Pittsburgh Pirates: SPs Did Their Job, Roster Shake Ups Needed & More Takeaways From Series Loss in Baltimore

The Pittsburgh Pirates woes continued in Baltimore as they lost two of three and are now 2-11 in their last 13 games

To say the Pittsburgh Pirates have struggled the last two weeks would be putitng it lightly. After getting off to a 20-8 start to the season, the team has gone 2-11 in their last 13 games to slump to 22-19 on the season.

Their 22-19 mark is still good for second place in the National League Central. Sitting 1.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pirates are now prepping for an off day on Monday. This off day comes after they were able to salvage the final game of their weekend series in Baltimore.

Before looking ahead to the Detroit Tigers this week, we'll take one more look back at their series in Baltimore. A series loss that dropped the Pirates to 6-6-1 in series played this season. Now, let's take a look at takeaways from their series loss at Camden Yards.

Leave Andrew McCutchen at the top of the lineup

When the Pittsburgh Pirates re-signed Andrew McCutchen this past offseason I wrote about the possiblity of him batting leadoff this season. Well, Sunday afternoon this finally happened as Derek Shelton put McCutchen at the top of his lineup.

This marked the first time since 2011 that McCutchen had bat leadoff for the Pirates. He proceeded to lead the game off with a single before coming around to score the first run of the game. Moving forward, Shelton should leave McCutchen at the top of the lineup.

McCutchen owns a 14.8% walk rate and a .359 on-base percentage. Both of these numbers are very healthy for a leadoff hitter. When you take Oneil Cruz out of the equation due to being on the injured list, McCutchen's walk rate is second on the team behind Jack Suwinski while his OBP is third behind Suwinski and Jason Delay.

Cutch undoubtedly still has it in him to be a table setter at the top of a lineup. Leaving him in the leadoff spot is a move that could benefit a struggling Pirate lineup. At least for now, Shelton should stick with Cutch leading off.

The starting pitching did their job

A big reason the Pirates got off to the 20-8 was due to how well the starting rotation was pitching. While the rotation has slumped some during the team's struggles, they certainly did their job against the Orioles.

Johan Oviedo struggled with his command throughout his start on Friday night. Despite this, he was able to buckle down and get big outs when he needed to. Oviedo and the Pirates had a 1-0 lead entering the 6th inning when he was pulled from the game with runners on the corners and no one out.

Oviedo would be charged with a run that scored after he exited the game. However, if Austin Hedges would have found a pitch from Dauri Moreta that bounced in front of the plate there's a real chance that run does not score.

Struggling mightily with fastball command but still limiting a very good Oriole lineup to 1 run while pitching into the 6th inning was a good outing from Oviedo. It should also prove to be a good learning experience for the young righty.

Saturday night was a similar story for Roansy Contreras. His swing-and-miss stuff was not working and he allowed too much hard contact. This led to Contreras allowing a solo home run in both the 1st and 2nd innings. However, that was it for Contreras and allowing runs.

Contreras retired 15 of the final 19 batters he faced on his way to pitching 7 strong innings. Every team in baseball will take 7 innings of 2 run baseball from their starting pitcher each and every night, especially on the road agaisnt a lineup the quality of Baltimore's. Unfortunately, due to the team's offensive woes this strong start from Contreras was not enough.

Sunday afternoon Mitch Keller turned in his second consecutive dominant start. Keller pitched 7 scoreless innings, allowed just four hits, and became just the third pitcher in Pirate history to strikeout 13 batters without issuing a walk in a game.

While the Pirates were able to salvage the series finale behind Keller on Sunday, in each game of the series they got strong enough starting pitching to win. Hopefully this will prove to be the start of a another long stretch of strong starting pitching.

Roster changes need to happen now

To build off the Underwood Jr. point, the roster needs some sort of shake ups. Sure, the bullpen has been the least of the issues during this slide but reinforcements could still come there. In additiong to jettisoning Underwood Jr., the Pirates need to option a position player to go back to an eight man bullpen. This would create a spot for two out of the three of Bolton, Selby, and Mlodzinski.

Where the team needs the biggest boost is offensively. There is zero reason for Henry Davis to still be in the minors. Zero. Zilch. None. He was drafted no. 1 overall as an advanced college bat who could climb through the minors quickly.

Now that Davis is healthy he is showing that he was that advanced college bat who could rise quickly. Entering play on Sunday Davis owned a .310/.459/.667 slash line with 8 home runs, a 205 wRC+, 17.1% walk rate, and a 19.8% strikeout rate in 111 plate appearances at Double-A.

Davis needs to join the team in Detroit in an effort to spark the offense, especially with how poor the catcher position is for the Pirates. Austin Hedges simply is not a major league hitter, and Jason Delays is 2 for his last 13 as his unsustainable hot start is now beginning to even out.

Davis could also be used in right field, allowing Connor Joe to slide to first base to get a struggling Carlos Santana off his feet more. Perhaps that he is healthy and back with Triple-A Indy now they could try a promotion of Jared Triolo with the idea of helping to get more offense out of first base.

On May 21st of last season the Orioles promoted Adley Rutschman to the majors. At that point the Orioles strapped themselves to a rocket that has not slowed down. However, waiting as long as they did to promote Rutschman likely cost them a Wild Card berth last season.

This is not to say that Davis would have the same impact as Rutschman. Although, both were college catchers selected at the top of the draft. It should be viewed as a warning to not wait too long to make a move, however.