Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: Bubba Chandler's rough start had more to do with Brew Crew
That Bubba Chandler’s starting debut Sunday was disastrous was deflating, given that he was billed as baseball’s best pitching prospect. That the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie right-hander was disgusted with his performance, however, was a sign of his competitive fire.
Chandler came out firing four-seam fastballs at the Milwaukee Brewers, only for Brice Turang to hit a 98.1-mph offering at the top of the strike zone for a leadoff single and Isaac Collins to smack a 100.1-mph heater above the zone to put the first two batters he faced on base.
“They didn’t really ambush it. They just put it in play and let the ball work for itself,” Chandler said of his four-seamer. “When you see crappy stuff like that happen the first two batters of the game, you make good pitches and get screwed, you try to throw other stuff and make it nasty. That (crap) never works.”
It only got worse from there, as William Contreras turned an 0-2 count into a full-count walk, Jake Bauers hit a two-run double and Andrew Vaughn added an RBI single. Chandler gave up four runs before he recorded his first out and lasted only 2 2/3 innings in the 10-2 loss.
Chandler should have a discussion on disastrous debuts with Mitch Keller, who gave up six runs on six hits, including a grand slam, in his first MLB start on Memorial Day 2019. Keller came up as a highly touted power pitcher but since has evolved by expanding his repertoire and finding resolve while enduring peaks and valleys with the Pirates.
“You’ve got to flush it, as cliché as that is,” Keller told TribLive. “That’s the easiest way forward. Analyze what went well, what you can work on and what didn’t go well. It’s a bunch of singles. He’s got unbelievable stuff. You’ve just got to trust that and fill it up as much as possible and induce weak contact.
“Absolutely, that’s my mentality. Anything that’s already happened, there’s literally nothing you can change. There’s no sense in worrying about it. You’ve got to keep moving forward.”
Moving forward, Pirates manager Don Kelly said Chandler will be a starting pitcher. Kelly didn’t say whether Chandler would take his next turn in the rotation and cautioned that he still could see action in bulk relief but was adamant that the 22-year-old has a bright future.
After tossing eight scoreless innings with three hits and one walk against six strikeouts in two relief appearances, Chandler has allowed 15 runs on 12 hits and three walks with six strikeouts in his past two outings while surrendering home runs to Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages.
Chandler knows he has some work to do. It should begin with a flush and follow with a conversation with someone like Keller.
“I want to start,” Chandler said, “but I’ve got to be, I’ve got to do better.”
Chandler’s struggles in his first start might have had more to do with the Brew Crew.
1. Have a Brew: It was amazing to see the Pirates sweep the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers only to be swept by the NL Central-leading Brewers in back-to-back series.
Where the reigning World Series champions have MLB’s highest payroll, the Brewers have baseball’s best record and play a style that the Pirates should want to emulate.
“They’re a good team. That’s certainly part of it. They’re holding the standard right now in the NL Central. We need to hold ourselves to that same bar,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said on his weekly radio show on 93.7 FM. “Over the years, I’ve had a chance to watch them a lot, including this year. They’re winning, and it’s a little bit of an old-school way in some regards: It’s pitching, it’s defense and baserunning. They’ve got a good, solid lineup depth, but it’s not like they’re loaded with superstars. They make a lot of contact. They can run. They run the bases really well. They play really good defense.”
The Pirates have an edge in starting pitching, though Cherington complimented the Brewers for their pitch execution and sequencing and relying on the defense behind them.
Cherington was asked if the Brewers should serve as a model.
“I think every team is going to be different, but the things you clearly take from how they play the game is the defensive execution and the way they run the bases,” Cherington said. “Clearly, there’s an identity. It’s not an accident that they’re acquiring players who do those things really well.”
That should be a model for the Pirates, but so should this.
“It seems what Milwaukee does is they’re ready for that one mistake. When you make that one mistake, they take advantage of it. And they don’t beat themselves,” Cherington said. “In some ways, really respect how they play.”
A day earlier, Kelly talked about what is special about the Brewers’ identity and why it has translated to success this season.
“They compete really well. They battle at the plate. They’re tough outs, and they play really good defense, which makes it really tough,” Kelly said. “Their ability to foul pitches off and work counts and find a way to wear pitchers down. Then they run. They’re aggressive on the bases, too.”
2. Tired outcomes: Cherington noted that despite the Pirates having a 25-22 record since the All-Star break, they have struggled against Milwaukee. They went 3-10 in the season series with the Brewers.
“We’ve played pretty well overall since the All-Star break against everyone except this team,” Cherington said on 93.7 FM. “I think we’re all tired of these outcomes.”
Two outcomes noted by radio station’s Dan Zangrilli that the Pirates should be tired of from the Brewers series: Over the three games, they had 14 innings where they went down 1-2-3. That included a stretch of 34 out of 35 batters being retired from the fourth inning of Friday’s 5-2 loss until the sixth inning of Saturday’s 4-1 loss.
