Looking back at the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 4-5 road trip. Over the past week, the Pittsburgh Pirates played seven
games on the west coast and two more in the Twin Cities. The road trip had a
promising start, with the Bucs winning four of their first six. It went south,
however, starting with a 4-3 loss in Sunday’s series finale with the Giants,
followed by two more losses to the Minnesota Twins. The Pirates continued their
mediocre August and finished the trip a ‘meh’ 4-5.
There were some good things to take from this stretch.
Offensively, Frazier and David Freese are
stepping up as useful part-time players and Josh
Bell has been a stud since coming back from the DL.
Pitching-wise, Jameson
Taillon is further distancing himself as the anchor of the
starting rotation, and Trevor
Williams has been a monster since mid-July.
Overall, however, the Bucs aren’t playing good baseball, and
here is a breakdown of how they performed in the key facets of the game with
this edition of my “report card.”
OFFENSE – THE GOOD
There were a few positives to take from this road trip for
the offense, highlighted by a trio of 10+ run performances.
Josh Bell has stepped up since returning from the DL last
Wednesday, but the biggest story from an offensive standpoint this week is Adam
Frazier. 2018 hasn’t been easy for the utility man, but he’s come on in the
second half of the season and is hitting .438 in August. If Frazier can keep up
this hot stretch, he can be a wildcard in the Pirates postseason push.
OFFENSE – THE BAD
While Bell has been excellent since returning from injury,
the same can’t be said for the Pirates outfield. Corey
Dickerson and Gregory
Polanco are hitting under .200 for August, and Starling
Marte hasn’t been much better at .216. Since those three
were the driving forces behind the team’s surge in July, and August hasn’t been
as good, it’s safe to say that the Pirates’ success or lack thereof, goes
hand in hand with what their outfield is going.
It’s hard to say a stretch in which the Pirates scored 10 or
more runs three times in nine games was bad, but in the end, this road trip was
mediocre largely because of the offense not getting the job done when it needed
to. So, overall, I think a fat C is in store.
GRADE: C
STARTING PITCHING – THE GOOD
Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams each tossed gems with
Taillon pitching a complete game in Denver and Williams throwing seven shutout
frames in San Fran. The road trip also featured gritty performances by Chris
Archer and Ivan Nova and hard-luck outings from Archer and Joe Musgrove. Over
the past seven games, there was only one starting pitching performance that can
be classified as bad, and I think we all know what that was.
STARTING PITCHING – THE BAD
Although the decision to start Clay Holmes Friday
night has been talked about more than necessary, it was a head scratcher, and
thus became the only glaring negative to take from a starting pitching
standpoint this road trip.
Overall, the Pirates starting pitching has stepped up, and
is certainly not to blame for the teams “meh” August thus far.
GRADE: B+
BULLPEN – THE GOOD
The bullpen stepped up big time in last Wednesday’s 3-2 win
over Colorado. Picking up Archer after he could only go five innings which was
partly due to food poisoning. Aside from that, the ‘pen collectively didn’t
have to preserve a tight lead late, which they obviously had no control over.
Individually, Felipe
Vazquez remains dominant, Keone Kela has
been solid albeit with limited exposure, and aside from Wednesday’s blip in
Minnesota, Edgar Santana has
been stellar.
BULLPEN – THE BAD
Much like the starting pitching, Friday night brought out
the worst in the bullpen, and, again, it all could have been avoided. To
have Casey Saddler on
the mound for four innings should never happen, and the Bucs got burned as a
result.
The ‘pen struggled in the two games against Minnesota,
allowing two big insurance runs Tuesday night and the go-ahead run Wednesday
afternoon. Overall, there isn’t a lot negative to say about the bullpen. It’s a
talented unit, and this week didn’t change that.
GRADE: B+
OVERALL
The west coast portion of this road trip was pretty good for
the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although, it could have and probably should have been
better. Going 4-3 in the west is respectable, and a lot of good came out of
those seven games.
Minnesota is where this road trip went south.
With Taillon and Archer on the mound, there was no reason
for the Pirates not to sweep the Twins and finish the stretch at 6-3. Instead,
they got swept by the lowly Twins and ended the road trip at 4-5, which is
fitting for how this month is going.
The Pirates have been mediocre, and there’s no other way to
put it. It seems that as every week passes by the buzz around that the trades
for Archer and Kela created decreases, and the only way to get that excitement
back is to win.
With two first-place teams in Chicago and Atlanta coming to
town, things aren’t going to get easier, and the homestand is already off to a
poor start following a 1-0 loss to the Cubs Thursday night. Not going at least
4-3, which now requires a 4-2 stretch, against those teams could make the
failure to capitalize on this road trip more frustrating.
The Pirates had a chance to move up in the National League
Wild Card race this past week and didn’t do it. It’s fitting, however, that the
Bucs are playing like an average baseball team, because they are one.
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