More bad plays, bad decisions, and the Pirates go down again
For the second time in three nights, the Pirates held a late lead and for the second time in three nights, they couldn't get out of their own way.
Defensive miscues and baserunning mistakes were the main culprit on this night at loanDepot Park as the Pirates fell to the Marlins 5-4 in 12 innings. Despite the end result being the same, a walk-off hit to deliver a victory for the home team, this loss seemed worse.
There was this early baserunning mistake by Oneil Cruz in the top of the first inning to end a two-out push on a Jack Suwinski double:
Then there was this fielding error by Suwinski in the ninth ... ... and this one by Cruz in the 12th:
However, third-base coach Mike Rabelo, who also waved Cruz home earlier, sending Tommy Pham on a Bryan Reynolds single to right field in the top of the 12th inning with Cruz waiting on-deck, may have been the biggest blunder:
I asked Shelton about this particular decision: "I think if you ask Rabs, I mean, inadvertent send. He would take that one back just knowing where we were at in the order."
Pham was steamed at his locker stall after this one.
For a team that has preached "winning in the margins" throughout the spring, they sure haven't done what they've needed to win games through the first three. With the way this lineup is constructed, after a less than active offseason that didn't address obvious needs, they need to do all of the small things right. The players themselves have said that, and preached it, since PiratesFest in late January.
They have done it in spurts. Isiah Kiner-Falefa's hit-and-run with Adam Frazier, who then scored on a throwing error, in the seventh inning, back-to-back ground balls in the 11th inning to score Ke'Bryan Hayes and take a 4-3 lead and Frazier's two throws to the plate in the ninth and 12th innings were all examples. But, they haven't done it consistently enough.
"It’s always the little details, it’s a game of inches," Frazier said of the miscues. "We won a few of those tonight and we lost a few. So, you gotta win them all. It’s Major League Baseball. In order to win, you have to do the little things right. We gotta keep working on that."
For every one of those good plays, there was a bad play:
Yup, that's Cruz again missing the cut-off man as the game-winning run advanced to second on his throw. It didn't hurt the Pirates in this instance, but that doesn't mean it won't in the future.
As Shelton stood in a back hallway away from the Pirates' clubhouse at loanDepot Park, he again said that his team has things they need to improve on, but in this instance: "Those things we need to improve on ended up being the difference in the game."
"It's definitely conversations with guys. It's things we worked on all spring. We just need to clean it up," Shelton added later on when I asked how he and his staff can fix these mistakes moving forward.
If they don't, the results that will eventually follow are apparent:
THE ASYLUM
More bad plays, bad decisions, and the Pirates go down again
For the second time in three nights, the Pirates held a late lead and for the second time in three nights, they couldn't get out of their own way.
Defensive miscues and baserunning mistakes were the main culprit on this night at loanDepot Park as the Pirates fell to the Marlins 5-4 in 12 innings. Despite the end result being the same, a walk-off hit to deliver a victory for the home team, this loss seemed worse.
There was this early baserunning mistake by Oneil Cruz in the top of the first inning to end a two-out push on a Jack Suwinski double:
Then there was this fielding error by Suwinski in the ninth ... ... and this one by Cruz in the 12th:
However, third-base coach Mike Rabelo, who also waved Cruz home earlier, sending Tommy Pham on a Bryan Reynolds single to right field in the top of the 12th inning with Cruz waiting on-deck, may have been the biggest blunder:
I asked Shelton about this particular decision: "I think if you ask Rabs, I mean, inadvertent send. He would take that one back just knowing where we were at in the order."
Pham was steamed at his locker stall after this one.
For a team that has preached "winning in the margins" throughout the spring, they sure haven't done what they've needed to win games through the first three. With the way this lineup is constructed, after a less than active offseason that didn't address obvious needs, they need to do all of the small things right. The players themselves have said that, and preached it, since PiratesFest in late January.
They have done it in spurts. Isiah Kiner-Falefa's hit-and-run with Adam Frazier, who then scored on a throwing error, in the seventh inning, back-to-back ground balls in the 11th inning to score Ke'Bryan Hayes and take a 4-3 lead and Frazier's two throws to the plate in the ninth and 12th innings were all examples. But, they haven't done it consistently enough.
"It’s always the little details, it’s a game of inches," Frazier said of the miscues. "We won a few of those tonight and we lost a few. So, you gotta win them all. It’s Major League Baseball. In order to win, you have to do the little things right. We gotta keep working on that."
For every one of those good plays, there was a bad play:
Yup, that's Cruz again missing the cut-off man as the game-winning run advanced to second on his throw. It didn't hurt the Pirates in this instance, but that doesn't mean it won't in the future.
As Shelton stood in a back hallway away from the Pirates' clubhouse at loanDepot Park, he again said that his team has things they need to improve on, but in this instance: "Those things we need to improve on ended up being the difference in the game."
"It's definitely conversations with guys. It's things we worked on all spring. We just need to clean it up," Shelton added later on when I asked how he and his staff can fix these mistakes moving forward.
If they don't, the results that will eventually follow are apparent:
Full game highlights:
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