Diary of a suffering Pirates fan: Games 23-26. How do we keep losing to these guys

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Rowdy Tellez is having a bad week.

In his last 7 games, Tellez is batting .053 with a .143 on base percentage. He has no extra base hits.

On Wednesday, it was his error that helped start the 3rd inning that jump-started Milwaukee’s 3-run rally. The Brewers would go on to win the game 3 to 2.

On Thursday, he was not charged with any errors, but he made two fielding gaffes in the game. In the seventh inning, he failed to touch first base on a throw from third baseman Jared Triolo, which went as a single instead of an error. Although that non-error extended the inning, it did not result in a run.

But earlier in the game, in the 3rd inning, the Pirates had William Contreras potentially caught in a rundown between home and third. Tellez had cut off a throw from the outfield on a hit and had Contreras dead to right at third, except that he took too long to throw the ball to third. And by the time he did, Contreras had scampered back to third safely. In watching the play on instant replay, I’m still not sure if he just couldn’t get it out of his glove or simply didn’t process fast enough that he needed to throw the ball to third. Either way, Contreras got back to third and the next batter, Rhys Hoskins, singled to tie the game.

In the two losses to Milwaukee, Tellez did not record a hit.

Tellez’s misery at the plate was probably best personified in his last at-bat on Wednesday. With the Pirates trailing 3 to 2 in the eighth, Tellez struck a low inside pitch solidly and golfed it high and deep to right center field. On a warmer day, it may have been a home run. But in the cold Pittsburgh April air, the ball just died and landed in the glove of right fielder, Sal Frelick for the third out of the inning. The look of dejection and disbelief on Tellez’s face following the out was telling. It was a look that asked the heavens, “How am I ever going to get a hit in this ballpark when my best-struck balls just die in the outfield?”

But there is the old saying that misery loves company. And Tellez has plenty of company from his teammates. For, unfortunately, Tellez is not the only Pirate slumping. Let’s review:

Michael Taylor is batting .125 in his last 7 games and .186 in his last 15.

Jared Triolo is batting .136 in his last 7 games and .200 in his last 15.

Henry Davis is also batting .136 in his last 7 games and .156 in his last 15.

Edward Olivares is batting .087 in his last 7 games and .222 in his last 15.

That’s a lot of outs being recorded in the past two weeks by these five players. And not surprisingly, the Pirates have had difficulty scoring runs in the past two weeks.

The shame of it is that the Pirates could easily have won all four games against Milwaukee. Christian Yelich was out for the series and without his bat, the Milwaukee lineup was certainly less intimidating and easier to navigate through for Pirates pitchers. Or at least that is what it appeared to look like in the first two games of the series won by the Pirates.

As I watched the series unfold, I thought that the Pirates were the better team. But the better team or not, the Pirates still managed to lose the last two games of the series to make it a split instead of a sweep.

Coming into the series, the Brewers were tied for having the best record in baseball. And as they leave town, I am left to wonder, “How?” How do they keep winning? I think that may be Milwaukee’s superpower. They lull their opponents into a sense of false security. In the off-season the Brewers lost their manager (Craig Counsel), their two best-starting pitchers (Burnes and Woodruff), and their best relief pitcher, Devin Williams, landed on the disabled list to start the season. How was this team going to win? How? After watching them for four games, I still don’t know.

When you get a lead against them, you become overconfident that your team will be able to hold that lead against a less-than-fearsome lineup. But then you don't. And when you fall behind them in the game, you have confidence that you will be able to come back against their bullpen, but then you don't. And that's how Milwaukee escapes Pittsburgh with a split instead of being swept. And that's why they are still in first place in the National League Central.

On Wednesday night, it was former Pirates’ pitcher Bryce Wilson who silenced the Pirates’ bats. “Bryce Wilson,” I thought. “They’re starting Bryce Wilson. The Bryce Wilson that would look good for a couple of innings when he was with the Pirates and then implode in the middle innings. That Bryce Wilson? Oh, boy,” I thought. “Three-game winning streak, here we come.”

And when Bryan Reynolds hit a two-run homer off Wilson in the third, I thought, “Here we go. Good for three innings, and then the implosion begins.” But Wilson did not implode. The Reynolds homer would be the only run the Pirates would score against Wilson. The Milwaukee bullpen would then throw goose eggs at the Pirates the rest of the way.

Of course, this is the Pirates we’re talking about. And when the Pirates lose a game that one thinks that they should win, there are usually Pirates-type things that lead to the loss. And so it was in that fateful third inning. Milwaukee scored three runs on one stinking single. The rest of the baserunners reached via 2 walks 2 hit batsmen and 1 error. And for good measure, there were the obligatory couple of pitches called balls that instant replay showed were strikes. Bad pitching, bad fielding, bad umpiring, and bad luck for sure.

But a good team should be able to overcome these things. And it sure felt like the Pirates were going to. There were some terrific defensive plays made by the Pirates that kept Milwaukee’s run total to three. The Pirate’s bullpen pitched well after that third inning, albeit bailed out by some terrific glove work and throws by Jared Triolo. But when the game ended and fans looked at the scoreboard, it was Bryce Wilson and the Milwaukee Brewers that had won the game. The Milwaukee bullpen had managed to make the three gift runs the Pirates gave them in the 3rd stand-up.

On Getaway day the following afternoon, there were more of those Pirates type things that turned victory into defeat. There was the aforementioned Tellez play. There were two fly/lined balls that didn’t stick in the gloves of Pirates outfielders. Each would have been diving catches, but it was poor routes to the batted balls that led to the outfielders needing Pilates-type to dive in the first place. The first of those hits was a liner to Jack Suwinski.

Suwinski briefly had the ball in his glove, but the ball popped out when Suwinski hit the ground. The Suwinksi non-catch was judged to have had a 65 percent catch probability; The second non-caught hit was dropped by Bryan Reynolds. The Reynolds noncatch was judged to have had a 90 percent catch probability. But, alas, they were not caught and instead they were run-producing hits.

But somehow even with this poor fielding, the Pirates found themselves leading the game 5 to 4. They just needed to get six outs to leave town with a satisfying 3 out of 4 from the first-place Brewers. Victory was within reach until it wasn’t. Aroldis Chapman was brought in in the eighth to protect the one run lead. And it looked like he was going to do it, too. But with two outs a runner on second and 0 balls and 2 strikes on Gary Sanchez, Sanchez somehow caught up to a Chapman 102 mph sinker that didn’t sink so well and deposited it into the right field stands for a two-run homer that put Milwaukee in the lead for good. In a bit of an ironic twist, Sanchez was between the Pirates and Brewers this offseason and chose the Brewers instead.

And for the second time this season, the Pirates blew a late-inning lead on getaway day. A defeat that leaves a very sour taste in the mouths of the Pirates and their fans.

Next up are six games against the Giants and the Oakland A’s on the road. Both teams are below .500. But, this is the Pirates we’re talking about. West Coast road trips are typically not kind to the Pirates, no matter the competition.

Hopefully this goes better than it typically does.

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