same number of errors. That's because the Padres average 1.04 more runs per game than the Pirates.
"If we're playing in close games, that means we're right there. Just gotta find a way to win," Keller said. 'Whether that's myself, bullpen, defense, hitting, collectively as a group we just gotta figure out how we're gonna scratch across a couple more runs or one more run to make the difference in those games. I think that's the turning point of good teams, of winning teams is winning those one-run games and we're kind of on the other side of it."
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