What did we learn about the Pittsburgh Pirates in their first home
series of the season? What are some key takeaways from their two games against
the Cards?
The 2019 Pittsburgh Pirates season is now two series old.
After splitting a rain shortened two-game series in Cincinnati against the Reds
over the weekend, the team returned home for their first home series of the
2019 season.
While this one was planned, the Bucs once again found
themselves playing a two-game series. This series came against those no good,
evil, rotten, cheating St. Louis Cardinals. Against the Red Birds the Pirates had the
opportunity to go 2-0. Hell, a strong argument can be made that they *should*
have gone 2-0. Instead, they wound up 0-2.
The team wasted excellent starts from Chris Archer and Jameson Taillon in the series loss.
They also squandered far too many scoring opportunities. With the two losses to
the Cardinals, the Pirates are now off to a slow 1-3 start.
Even thought it was just a two-game series, there are still
some things that can be taken away from the series. What are three key
takeaways from the Pirates wild, and insanely frustrating, series loss against
the Cardinals at PNC Park?
THE INFIELD DEFENSE WOULD MAKE THE BAD NEWS
BEARS PROUD
When previewing the Pittsburgh Pirates prior to the start of
the regular season, I mentioned that the middle infield is the team’s weakest
spot. You can read about that here. Four games into the season;
unfortunately, the middle infield has lived up to the low expectations.
In Monday’s home opener, however, the poor defense was not
just a problem for the middle infield. Neither Colin Moran nor Josh Bell are known as good, or even
average, defenders. This was on display in the team’s 6-5 loss.
While Moran had a huge day at the plate in the loss, he
committed a key error in the top of the 7th inning. His error cost the team a
double play and led to the Cardinals scoring an unearned run that cut the
Pirate lead to 4-3. While it did not cost the team, a lack of communication
between Bell and catcher Francisco Cervelli led to a ball that
should have been caught for an out dropping in foul territory.
Two other key plays in Monday’s loss came via poor middle
infield defense. St. Louis slugger Paul Goldschmidt reached on a Gonzalez
error to start the top of the 9th inning. Felipe Vazquez then induced a double
play ball off the bat of Paul DeJong, but Gonzalez and Frazier
failed to turn two and only retired Goldschmidt. This led to Jose Martinez hitting a game-tying
pinch hit double in an at bat that should have happened with the bases empty.
The overall play of the middle infield and the defense of
the corner infielders were a major concern for the Pirates entering the season.
Two series into the season, these preseason concerns are becoming a problem
that may prove to hold the team back throughout the season.
HITTING WITH MEN ON BASE IS STILL A PROBLEM
After struggling with runners in scoring position against
the Reds over the weekend, those woes continued against the Cardinals. In
Monday’s extra inning loss the team left 18 runners on base. This is often
times a death nail in a 1-run game.
Pirate batters finished Monday’s game just 1-for-10 with two
walks and a hit by pitch with RISP. They also mustard just one run, on a solo
home run by Colin Moran, over the course of the final five innings of the game
despite getting at least one base runner in four of those five innings.
The RISP woes carried over into Wednesday night when the
Bucs went 1-for-14 with four walks with men in scoring position. The Pirates
also left another 18 men on base in Wednesday night’s loss.
Through the first two series of the season the Pirates are
an atrocious 3-for-41 with RISP. Hitting with RISP was a major issue for the
Pirates in 2018 as well. If this proves to be a trend for the 2019 season, then
it will be a long year for the Pirate offense. This lineup does not have enough
power to make up for not hitting with RISP.
THE BULLPEN, AND ITS MANAGEMENT, NEEDS TO BE
BETTER
Entering the 2019 season the bullpen was expected to be a
strength for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Felipe Vazquez, Keone Kela, Kyle Crick, and Richard Rodriguez were all coming off
great, borderline dominant seasons and were expected to shut things down this
season. So far, that has not been the case.
After blowing game one in Cincinnati, Rodriguez was tagged
for three runs, two of them earned, without retiring a batter on Monday. After
cleaning up Rodriguez’s mess on Monday, Kela allowed a game-tying home run
to Harrison Bader in the 8th inning on
Wednesday night.
While Vazquez allowed the Cardinals to tie the game in the
9th inning on Monday, it was an unearned run and it’s tough to blame him. Crick
has retired all six batters he’s faced. So, these two have been fine.
As for the other four pitchers in the bullpen – Francisco Liriano, Nick Burdi, Nick Kingham, and Steven Brault – other than Burdi it
can be argued none of the four belong on a MLB roster. Brault will be optioned
to Triple-A today for Jordan Lyles, so he will soon be out of the
bullpen.
Burdi has the best stuff of the group, but he is a rookie
and will take his lumps as rookies will do. Kingham is not very good, but few
long relievers are. Liriano is a lefty specialist at this point, but Clint Hurdle has looked to use him as
more. Which Segway’s us into out next point…
Hurdle needs to be better with his bullpen management. In no
world should Vazquez have not pitched on Wednesday. Yet, he did not.
He also waited too long to go to Vazquez on Monday.
Remember, closer is not a position and you should use your best reliever in the
game’s highest leverage situation, that does not always mean saving them for
the 9th inning. On Monday, that came when the Pirates had a 4-2 lead but the
Cardinals had the bases loaded with no one out in the top of the 7th inning.
Leaving Burdi in the game to face Tyler O’Neill on Wednesday night was
also a mistake. Again, this should have been Vazquez.
Moving forward, the Pirate bullpen needs to be better. And
fans should expect it to be. Ultimately, there is too much talent there for it
to not perform better. However, part of that is Hurdle managing the bullpen
better, and that has never been a strength of his.
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