Pittsburgh Pirates: Bullpen, Defensive Woes Continue In Series Loss vs St. Louis

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ST LOUIS, MO – JULY 15: Josh Bell #55 of the Pittsburgh Pirates attempts to field a ground ball against the St. Louis Cardinals in the third inning at Busch Stadium on July 15, 2019 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

Season long defensive woes continue

All season long defense has been a major problem for the Pirates. This continued against the Cardinals this week. Poor defense is a major reason why the Pirates currently find themselves five games under .500.

On Monday night, Corey Dickerson made a trio of bad plays in the outfield.

In the 1st inning he missed a liner that should have easily been caught for the final out of the inning. Instead, it was a two-base error and gave the Cardinals and 1-0 lead. The bottom of the 3rd inning saw Dickerson drop a fly ball hit by Paul Goldschimidt resulting in a run-scoring double. He also made a terrible throw, which included a completely unnecessary 360 spin, that allowed a Cardinal base runner to advance from first to second on a routine fly out.

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Josh Bell also had a rough day defensively on Monday. Matt Carpenter singled to start the bottom of the 3rd inning when Bell failed to field a ground ball. Bell easily could have been assessed an error, Carpenter would come around to score when Dickerson dropped Goldschmidt’s ball.

Wednesday afternoon Colin Moran completely misplayed a routine pop up to shallow left field that allowed Dexter Fowler to reach via error instead of making the final out of the inning. Instead of turning, running, getting under the ball, and setting his feet Moran tried to backpedal to get under it. He simply had too much ground to cover to backpedal to the ball. It was little league 101 type of stuff.

Thankfully, this did not more damage other than impacting Chris Archer‘s pitch count.

Tuesday night’s victory was not free of defensive gaffes, either. In the 7th inning the Cardinals had runners on the corners and no one out. For some reason, Fowler did not break for the plate on a ground ball hit to Bell. What should have been an easy double play was not because A) Bell three hopped the ball to second base and B) no one covered first base. Thanks to the pitching of Richard Rodriguez, it did not bite the Bucs.

Entering the season many people feared defense would hold the 2019 Pirates back. Those fears have become a reality this season.

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