Extra-inning losses teach Pirates to keep battling late in games

Back-to-back strikeouts by Gregory Polanco and Erik Gonzalez provided a humbling end to another extra-inning loss for the Pittsburgh Pirates and served as a symbol of their season.

The Pirates went down swinging.

Their reaction to the 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians in 10 innings Tuesday night at PNC Park is starting to sound like a mantra from the Pirates (4-15): If nothing else, they fight to the finish.

“It stinks, for sure, but we take the positives and the positives are that we’re battling,” Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman said. “If we’re down late in games, we’re still doing our best to come back and compete, really just every batter going up there competing. I guess getting to extra innings is a good sign, given where we’re at right now. Having a chance to win late, we’ll take the positive out of that.”

If the Pirates want to change the outcome, they have some work to do. It’s easy to blame the bullpen for blowing a late lead or failing to prevent runs, but it’s more complicated than that. The Pirates are 1-6 in one-run games and 0-4 in extra innings. Some of it is self-inflicted. Some of it is bum luck. They have been haunted by hit batters, passed balls, walks and home runs. They have made costly baserunning gaffes and been victimized by questionable calls.

It’s all part of a sharp learning curve in a shortened season for a team whose starting rotation and bullpen have been injury riddled and with a starting lineup that has only repeated itself once in the first 19 games.

“We have to figure ways to finish games out,” Shelton said. “We’ve got to figure out ways to execute. That’s something that we have to continue to get better at and continue to work on. We’re making games close and coming back, but we have to figure out a way to finish ’em.”

The Pirates blew a four-run lead in the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers and lost the home opener 6-5 in 11 innings on July 27 at PNC Park.

In a 2-1 loss in 11 innings to the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 2 at Wrigley Field, catcher Jacob Stallings was thrown out trying to go from second to home in the 10th inning, and Newman was thrown out going from second to third in the 11th.

Five days later, Adam Frazier hit a two-out, two-run homer to send it into extra innings against the Detroit Tigers before Dovydas Neverauskas gave up four runs in the 11th of a 17-13 loss.

“We give ourselves a chance to win every time,” said Pirates pitcher Derek Holland, an 11th-year veteran. “Unfortunately, sometimes the results don’t go our way. But it’s showing that as a young team, maturing, fighting, continuing to keep plugging away and not giving up is something you can look forward to.”

When it comes to the extra-inning loss to Cleveland, the Pirates can question whether Carlos Santana’s three-run homer to left field was fair or foul, but they could have avoided the controversy altogether.

Jarrod Dyson was picked off at second on a throw by Cleveland catcher Roberto Perez when Adam Frazier failed to lay down a bunt. That was a failure of execution by Frazier, even if video replays showed that Dyson’s left hand was touching the back of the bag. Josh Bell also struck out with runners on first and second base.

Those plays are the difference between winning and losing in extra innings, a lesson the Pirates are learning the hard way.

“You have to make sure that you execute,” Shelton said. “We’re getting ourselves in situations where we’re executing up until that point, then once we get to that point, we have not executed yet. That’s going to be the final step.”