DK: Alas, 'the free 90' won't be these Pirates' only problem
To be fair, Tommy Pham was right.
“Any good team has to win the free 90," he was telling me in another terribly silent clubhouse after the Pirates might as well have thrown away the franchise's 144th season opener, 5-4, to the Marlins tonight here at loanDepot Park. "If you don't win the free 90, it's gonna be tough to win close ball games. Bobby Dickerson talked about that in 2020 when I was on the San Diego Padres, and it has resonated with me ever since."
Dickerson, a baseball lifer as a player and coach, now serves as the Phillies' infield instructor.
"The team that wins the free 90 usually wins the game," Pham continued. "There's a percent on that. You would have to look it up. He gave it to us. And ever since that day, I’ve always thought about that. Did we win the battle of the walks? We stole a lot of bases today, and those are free 90. But did we win the errors? You gotta look back at stuff like that. Because the team that usually wins that ... usually wins.”
The Pirates usually don't, of course ... so they usually don't.
And yeah, I'm buying what Pham's selling in that specific context.
Because Paul Skenes, the team's most gifted pitcher in generations, performed plenty well enough to neutralize an equally effective Sandy Alcantara in an entertaining matchup:
Because Bryan Reynolds, the team's best-by-a-bunch bat, came through with a clutch two-run mash up the middle for a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning:
And because Nick Gonzales, one of the team's vital, young, hoped-for contributors, overcame a nagging ankle to laser a two-run home run for a 4-1 lead the next inning:
Pretty good place to be, right?
The Miami lineup's so moribund that the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel's season preview on this day was headlined 'WHO?' and proceeded to list every name accompanied by another 'WHO?' Fending these guys off a three-run lead shouldn't have been anyone's gut-check, as the rest of the summer here in South Florida's sure to show.
But Skenes worked his way up to 91 pitches, a couple dozen more than most starters right out of spring training, and walked two to prompt Derek Shelton to take him out. Dennis Santana, the bullpen's best in the latter part of 2024, walked the bases loaded, then had a pitch to the next batter reach the backstop on a charged passed ball to Joey Bart, one of two on the night:
That's not winning the free 90. That's now a 4-2 lead.
Flash forward to the eighth: Colin Holderman walks Kyle Stowers, which, as Pham was careful to include, is a free 90 unto itself. The Pirates' pitchers would issue seven of those, in all. Next, Jonah Bride was retired on a gem of a charge by Ke'Bryan Hayes, and Matt Mervis went down swinging, but Otto Lopez dropped an RBI single into center:
Yeah, but remember that initial free 90. That's 4-3.
But wait. Watch that sequence again. Oneil Cruz overthrows not one but two cutoff men, thus allowing Lopez to sprint into scoring position as the potential tying run.
Uh, no.
I asked Cruz if he thought he had a shot at the runner heading home.
“I think, as an outfielder, your first reaction is to throw everybody out," Cruz would reply through interpreter Stephen Morales. "But I think that was not the throw that I needed to make. It was supposed to be a lower throw to give our infielders a chance to cut the ball and keep the double play in order and keep that guy at first base. We’ll learn from it.”
Regardless, Holderman still should've had his third out with the next batter, except that home plate umpire Ben May somehow failed to ring up Dane Myers on this clear strike ...
Crazy. And costly:
Don't make me say it again, but, if not for Cruz's free 90, there's no tying run.
And he knew it.
“You learn a lot from days like this," he'd say. "You just learn from it and try to get better at it. That way, it doesn’t haunt you in the future. Just go at it the next day.”
How about the very next inning?
David Bednar entered in the ninth with the 4-4 tie and was beaten for this leadoff blast off the fence in center:
That contact's not on Cruz, obviously, but he stepped forward before retreating, then had a choice of pursuing a ball that'd bounce up off the base of the fence, or staying back to limit the bases ... and did neither. So Nick Fortes had a triple.
Did the free 90 do damage here?
Hard to say since this ensued after an intentional walk ...
... but it couldn't have helped.
"We didn't play good enough defense," Shelton would say afterward. "We had opportunities. We didn't close it down. We had the lead late in the game and we didn't close it down because we didn't play good defense."
Yep.
Shelton had been at the forefront of a fundamental push, messaging it to his players through the winter, repeating all spring how the Pirates' would have to win "at the margins." And the reward for all that was this barely marginal effort.
To complete the math Pham sought, by the way, the Pirates and Marlins each drew seven walks, the Pirates stole six bases to the Marlins' one, the Pirates committed one error and a passed ball to the Marlins' none of either ... and all that Cruz fodder.
Not a win on that front.
Want to know what I wonder, though?
All due respect to the right emphasis and, to repeat, Pham saying the right things for the right reasons, there are so many big issues that seem so ominous for these Pirates that I can't begin to wrap my head around the ones of this scope.
