PIRATES

Isiah Kiner-Falefa was the Pirates' most productive hitter in tonight's 3-0 loss to the Astros, registering two of the team's four hits to extend a modest hitting streak to six games at PNC Park. 

Kiner-Falefa, who is slashing .385 with a .918 OPS over his last 15 games, is aware that things could collectively be better from an offensive standpoint. The Pirates were just shut out for a major-league-leading 10th time this season, their four hits -- two of which were registered in Lance McCullers' six scoreless innings -- marked their lowest total since May 17 in Philadelphia and they still rank among the worst-ranked offensive teams in Major League Baseball: 29th in runs scored (194), 29th in home runs (43) and 30th in slugging percentage (.337), just to provide a few examples. 

But, since Don Kelly took over at the helm last month, the Pirates have resembled a semi-resurrected group. Over their last 13 games in particular, they've ranked in the middle of the pack among major-league teams in runs scored (T-14th, 52) and have boasted the ninth-best batting average (.262), the eighth-most hits (116) and sixth-best on-base percentage (.336) in baseball.

Slight progress has been made. And while they might have reverted back to their normal ways against a McCullers-led pitching staff tonight, Kiner-Falefa saw a team that swung the bat well, despite not generating the desired results. A big factor in the latter, he says, is the ballpark the team plays in on the North Shore. In his eyes, "the fence is too far and the grass is too long," creating an environment that makes it difficult for a lineup constructed with primarily contact hitters. 

"It is a very, very hard place to hit here," Kiner-Falefa told me. "When you don't have slug and don't have guys who are gonna hit the ball like (Oneil) Cruz, you kind of need to play on an even field, or if you want to have a contact team, you need shorter grass. You look at what we did in San Diego and Arizona, a lot of that had to do with contact that would get through the infield. Our field is not set up for our strengths." 

Though their hit total was limited tonight, there were plenty of hard-hit balls that ended up in defenders' gloves. Kiner-Falefa mentioned the two long flyouts that Spencer Horwitz hit in his first two at-bats, including this one: 

He also made reference to this third-inning flyout that Andrew McCutchen sent 384 feet to the left-field wall: 

That would have been a home run in 24 of 30 ballparks. But not PNC Park, which is the hardest park to hit a home run in, according to Statcast park effects, a metric that shows the observed effect of each displayed stat based on the events in the selected park. 

For this metric, 100 is the average park-specific number generated by looking at each batter and pitcher, controlled by handedness, and comparing the frequency of that metric in the selected park compared to the performance of those players in other parks. When considering all factors to hit a home run, PNC Park's 79 rating is the lowest among MLB ballparks. For reference, Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati has the highest effect with a 128 rating. 

"It's hard, not easy to score runs," Kiner-Falefa said. "I mean, Spencer's two best balls to left field are caught and Cutch's best is caught. Our pitchers don't really need help. Look at when we played in San Diego and Arizona, the two fastest infields in the league, they still didn't give up runs and look at how much we scored when we finally got a little bit of balls to get through. It's just a tough place to hit. McCullers did a great job of making pitches but I also thought we did a great job of swinging the bats. Any other field, we probably win this game. It is just the reality of playing in Pittsburgh. It is a pitcher's park and unfriendly to our hitters with what we have in our lineup ... Our team was built on contact, it really does a disservice to our team with the way it is constructed, it doesn't match the field."

I asked Kiner-Falefa if there is any way to combat the undesirable layout of the playing surface. He didn't mince words: "Nothing you can do except get slug, and we're not gonna get slug. It's just what we have to deal with, and it's unfortunate and it's sad, but it’s the reality of our team. We just don't have enough slug and you need the elements that are going to help you out. We're not going to get that help.

"Maybe we have to adjust to maybe try to bunt more. I feel like we have a better chance to get hits on soft rollers because they just won't reach the infielders. I don't know, maybe we have to take that approach or something. It is frustrating. ... We did everything we can, no different than San Diego and Arizona, just reality of playing in Pittsburgh. That's why it is hard to sign hitters here."