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Pittsburgh Pirates: Defensive Woes Continue & More Takeaways From Series Loss Against the Rockies

By Marty Leap |
May 10, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Colorado Rockies catcher Austin Wynns (16) tags
May 10, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Colorado Rockies catcher Austin Wynns (16) tags / Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
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Poor defense and lack of clutch hitting continues to plague the Pittsburgh Pirates who are now 1-9 in their last 10 games played

For as good as things went in April for the Pittsburgh Pirates, they have gone that poorly to start the month of May. After dropping two of three to a sub-.500 Rockies squad at PNC Park, the Pirates are now 1-9 in their last 10 games played and 1-8 in the month of May.

This slide has dropped the Pirates to 21-17 overall on the season, and 6-5-1 in their 12 series played. However, somehow, miraculosuly, this team remains in first place in the National League Central, a half a game ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Before looking ahead to a much needed off day and what could be a very long weekend in Baltimore against a good Oriole team, let's take a look back at a tough series loss agaisnt the Rockies. A series the Pirates should have won.

Defense continues to be a major issue

We discussed it during the team's hot start, but the Pirates have played poor defense most of the season. During their 20-8 start it did not really burn the team at all. However, during their 1-9 skid poor defense has hurt them repeatedly.

The poor defense continued into their series loss against the Rockies. In their 10-1 loss the Rockies were able to grab an early 4-1 lead due to a fielding error on Tucupita Marcano at shortstop. While the error came after Carlos Santana's throw hit the hand of a baserunner, it was still a ball Marcano needed to stop from going into the outfield. This led to only 2 of the 5 runs Luis Ortiz allowed in his start to be earned.

Later in that game, Marcano made a very poor decision to fire a relay throw home with no chance to get the runner out while. On that play Marcano had a runner dead to rights at third base. That led to more Colorado runs. Jason Delay also missed a pop up in foul territory that led to Rockie runs.

Game two was a 10-1 loss. It's hard to point at one thing that went wrong in that lopsided of a defeat. That said, if the Pirates had played a cleaner defensive game and not fallen into an early 5-1 to hole the game could have gone much differently.

In game three the Pirates got off to a strong start. jumping out to a 3-0 lead after 3 innings. It appeared they might be able to exhale some on their way to a less stressful victory to capture the series. Well, this is where poor defense would show up once again.

With two outs in the 4th inning and the Pirates lead 3-1, starting pitcher Rich Hill failed to convert a routine ground ball hit back to him for an out. Hill's error extended the inning, and was followed by a pair of base hits that led to 2 unearned runs.

The error also led to the end of Hill's day. He wound up being pulled after allowing the back-to-back run-scoring hits. Hill was pulled after throwing just 75 pitches with two outs in the 4th inning. Hill did not appear pleased with Derek Shelton's decision, but it was no one's fault but Hill.

Unearned runs are always costly, but even more so when you lose 4-3. Moving forward the Pirates absolutely must clean up their defense. Playing clean defense is made even more important by the current struggling state of the Pirate lineup.

Mitch Keller is reaching ace status

For so long it has appeared that the Pirates were unable to develop a homegrown ace for their starting rotation. Outside of Gerrit Cole’s 2015 season it is hard to pinpoint the last time a homegrown pitcher truly reached ace status for the Pirates.

Well, Mitch Keller is bucking that trend as he ascends to truly pitching at an ace level. In Monday’s series opener Keller did what aces do, he stepped up when his team needed it most. Keller put a foot down and played stopper to end the team’s seven-game losing streak.

Turning in the best start of his professional career, Keller tossed a complete game shutout against the Colorado Rockies. Keller needed just 103 pitches to do so and did not allow a base runner after the 6th inning.

Keller was dominant in his start which continues what has been a spectacular start to the season for the righty. Dating back to May 31st of last season Keller has been one of the best starting pitchers in the National League.

During this 29 start stretch Keller has pitched 170.0 innings, posting a 3.07 ERA and a 3.50 FIP. He’s walked 8.3% of batters faced, struck batters out at a 22.7% clip, and has allowed just 13 home runs (0.69 HR/9). That is top of the rotation, ace level stuff.

Having a true ace is so vital for any team. As we saw in this series, having that goes a long way toward helping to prevent extended losing streaks. There’s a real possibility that the Pirates would currently be on a 10-game losing streak without Keller’s start. Instead, the team is still, somehow, clinging to first place in the National League Central.

Hitting woes with runners in scoring position continue

After starting the season strong with runners in scoring position, the Pirate offense has been woeful in such situations in their last 10 games. Those woes continued against the Colorado Rockies and was arguably the biggest reason why the team lost the rubber match of the series.

With the game tied at 3 in the 6th inning the Pirates were in prime position to grab the lead. Facing Daniel Bard who had zero command they were able to load the bases with no one out. Well, this is where things went south.

Connor Joe, who has been as consistent as any Pirate hitter this season, struck out looking for the first out. Rodolfo Castro then lined out to center field, but it was not deep enough to score Bryan Reynolds who was thrown out at the plate on the play to end the inning.

In the 9th inning the Pirates had a chance again. With two outs Ji Hwan Bae hit a pinch-hit double to put runners on second and third. With the Pirates trailing 4-3 and the winning run at second base, Josh Palacios struck out swinging without ever seeing a strike in his at-bat.

They finished the series 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position and left 20 runners on base.

This series got away

Despite being blown out in game two, this was a series that got away from the Pittsburgh Pirates. The worst part about the series getting away is that it was a series victory that the Pirates were in dire need of securing.

Even though they were blown out in game two, the Pirates had every opportunity to capture game three and the series. Hell, they had plenty of opportunity for it to a bit of a relaxed and at least somewhat stress free victory.

Securing a victory like that to take a series when you have been struggling is the type of things that good baseball teams do. Even though the Pirates are a first place baseball team, it is far from a given that they are a good baseball team.

Not to be repetitive, but they had no business losing the third game of this series. Zero. None. Zilch. Expecially at home against a sub-.500 club. Due to that, they had no business losing this series. Yet, here we are, with this series being one that got away.

Big offensive nights for Henry Davis, Jase Bowen. dark. Next

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