THE ASYLUM
DK: Alas, 'the free 90' won't be these Pirates' only problem
To be fair, Tommy Pham was right.
“Any good team has to win the free 90," he was telling me in another terribly silent clubhouse after the Pirates might as well have thrown away the franchise's 144th season opener, 5-4, to the Marlins tonight here at loanDepot Park. "If you don't win the free 90, it's gonna be tough to win close ball games. Bobby Dickerson talked about that in 2020 when I was on the San Diego Padres, and it has resonated with me ever since."
Dickerson, a baseball lifer as a player and coach, now serves as the Phillies' infield instructor.
"The team that wins the free 90 usually wins the game," Pham continued. "There's a percent on that. You would have to look it up. He gave it to us. And ever since that day, I’ve always thought about that. Did we win the battle of the walks? We stole a lot of bases today, and those are free 90. But did we win the errors? You gotta look back at stuff like that. Because the team that usually wins that ... usually wins.”
The Pirates usually don't, of course ... so they usually don't.
And yeah, I'm buying what Pham's selling in that specific context.
Because Paul Skenes, the team's most gifted pitcher in generations, performed plenty well enough to neutralize an equally effective Sandy Alcantara in an entertaining matchup:
Because Bryan Reynolds, the team's best-by-a-bunch bat, came through with a clutch two-run mash up the middle for a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning:
And because Nick Gonzales, one of the team's vital, young, hoped-for contributors, overcame a nagging ankle to laser a two-run home run for a 4-1 lead the next inning:
Pretty good place to be, right?
The Miami lineup's so moribund that the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel's season preview on this day was headlined 'WHO?' and proceeded to list every name accompanied by another 'WHO?' Fending these guys off a three-run lead shouldn't have been anyone's gut-check, as the rest of the summer here in South Florida's sure to show.
But Skenes worked his way up to 91 pitches, a couple dozen more than most starters right out of spring training, and walked two to prompt Derek Shelton to take him out. Dennis Santana, the bullpen's best in the latter part of 2024, walked the bases loaded, then had a pitch to the next batter reach the backstop on a charged passed ball to Joey Bart, one of two on the night:
That's not winning the free 90. That's now a 4-2 lead.
Flash forward to the eighth: Colin Holderman walks Kyle Stowers, which, as Pham was careful to include, is a free 90 unto itself. The Pirates' pitchers would issue seven of those, in all. Next, Jonah Bride was retired on a gem of a charge by Ke'Bryan Hayes, and Matt Mervis went down swinging, but Otto Lopez dropped an RBI single into center:
Yeah, but remember that initial free 90. That's 4-3.
But wait. Watch that sequence again. Oneil Cruz overthrows not one but two cutoff men, thus allowing Lopez to sprint into scoring position as the potential tying run.
Uh, no.
I asked Cruz if he thought he had a shot at the runner heading home.
“I think, as an outfielder, your first reaction is to throw everybody out," Cruz would reply through interpreter Stephen Morales. "But I think that was not the throw that I needed to make. It was supposed to be a lower throw to give our infielders a chance to cut the ball and keep the double play in order and keep that guy at first base. We’ll learn from it.”
Regardless, Holderman still should've had his third out with the next batter, except that home plate umpire Ben May somehow failed to ring up Dane Myers on this clear strike ...
Crazy. And costly:
Don't make me say it again, but, if not for Cruz's free 90, there's no tying run.
And he knew it.
“You learn a lot from days like this," he'd say. "You just learn from it and try to get better at it. That way, it doesn’t haunt you in the future. Just go at it the next day.”
How about the very next inning?
David Bednar entered in the ninth with the 4-4 tie and was beaten for this leadoff blast off the fence in center:
That contact's not on Cruz, obviously, but he stepped forward before retreating, then had a choice of pursuing a ball that'd bounce up off the base of the fence, or staying back to limit the bases ... and did neither. So Nick Fortes had a triple.
Did the free 90 do damage here?
Hard to say since this ensued after an intentional walk ...
... but it couldn't have helped.
"We didn't play good enough defense," Shelton would say afterward. "We had opportunities. We didn't close it down. We had the lead late in the game and we didn't close it down because we didn't play good defense."
Yep.
Shelton had been at the forefront of a fundamental push, messaging it to his players through the winter, repeating all spring how the Pirates' would have to win "at the margins." And the reward for all that was this barely marginal effort.
To complete the math Pham sought, by the way, the Pirates and Marlins each drew seven walks, the Pirates stole six bases to the Marlins' one, the Pirates committed one error and a passed ball to the Marlins' none of either ... and all that Cruz fodder.
Not a win on that front.
Want to know what I wonder, though?
All due respect to the right emphasis and, to repeat, Pham saying the right things for the right reasons, there are so many big issues that seem so ominous for these Pirates that I can't begin to wrap my head around the ones of this scope.
Anyway, uh, happy opening day, all!
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