Pittsburgh Pirates road trip report card for June 2-7

Recapping the Pittsburgh Pirates’ most recent road trip

Another Pirates road trip is in the books. This week, the Bucs took on the New York Mets for three games and Baltimore Orioles for two more away from PNC Park. What could have been a smooth sailing, 4-1 swing, ended up being a “blah” 2-3 swing, with two gut-wrenching losses at the end.

The trip started with a bang Friday night at Citi Field. The Pirates offense picked up a reeling Gerrit Cole by putting together one of it’s finest performances of the season in a wild 12-7 win over the Mets.

The next night was not a happy one. A combination of three New York home runs and the Pirates offense going 1-12 with runners in scoring position led to a 4-2 loss.

Pittsburgh left “The Big Apple” on a high note, as another offensive explosion, along with seven solid innings from Trevor Williams on the mound resulted in a commanding 11-1 win.

As bad as Tuesday night was, Wednesday was another degree of painful. The Bucs took a 6-1- that’s right, a 6-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning. Clint Hurdle’s stupidity and Tony Watson’s ineptitude led to Baltimore tying the contest at six. Losing the game from here was inevitable, and the Bucs fell 9-6 in 11 innings.

Most 2-3 road trips are mediocre. But this one was terrible. Here is a breakdown of how the Pirates performed in these five games, through a report card format.

Starting Pitching 

Gerrit Cole’s struggles continued in the first game of this road trip. Just as they did the previous Saturday, the Mets hit Cole hard, scoring seven runs in five innings. It’s clear that Cole has not been himself these past few weeks, and it’s fair to question where his physical health is at this point.

Tyler Glasnow did not have a great Saturday night, allowing four earned runs, all of which coming via the long ball. Glasnow continues to stumble, and we can only hope that he finds some consistency soon.

In the series finale, Trevor Williams shoved once again, going seven innings and allowing just one run. Ever since his first outing of the season at Dodger Stadium, Williams has been rock solid, and he deserves to be in the rotation when Jameson Taillon comes back into the fold.

Ivan Nova followed what has become a somewhat unfortunate pattern Tuesday night. For six innings, he was excellent, with his only blemish being a leadoff home run by Seth Smith. Late in the game, however, things unraveled. After back-to-back jacks from Chirs Davis and Jonathan Schopp, Nova left the game with an apparent knee injury. One can only hope that Nova is ok and that he learns how to deal with the third go around of the batting order.

In the series finale, Chad Kuhl did not have the best of stuff, as he walked four over five innings of work. Kuhl was good enough, however, allowing just one run. He deserved to come away with a W, but thanks to Hurdle and Watson, it was not to be.

Overall, the Pirates rotation had a “blah” week. We saw good outings from Williams, Nova and Kuhl, and weak ones from Cole and Glasnow. As is becoming a pattern, it was an up-and-down trip for the Bucco starters, and their grade from me reflects that.

Grade C

Offense 

The offense picked up Cole in a big way Friday night, scoring 12 runs. The star of the night was backup catcher Elias Diaz, who drove in six of those runs, three of which came in the top of the sixth with a three-run home run, his first in the big leagues. It was a great offensive effort all the way around, as Josh Harrison and Josh Bell went a combined 5-9, with Bell hitting his tenth homer of the season and Harrison his seventh.

The next night was not as fun. Pittsburgh only managed to score two runs and went an awful 1-12 with runners in scoring position. Bell homered once again, but overall, the bats put together a pathetic performance in the penultimate game of the series.

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After that brief setback, the fun resumed Sunday with 11 runs. The star of the day was Andrew McCutchen, who went 3-5 with three RBI and his ninth jack of the season. Cutch looks to be locked in, and time will tell if he is “back” for good.

Tuesday night, the offense did what it had to do for the most part, and if Watson had done what he gets paid to do, I think we would have looked at its performance as a quite successful one. The Pirates lost that game, however, and I point to one thing that the offense could have done better.

