Pittsburgh Pirates homestand report card for week of 5/3 – 5/8

Starting pitching

Given the circumstances, it’s hard to complain about the job the starting rotation did this past week.

It’s not easy for any pitching staff to lose arguably its top two starters in a seven day window. That’s what the Pittsburgh Pirates had to deal with when first Chris Archer and then Jameson Taillon went on the injured list.

While it wasn’t pretty, the starting pitchers dealt with it the situation reasonably well.

The home stand got off to a rough start. Joe Musgrove got shelled Friday night in a blowout loss against Oakland. This was followed by a mediocre outing from Trevor Williams Saturday.

Things got better from there, however.

Jordan Lyles continued his excellent 2019 with 6.2 innings of one-run ball Sunday. While Steve Brault and Nick Kingham hardly resembled Koufax and Drysdale, the two came into a tough spot as emergency starters and gave the Pirates a chance to win.

So, while there was only one standout performance over this short home stand, given what the Bucs rotation was up against, I think a solid “B” is a fair grade.

Offense

It wasn’t quite banner stretch for Bucco bats. However, it was not awful, either.

The offense started the Oakland series with a quiet performance Friday (as if it mattered) and went 10 innings without scoring in Sunday’s series finale. Saturday night, the bats didn’t get much done for six innings outside of two Josh Bell bombs. In the seventh, however, a two-run triple by Kevin Newman started the clutch hitting trend that would continue for the rest of the homestand. The hit also proved to be the hit that was the difference in a 6-4 win.

Tuesday night against Texas, the red hot Melky Cabrera continued this trend with a two-run, pinch-hit double, giving the Pirates a lead they wouldn’t give up. The bats then put up six runs Wednesday afternoon, but thanks to Clint Hurdle, that ended up being for naught.

The lineup still isn’t at full-strength as Corey Dickerson is still on the IL, as is Lonnie Chisenhall who was expected to be the fourth outfielder as a key bench piece. As for the healthy players, Jung Ho Kang and Francisco Cervelli have been awful, Colin Moran has been underwhelming and while he looks to be turning it around, Starling Marte’s overall performance has left a lot to be desired.

Pittsburgh probably won’t be an offensive juggernaut at any point in 2019, but if nothing else, this week showed that the bats are capable of timely hits. Which was a welcome surprise after their early season woes with RISP. Hopefully, it continues to do that over the impending 11-game road trip.

The bullpen

In three of the five games on this homestand, the Pirates ‘pen was dealt a crappy hand. Only Tuesday night, however, did the relievers make the situation any better.

Musgrove only went 2.2 innings in his start Friday. After that, four Pirates relievers combined to give up seven runs in a contest that was already out of reach. Brault only went four innings in Tuesday’s series opener against the Rangers. The ‘pen got to work in the fifth with a one-run lead, and despite giving up two runs in the seventh, they didn’t let it slip away, and the Bucs got a feel-good win as a result.

Wednesday’s situation was similar for the ‘pen, as Kingham followed in Brault’s footsteps by only tossing four. The relievers held their own until the eighth when Michael Feliz walked three and gave up a grand slam in his masterful 2/3 of an inning. However, neither Brault nor Kingham could have been expected to give the team much more than they did. In a way, this set the ‘pen up for failure in these two games.

With Keone Kela on the injured list and Nick Burdi out for a while, Pirates relievers not named Vazquez or Crick need to step up. Francisco Liriano has done so, Feliz has shown flashes, and the jury is still out on Richard Rodriguez. If the Pirates have a lead after the seventh inning, they’ll will be in stable condition more often than not. Anything that happens before the seventh, however, is up for grabs. The Bucs lack consistency from most of their relievers, and that’s a problem.

Managing

Oh, boy. While it’d be easy to make this section an all-out burial of Clint Hurdle, let’s be fair for a second. The Pirates manager was a big reason the team won Tuesday night.

He pulled Brault at the perfect time, and from there, pushed all the right buttons in running his bullpen. As good as Hurdle was Tuesday, however, he was equally terrible Wednesday.

Between Sunday evening and Wednesday afternoon, Kyle Crick and Felipe Vazquez had thrown 29 pitches between them. Yet, for some reason, Crick was deemed unavailable Wednesday. Vazquez was available, but Hurdle inexplicably saved him for the ninth inning. As a result, Feliz gave up a game-tying grand slam, and all hell broke loose.

In the ninth, with the game now tied thanks to Hurdle’s gaffe in judgment, the skipper didn’t use baseball’s best closer either, and the Pirates allowed three runs and lost the game. In between, he let Tyler Lyons bat in a tie game. Yeah.

I badly want to give Hurdle an F and feel I would be justified in doing so. Because of his brilliance Tuesday, however, we’ll go with a D-.

Hopefully, moving forward, Hurdle will be better.