Pittsburgh Pirates report card for 5/9-5/19

Dishing out grades for the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-4 road trip

The Pittsburgh Pirates latest road trip started with maybe the most embarrassing loss of the season. With injuries mounting, particularly to the starting pitching staff, and 10 games against winning teams ahead, this stretch looked like the beginning of the end for the local club. As it turned out, doomsday is far away.

With a legit MVP candidate playing at first base, a number five starter proving to be the heist of the offseason and a bullpen rising to the occasion, the Pirates went 7-3 the rest of the way, and are now four games above .500 with the chance to make some more noise coming back to Pittsburgh. Here is a “report card,” evaluating how Pittsburgh performed in the key areas of baseball over the 11 game stretch.

Starting Pitching

There were some problems with the Pirates’ starting rotation during the road trip.

Chris Archer got shelled in his first start back from the injured list, and his awful start was preceded by poor showings from Nick Kingham and Steven Brault. Worst of all, the rotation lost another starter, as Trevor Williams hit the IL this past weekend.

Despite everything that went wrong, there were enough positives from the rotation to give it a respectable grade.

Jordan Lyles turned in two more ace-like performances, allowing just two runs over 13 innings in starts against the Cardinals and Padres. In Williams’ only full start, he was excellent, throwing seven innings of one-run ball to give the Bucs their first win of the road trip last Friday at Busch Stadium.

After allowing eight earned runs in the first game of the stretch, Joe Musgrove bounced back with probably his best start as a Pirate Tuesday night in Arizona. Musgrove followed that up with a solid outing to end the road trip in San Diego, and after a rough stretch, is looking like a man capable of justifying the Gerrit Cole trade.

At the start of the road trip, the Pirates rotation was a mess. By the time it was over, Brault and Montana DuRapau were leading the team to victory.

While losing Williams is a big blow and Archer’s past two starts have been more than a slight concerned, the Pirates starters are holding their own, and that’s commendable.

B-

Offense

The Pittsburgh Pirates scored 49 runs over the last 11 games. 26 of them were either driven in by or scored by Josh Bell. I think that’s telling of who’s carrying the offense.

Overall, the bats did their part. 4.45 runs a game is reasonable, but it also needs to be considered that the Pirates have a first baseman playing at an unreasonably high level right now.

As good as Bell is, neither he or anybody else is capable of sustaining this pace. With the starting rotation still up in the air, the offense needs to produce, and I think as time goes on, the bats will do that even is #55 isn’t playing like #8.

Elias Diaz is heating up, and the Pirates outfield is getting along just fine without Corey Dickerson. Which is not to say that Dickerson’s return won’t be appreciated.

Bryan Reynolds and Melky Cabrera continue to be pleasant surprises. If Reynolds’ fellow rookie, Cole Tucker, can get his hitting to match what he’s given the Pirates defensively at shortstop, this offense could turn into a formidable one.

We’ll see what happens when Bell comes back down to earth, but when he does, the Pirates may just have enough firepower to get by.

B+

Bullpen

Aside from current Indianapolis Indian Richard Rodriguez’s home run demons costing the Pirates this past Thursday’s game in San Diego, there really isn’t much negative to say about the ‘pen.

Sure, the relievers got tagged quite a bit in blowout losses to the Cardinals and Diamondbacks, but those games were lost causes due to the starters outing regardless. In games that the Pirates had a chance to win, aside from Friday’s blip, the ‘pen did its job.

In St. Louis, the relievers finished great starts from Williams and Lyles on Friday and Saturday and cleaned up Brault’s mess Sunday. In the last game of the stretch, the relievers shut the Padres down after Musgrove lost control in the seventh, and this was less than 24 hours after the bullpen essentially pitched an entire game as the Pirates used “the opener” for the first time.

It wasn’t all milk and honey. Rodriguez’s ineptitude earning him a demotion is a bummer, but the debuts DuRapu and Geoff Hartlieb will make up for it if they can build off promising starts to their MLB careers.

There are still question marks regarding the Bucco relief unit, but with Kyle Crick and Felipe Vazquez locking down the 8th and 9th, Francisco Liriano throwing like it’s 2013 and some rookies looking to make an impact, there is potential on the horizon, and Keone Kela will help things  as well whenever he is ready to come off the shelf.

A-