Pirates Must Stop Slide Before it's Too Late
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PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates had a promising start to the season and were one of baseball's most surprising teams, but a recent skid threatens to ruin all the progress they've made over the first month of the season.
The Pirates have lost five straight games, which includes suffering a four-game sweep to the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park, April 27-30, where they allowed double-digit run totals twice and got outscored 30-18.
Pittsburgh now sits .500, 16-16 overall, and last in the highly competitive National League Central Division, of which they've already played four series against so far.
The Pirates will also host their biggest rival in the Cincinnati Reds this weekend, who are 20-11 and top of the division, which means they have to get back to winning ways sooner rather than later.
What's Gone Wrong For the Pirates
The Pirates' longest losing streak prior to this was just two games in the first two games of the season vs. the New York Mets at Citi Field, March 26 and March 28.
Pittsburgh had won five of their next eight series, which included a five-game winning streak and a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles to start play at PNC Park. It also featured three road series wins over divisional rivals in the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers and Reds.
The Pirates should've won their first game vs. the Cardinals, as they had a perfect game with bullpen arms going into the seventh inning, but the generally reliable reliever, Dennis Santana, gave up four runs in the ninth inning in the 4-2 defeat.
Pittsburgh also just hasn't gotten great starting pitching, with 17 earned runs over 18 innings for an 8.50 ERA.
The Pirates had to fight back in the past three games after big deficits, some of which were because the offense didn't get going early, but those deficits were also 6-0 and 11-3 on April 28 and 5-1 on both April 29 and April 30.
Pirates manager Don Kelly sees his players overthinking things at times, instead of letting the game come to them and take their best shot on offense, while also struggling to start off counts better on the mound and not making the routine defensive plays they have in the past.
"I think, from a pitching standpoint, just continuing to get ahead. Doing the things we were doing early on this season," Kelly said."Getting ahead pitching wise, make the plays that we need to make on defense, and put good swings on the ball. I thought that, again, the offense came alive, looking to get that started earlier in the game, from the first inning.
"I thought we did a good job staying with it and giving ourselves opportunities. And then when we get runners in scoring position, not trying to go up and do too much. Just stay within yourself and drive the ball gap-to-gap, take the base hits when we can get them, and that timely hitting is going to be huge as we go through the season."
Why the Pirates Must Get Things Going Now
The Pirates being .500 at 32 games into the season isn't a bad mark for the most part, but with how good their division is, it's definitely something that you don't want to get worse than it already is.
It's not super surprising to see the NL Central as strong as it is, with the Brewers, Cubs and Reds making the playoffs last year and the Cardinals a team that can get wins on their day as well, as they showed the Pirates this week.
The Pirates lack the recent success of those teams, last making the postseason in 2015 and their last winning season coming in 2018.
Surprisingly, the Pirates are just 4.5 games back with 130 games remaining, still plenty of time to get things going, but also a warning that they can't let things continue to cascade into an even longer losing streak.
While some teams wouldn't rise to the challenge of facing a division like the Pirates are nor overcome the history of losing within the franchise, the players are staying positive through this rough stretch.
Pirates right-handed starting pitcher Paul Skenes struggled in his outing vs. the Cardinals, giving up four earned runs over five innings in the 10-5 loss, but thinks that if he and his teammates can do what they've done most of the season, they'll be fine.
"Yeah I mean, every team is going to have skids," Skenes said. "Just got to get back to who we are and just play our game. Not try to do too much. Just think we're trying to do too much a little bit, especially today. Just got to be us."
The Pirates also acquired a veteran leader in second baseman Brandon Lowe this offseason, who has hit eight home runs and driven in 20 RBI, but also brings a history of winning baseball during his past eight seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Lowe has been through rough stretches before and he knows that if the Pirates can get some things to start going their way, they should start winning again sooner rather than later.
"We're still playing some pretty good baseball, honestly, on almost every front of it," Lowe said. "There's just been some unlucky breaks or one or two pitches that our pitchers wish they had back. And vice versa on the offensive side, there's probably one or two pitches guys wish they could get back in there and have another chance at.
"But that's kind of the way the baseball rolls. There's going to be ups and downs and peaks and valleys. Just try to shorten your valleys and get back up on the way up."
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Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.