We're only a week into the season, but I'm running out of ways to say, "The Pirates stink at hitting." Let's try this one on for size: In the first two innings tonight, Chris Capuano struck out five hitters and four of them went down looking. Capuano's not a bad pitcher -- most of us in the Pirate bloggerverse had him on the radar as a potential signing for the Bucs this winter -- but he's not Clayton Kershaw.
Clint Hurdle pulled out all of the stops with his lineup tonight to try and get the offense jump-started. He sat Alex Presley and Garrett Jones and Neil Walker against the lefty Capuano, he played the seemingly heating up Pedro Alvarez against a lefty for the first time all year. He got Josh Harrison and Yamaico Navarro and Casey McGehee, who've all looked decent at the plate in limited roles, all into the starting lineup. That lineup gave him a long home run by Mike McKenry and Andrew McCutchen on base four times. The rest of the team managed to turn that into one run for 'Cutch. Hurdle kept pulling strings all night, using Jones and Matt Hague both to pinch hit with the bases loaded in the sixth, using Walker to hit for Harrison late in the game. He even made the weird decision at the end of the game to have McLouth bat for McKenry, despite McKenry having a good game at the plate, then immediately having Rod Barajas pinch-hit for Jason Grilli. The weird sequencing left Barajas as the last option on the bench and the catcher, meaning that if he had singled or drawn a walk, the Pirates would've been forced to try and score him from first base with two outs to tie the game. Of course, he didn't get on, so it was a moot point.
In the end, the Pirates struck out nine more times tonight and only drew two walks. They had eight hits, but if you take McCutchen and McKenry out of the equation, they had five hits, no walks, and no runs. Two of those five remaining hits came from Casey McGehee. Scoring runs is a problem right now.
On the flip side, Jeff Karstens settled down nicely after a rough first inning (he certainly would've had another inning or two in him if the bases-loaded situation hadn't manifsted in the top of the sixth). Chris Resop and Jason Grilli were also excellent in keeping the Dodgers off of the board after Karstens' night got cut short. Certainly, the pitching was good enough to win a game or two in this series in LA. Unfortunately, the offense kept it from happening.
Through five games, the Pirates have struck out 38 times and only drawn five walks. Their team OPS is .504. They've scored nine runs. What I'm saying is that they've been really bad at offense so far. They're facing Chris Capuano tonight, which should theoretically help this problem.
To that end, I'm happy to see Clint Hurdle let Pedro Alvarez face the left tonight. Obviously the ultimate endgame with Pedro is for him to be an every day player and not a platoon guy, even though they're trying to maximize his chances to succeed right now. I thought he got some really good swings in against the Dodgers last night, even though he doesn't have results to show for it. He looks to me like a guy that's working towards something, and, well, it's Chris Capuano out there tonight and not Cliff Lee or Clatyon Kershaw. Baby steps, right?
Jeff Karstens goes for the Pirates, looking to do that Jeff Karstens thing that usually turns out well even though I don't understand it. First pitch tonight is at 10:10.
The final score of this game wasn't so bad, but the Pirates might as well have been down 40-1 by the time it ended early this morning. No one that took the mound last night looked very sharp (notably, Bedard failed to locate the way he did in his first game and was very hittable while Evan Meek's 93 mph fastball is fooling no one), the defense was almost universely terrible (especially Garrett Jones, who's going to be a problem at first base, I think), and the best thing that you can say about the offense is that a few guys hit the ball hard, but had it result in outs. That's not really helpful when the club only manages six baserunners.
I'd say more, but I fell asleep at three different points during the game. Hopefully the Bucs don't have too many games like this in 2012.
It's never fun when the Pirates go out west and play super-late games, but at least tonight playing at 10:10 has the added benefit of not going directly head-to-head with Game 1 of the Penguins/Flyers series. Erik Bedard gets his second Pirate start tonight against Chad Billingsley and the Dodgers.