The Pirates struck out 11 times in that span. The only player to reach base in that span was Bryan Reynolds, with a single in the first inning Saturday.
The Pirates could have used some of Milwaukee’s signature traits when playing against the Brewers.
3. Identity theft: Kelly went deep into discussion about the type of identity he wants the Pirates to play with, and it starts with being aggressive in situations without being afraid to fail.
“It’s not always going to be perfect,” Kelly said. “We’re going to get thrown out. There’s going to be times when we try to steal and we get caught. But how do we do it in the right way, to be aggressive and put pressure on the defense to stop us, basically.”
Kelly believes that the turning point for the season came right after the All-Star break, after they were swept by the AL-worst Chicago White Sox by a combined score of 27-7.
The Pirates responded by sweeping the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers, starting with a 3-0 win with Paul Skenes pitching. That’s where Kelly saw Pirates players buy in to a team-first identity.
“That was the first time it was really evident to me, that series with Detroit after a tough series against the White Sox,” Kelly said. “Then to build on that team-first offensive identity with that team-first baserunning mentality, and Bryan leads it. He is super prepared, always anticipating, knows the scores.”
It showed up in the four-run fifth inning of Thursday’s 5-3 win over the Dodgers. The Pirates got successive singles by Jared Triolo, Nick Gonzales and Reynolds, who hit an RBI single to score Triolo and then took second on the throw. Nick Yorke hit a bases-loaded double to drive in two more runs.
Kelly also singled out catcher Henry Davis scoring from first base on Triolo’s two-out double in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s 9-7 win over the Dodgers.
“I don’t think we’ve talked about it a lot, but Henry Davis scoring from first the other day on a Triolo double epitomized that, as well,” Kelly said. “That ball didn’t get all the way to the wall, and he has scored easy. He didn’t have to slide. That’s the mindset. You don’t have to be fast to be a good baserunner. You can be a good teammate and be prepared and run the bases like that on a consistent basis.”
4. Look like Bae: On that note, the Pirates’ emphasis on baserunning was evident in their recall of Ji Hwan Bae from Triple-A Indianapolis.
Cherington said the move was made because of the injuries to Jack Suwinski (groin) and Ronny Simon (shoulder) left the Pirates short of options in left field, and Bae “certainly can handle that position” at PNC Park.
“Despite a recent stint on the IL and working around that for Bae, he’s really been a steady performer in Triple-A this year. He’s worked really hard and been very focused on some of the stuff we’ve put him in front of him,” Cherington said. “You hear people say this: He’s had less major league opportunity this year than he did a couple years ago and yet we believe he’s a better player now, a more mature, consistent player. It won’t be everyday at-bats here for him, but we’re probably looking at seeing him getting out there against major league pitching again. He’s earned this opportunity to come back, and he’ll help us today in left field.”
That’s where Bae started on Sunday against the Brewers, when he went 0 for 2 but drew a one-out walk in the eighth inning. Then Bae showed off what makes him special, using his speed to race from first to score on Cam Devanney’s pinch-hit double to left.
“Bae walked right there in a tough situation,” Kelly said. “He’s coming in and facing a guy (Jacob Misiorowski) throwing 102. I thought he had some good at-bats and found his way on (then) Devanney coming up and getting the double and knocking him in. Bae’s speed is unbelievable.”
5. Road worriers: Despite being swept by the Brewers, the Pirates have a 42-33 record (.560 winning percentage) at PNC Park this season. That’s a 90-win pace over a full 162-game season.
On the road, however, the Pirates are 22-47 (.318). That’s a 110-loss pace. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they are on a 72-win pace heading into their trip to Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Kelly was asked about the disparity of their home-away play, but he doesn’t have the answers or an explanation.
“I wish I knew, and I’ve been waiting for somebody to ask,” Kelly said. “It’s the elephant in the room. It’s something that’s mind-blowing when you look at it because we try to talk about things all the time: What is it? Why is it? What can we do different on the road? Is there something we do different at home than on the road? Do guys just feel better about being at PNC Park?”
Kelly pointed to signs of improvement. Since the All-Star break, the Pirates are 16-12 at home and 9-10 on the road. On their last road trip, they split a four-game series at St. Louis and took two of three at Boston. Before that, they were swept at Milwaukee but played three close games at Wrigley Field, beating the Chicago Cubs, 3-2, then losing by scores of 3-1 and 4-3.
“I would say that we’ve played better on the road lately. I don’t have any data to back that up. Maybe it’s just going into St. Louis and Boston because the one before that was not as good with Milwaukee and Chicago,” Kelly said. “After that Milwaukee series, I think we played well in Chicago. I think we lost four or five one-run games, one two-run game. It wasn’t like we went into Wrigley and got blown out. They were close games. How do we find a way to go on the road and win those close games?”
Perhaps the opponents will help.
The Orioles are 33-38 and the Nationals 29-42 at home.
Not that it would provide much solace for the season, but the Pirates need to win 12 of their final 18 games — a dozen on the road — to match their 76-win total of the past two seasons.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.