With the Bucs up 4-1 in the top of the seventh, Gregory Polanco stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. Here was a golden opportunity for the Pirates number three hitter to put the game out of reach. Instead, El Coffe grounded out to the second baseman, and the threat was averted.

Wednesday was the same as Tuesday. The Pirates scored six runs, with role players Elias Diaz and Jose Osuna producing four of those tallies. Once again, their efforts were all for naught. In case you haven’t been reading, Tony Watson had something to do with that.

Overall, the bats had a good week. In four of the five games, they hit the ball well enough to get the Bucs a W, but the bullpen only held up its end of the bargain in two of those games.

Grade: A- 

Bullpen

Along with the offense, the Pirates bullpen did a great job of picking up Cole Friday night. Wade LeBlanc, Juan Nicasio, Daniel Hudson and Felipe Rivero kept New York off the board for the next four innings, ensuring that the Mets did not come back from Pittsburgh’s seven-run sixth.

Despite Saturday’s loss, it was another strong night for the Bucco relievers. Johnny Barbato of all people put together two scoreless innings, and LeBlanc followed with a zero of his own.

After a quiet day Sunday, the bullpen lost the game Tuesday. Tony Watson is in awful form. That observation was pretty obvious after Tuesday’s game. Unfortunately, just when we thought/hoped things couldn’t get worse, Wednesday happened.

All that needs to be said about Wednesday’s contest is that the Pirates had a 6-2 lead after eight innings, and lost the game. Just for the hell of it, I’ll talk more about Wednesday’s contest.

Johnny Barbato, Clint Hurdle, and Tony Watson all deserve the heat for this one. Hurdle was stupid for sticking with Barbato to start the ninth after he had allowed a run in the eight. Hurdle was more stupid to bring in Watson and not Felipe Rivero with runners on second and third and nobody out. Of course, Watson was stupid to blow the lead.

One of the low-key victims of Tuesday and Wednesday’s massacres is poor Wade LeBlanc, who was the losing pitcher is both games. With all due respect to LeBlanc, Rivero, and Nicasio, at the end of the day, the Pirates lost two games almost solely because of damage caused by the bullpen. That’s the bottom line.

Commentary 

The biggest storyline going with the Pittsburgh Pirates right now is what to do with the closer’s role. Should Watson and Rivero switch spots? Is Watson bound to come around? Should Watson be taken out of high leverage situations altogether? Let’s take a look at the Pirates most recent example of a late-inning relief man losing his edge.

After playing a vital role in the magical year of 2013, Jason Grilli hit a wall the next season. In late June, the Pirates shipped Grilli to the Anaheim Angels in exchange for the equally poor Ernesto Frieri. Here are Grilli’s numbers at the time of his departure, compared to Watson’s at the present time.

Grilli : 20.1 Innings, 4.87 ERA, 75 ERA+, 5.39 FIP,
Watson: 26.1 Innings, 4.44 ERA, 96 ERA+, 5.76 FIP

It is true that these situations are different, as Grilli was 37 at the time of his exit, while Watson is 32. But to me, it would be the best thing for Watson and the Pirates if the two sides parted ways.

Yes, Watson is relatively young at 32. But if you look at his numbers over the past three years, particularly his FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), which measures a pitcher’s ERA without defensive influence, you’d notice a disturbing trend.

2014: 2.69 FIP
2015: 2.84 FIP
2016: 4.37 FIP
2017: 5.76 FIP

These stats suggest that Watson isn’t just gradually regressing, but straight up plummetting.

When Jason Grilli was shipped out of town three summers ago, fans felt for him but were not against the move. Given that Watson is a free agent after this season, it is clear that he will spend, at most, six more months as a Pittsburgh Pirate. It’s likely that he is gone by the July 31 trade deadline.

Assuming Watson does not return to pre-2016 form, the asking price won’t be too high. At the same time, it wasn’t ideal for Grilli either, and the Pirates got rid of him in a throwaway type deal without significantly harming their bullpen.

Tony Watson is a good guy and an active member of the community, and he deserves great respect for what he has done throughout his time as a Bucco. But the guy looks spent, and stats suggest that it might not be temporary.