We're all waiting to see the first breath of life from the Pirates' offense this year and it's true that the Pirates have had some stiff competition early in the year, but it's also true that there are a lot of good pitchers in the National League this year and that just because they won't face Halladay/Lee/Kershaw every single day of the week doesn't mean things will get a whole ton easier for them. Billingsley's not a bad starter himself, the Bucs head to San Francisco this weekend, they could see Ian Kennedy in Arizona, and I could keep going on and on. The opposition is an easy excuse now, but it's not something that you can lean on all year.
That said, the Bucs looked pretty good on Sunday against Vance Worley and he's not a bad pitcher himself. I'd certainly put Billingsley in a class closer to Worley than to Halladay/Lee/Kershaw. And I'm not saying that the bats won't get going, just warning that the opposition will pretty much always be a convenient excuse.
First pitch tonight is at 10:10.
Most teams win about half of their one-run games, so the Pirates are right on schedule this year with a 2-2 record after playing four one-run games to open the season. On the offensive side, this one unfolded just about how you'd expect it to with Clayton Kershaw on the mound for the Dodgers. The Pirates scored their only run in the seventh inning mainly because Juan Rivera fell asleep on a Casey McGehee flyout to left field and caught it flat-footed, which allowed Alex Presley to take third base right in front of him. That put Andrew McCutchen on second and so when Matt Hague hit a grounder up the middle, it scored a run instead of ending the inning with a double play. It was a great, heads-up play by Presley (and by extension, McCutchen), but other than that the Pirates only threatened when McGehee tripled to lead off the second inning and was stranded there. Kershaw was otherwise dominant -- he struck out seven and only allowed two hits besides the singles Presley and McCutchen had to lead off the seventh.
The Bucs found themselves in the game, though, because Kevin Correia delivered six strong innings and Juan Cruz threw a few wiffleball curves in the seventh to keep the Dodgers at one run. It looked like Jason Grilli was going to continue the trend, but then he came a little too far inside with a breaking pitch to Andre Ethier (he did a good job keeping it down in the zone, but that apparently didn't matter) and gave up a golf-shot solo homer that made the difference.
It's easy to say that the Pirates' offense has been slow-starting this spring because of the opposition, but with Chad Billingsley going for the Dodgers tomorrow night and a trip to San Francisco in the offing, things aren't going to get much easier on the Pirates' hitters for a while. The good news is that the pitching staff has kept the club in close in every game so far. Hopefully, that will continue until the Pirates can see some easier competition on the opposing mound.
After opening up the season against Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, today the Pirates head out to LA to face Clayton Kershaw in the Dodgers' home opener. Kershaw is easily one of the best pitchers the Pirates will see this year and he's pretty much in a class with only Halladay and Justin Verlander in terms of every single pitcher the Pirates will face this year. The one saving grace for the Pirates is that he's been battling the flu this week and maybe he won't be quite at the top of his game. I wouldn't count on it, though.
For the Bucs, Kevin Correia gets the ball. He's got maybe three starts to prove that he belongs on the roster before AJ Burnett is ready, and he's drawn a tough assignment in start #1. The Dodgers are a sneaky-good team ths year; their financial problems have caused a lot of people to write them off, but their lineup can hit and when Kershaw's on the mound, that makes them about as good as anyone.
First pitch today is at 4:10. I teach recitation from 3-6 on Tuesdays, so I probably won't be around in the comments for much of the game. I'll do my best to peak in in between classes, though.
Gerrit Cole's professional debut went awfully well tonight; he only threw four innings for Bradenton but in those four innings, he struck out seven hitters, walked one, and only gave up one run on four hits. Maybe not overwhelmingly impressive, but certainly a good start to his professional career. The Marauders eventually lost and the offense didn't do much besides Drew Maggi's two hits, but Cole's strong debut is the most important thing in this one.
In news that's much more important to the Pirates' immediate future, Charlie Morton made his rehab start in Indianapolis tonight and he struck out eight hitters in 7 2/3 innings, holding Toledo to one run on six hits and a walk. He threw 98 pitches, 63 strikes, and got 10 groundouts to one flyout. it's awfully hard to imagine he won't be ready when his turn comes up in the Pirates' rotation this time next week. Also, Starling Marte went 2-for-4 and homered, which is pretty awesome to see, too.
