Don Kelly’s most frustrating habit keeps coming back to hurt Pirates

Don Kelly’s tendency to over-manage games has been frustrating all season for the Pittsburgh Pirates. This weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers might have been the most concentrated example yet.

In fairness, no individual decision Kelly made singlehandedly cost Pittsburgh a game in Los Angeles. The Pirates were swept because they didn’t play well enough, period. But when a manager repeatedly makes moves that leave his team in a worse position later, eventually the pattern becomes hard to ignore and even harder to defend.

It started Friday. Rafael Flores Jr. reached first base on a dropped third strike in the eighth inning of a tie game, and Kelly immediately replaced him with Henry Davis as a pinch-runner. Kelly explained afterward that Davis is considerably faster and could have scored on Jacob Gonzalez’s well-hit liner had it found the gap (which it didn't).

The logic is understandable in isolation. The problem is that Kelly exchanged one of his better power threats for Davis with the possibility of extra innings looming.

Sure enough, the game reached the 10th. Bryan Reynolds singled, Nick Gonzales struck out and the Dodgers intentionally walked Oneil Cruz to load the bases. That brought Davis — occupying Flores’ lineup spot — to the plate. He grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Saturday featured a remarkably similar move. Esmerlyn Valdez was Pittsburgh’s best hitter that night, going 2-for-3 with a walk and scoring a run. After Valdez doubled in the eighth, Kelly pinch-ran Billy Cook for him.

Again, the move went nowhere. Cook reached third before Reynolds and Cruz both struck out, leaving him stranded. Even if Cook represented a marginal upgrade on the bases, was that advantage really worth removing the only Pirates hitter who had reached base multiple times?

Don Kelly's constant tinkering continues to make life harder for Pirates

Then came Sunday’s head-scratcher. Kelly sat Oneil Cruz against Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell despite Cruz entering the game batting .305 against left-handed pitching this season. Managing platoon advantages is one thing, but automatically treating every lefty-lefty matchup as undesirable regardless of what the player has actually done is another.

The Pirates lost all three games. Kelly deserves neither all of the blame nor even most of it. Players still have to hit, pitch and execute. But a manager’s job is to put those players in the best possible position to succeed.

Too often, Kelly seems determined to manufacture an advantage instead of recognizing when he already has one.

Sometimes the fastest runner doesn’t need to replace the better hitter. Sometimes the platoon matchup doesn’t outweigh the player’s actual performance. Sometimes the correct move is simply resisting the urge to make one. For Kelly, that continues to be the hardest lesson to learn.

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