Gerrit Cole makes his first start for the Bradenton Marauders tonight at 6:35, which is one of those moments that you hope we can look back at in five years and say it was meaningful for the Pirates and all of us Pirate fans. I'm not sure who/if anyone will be at the game, in terms of Pirate writers and bloggers and scouting types, but I'll do my best to look for some first-hand accounts and post them up later tonight.
I haven't written much (or at all) about the minor league affiliates in quite some time, which is partially a function of my own limited time to blog this semester. This seems as good a time as any to mention some of the things that I'm interested in/excited about in the Pirates' system this year.
There are a few obvious waypoints in the system to be keeping an eye on this year: Cole and Taillon in Bradenton, Grossman and Sanchez in Altoona, Marte in Indianapolis. How does Taillon pitch as he's slowly let off of his leash? How does Cole adjust to pro ball? Can Sanchez get back on track? Can Grossman turn all those walks into something a little more robust? Can Marte keep his power and lose his strikeouts? I'm excited about all of these guys (except Sanchez, I guess, who is still talented enough to merit watching), because they're guys that all Pirate fans should be excited about.
The team that really has me geeked out is West Virginia, though. With the exception of Josh Bell, none of the guys on the team are super-high on anyone's prospect radar right now, but the whole roster is packed to the gills with some of the higher-profile signings made by Rene Gayo and his Latin American scouting squad over the last couple of years. From that group, there's Alen Hanson, Gregory Polanco, Willy Garcia, Jose Ozuna, and Jodaneli Carvajal all making their full-season debuts with West Virginia this year at or around the age of 20. As a group, they're all very raw and very far from the Majors and it's unlikely that more than one or two of them will turn into real prospects, but it's really exciting to me to see the effort that the Pirates have put into rebuilding their Latin American scouting program start to bear some fruit in the form of real players starting the climb the ladder in America. The Power will be in Greensboro twice this summer and I've already got those weekends circled on my calendar.
When the Pirates fell behind the Phillies 4-1 in the top of the seventh, it was hard to feel that they didn't deserve the deficit. Garrett Jones double-clutched away an inning-ending double play chance in the first inning, which left Shane Victorino on second base with two outs. James McDonald made a bad pitch, and Hunter Pence hammered it for a run-scoring double. In the fourth inning, McDonald left what appeared to be a stomach-high 79 mph changeup out over the plate to Pence, and Pence mashed it over the North Side Notch for a 2-0 Phils lead. In the seventh, Neil Walker somehow missed Jared Hughes' throw to first on Freddy Galvis's bunt that put runners on second and third with no outs. Hughes nearly escaped the jam, then missed badly with a two-strike pitch to Juan Pierre (so badly that Mike McKenry practically leaped out of his crouch the second Pierre made contact) that was lasered into right field for two more runs. Sloppy defense and sloppy pitching -- that's how you lose baseball games against a team that's not playing well.
If there was a silver lining at that point, it was that the Pirates' bats seemed to be coming around even if they only had one run to show for it. The Bucs were making good contact all day, hitting line drives that mostly seemed to end up right in the Phillies' gloves. Things finally took a turn for the better after the Phillies got their 4-1 lead. Casey McGehee hammered a double off of the top of the right field fence to drive in Pedro Alvarez, then scored on an Alex Presley single. Andrew McCutchen singled to lead off the eighth, stole second, then Yamaico Navarro worked a walk in his pinch-hitting role and McCutchen scored when Matt Hague singled him in. Finally in the ninth, McGehee hammered another double into the notch, then pinch-runner Josh Harrison moved to third in Alex Presley's bunt and scored when McCutchen singled off of the center field wall. After scoring three times in the season's first 25 innings, the Bucs scored four times in the 7th, 8th, and 9th today.
Really, it's important to note what a full effort the comeback was. Clint Hurdle emptied the bench out both last night and this afternoon and as a result he's got two wins to show for it. Here's what Hurdle got from his bench today:
- McGehee entered the game on a double switch in the seventh and absolutely mauled two doubles, which turned out to be the biggest non-Andrew McCutchen hits of the whole comeback.
- Navarro worked a long walk out of Kyle Kendrick in the eighth, which may not have seemed hugely meaningful (McCutchen had already stolen second and Navarro didn't end up scoring), but it made sure that everyone got a good look at what Kendrick had to offer.
- Hurdle sent Matt Hague up to hit for Pedro Alvarez against Antonio Bastardo, which resulted in a game-tying single and Hague's first career hit. Bastardo is a lefty and a very good reliever, but he's not really a LOOGY; he's equally effective against righties and lefties. That's to say that while Alvarez might not have been a great option against Bastardo, it wasn't immediately clear that Hague would be a much better option. He came through.
Of course, it's impossible to mention this game without talking about Pedro Alvarez's homer, which shocked the offense to life a bit in the fifth, bringing the Pirates back to within a run after Pence put the Phils' ahead 2-0. In Alvarez's first at-bat, he got ahead 2-0 in the count, looked at a pitch on the outside corner for strike one, looked at a pitch in his wheelhouse on the inside part of the plate for strike two, and got fooled by a high slider that he tipped into Brian Schneider's glove for strike three. The second time up, Alvarez got ahead 2-0 and Worley decided to try basically the same thing only reversing inside and outside. Alvarez fouled off the 2-0 pitch and when Worley left the 2-1 changeup up in the zone and out over the plate, he absolutely hammered it over the right-field grandstand. It was a terrible pitch by Worley, but the nice part is that Worley made an awful pitch and Alvarez was waiting for it and he destroyed it. That's the sort of thing that Alvarez wasn't doing last year and it's nice to see today, even if he struck out in his other two at-bats.
The star of the game, though, was certainly Andrew McCutchen. His double early in the game was lasered into the right-center gap and his game-winning at-bat was a thing of beauty. David Herndon came into the AB with the clear intention of not giving 'Cutch anything to hit. He got the first pitch just over the outside part of the plate, then got McCutchen to swing at a second pitch in almost the same place. After that, McCutchen worked the count full, fouled off two tough pitches in the strike zone, and Herndon finally left one of his sinkers just a little bit up in the zone. McCutchen punished him for it, which is exactly what your best player is supposed to do with the game on the line.
If last night's comeback was a little ridiculous (wild pitch, walkoff infield single), this one was much more exciting. The Pirates needed to start stringing hits together once the Phillies went up 4-1, and they did just that. The Phillies brought a pretty bad baseball team to Pittsburgh this weekend (let's not mince words; that lineup is barely better than the Pirates', if at all, when Utley and Howard aren't in it) , with the exception of Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. The Pirates found a way to beat them twice. That makes it a good weekend. no comments
After going scoreless for the first 14 innings of 2012, the Pirates now have a chance to sneak a series win from out underneath the Phillies on Easter Sunday. The Bucs do get a bit of a break this afternoon with the Phillies electing to save Cole Hamels for their own home opener, sending Vance Worley to the mound this afternoon instead. Worley was excellent in his rookie year for the Phils last year, but he exceeded his minor league numbers by a good margin and most people think it's a good bit that he'll come back to earth some this season. After opening the season against Lee and Halladay, Worley is a welcome respite, even if he's still a pretty good pitcher.
The Pirates will meanwhile counter with James McDonald. As I've said, I think McDonald is one of the Pirates' keys to the season in the coming year and there's a lot hinging on his ability to throw his non-fastball pitches for strikes. He bounced all over the place in spring training; he sandwiched an excellent start with two terrible ones. It's probably a good thing that he'll open the season up with this decimated Phillies' lineup. Erik Bedard, Jeff Karstens, and the Pirates' pen has shut the Phillies down to this point and so if McDonald is on-point this afternoon, there's no reason to think he can't continue the trend. The Pirates' schedule doesn't get any easier for the rest of this month once they leave PNC, so getting a win today to kick things off with a series win would be awfully nice.
First pitch this afternoon is at 1:35.
