Kevin Gorman's Take 5: Injury a lost opportunity for Pirates OF Anthony Alford
The sight of Anthony Alford fracturing his right elbow after crashing into the center-field wall made Derek Shelton sick to his stomach, not just because of their history but the lost opportunity for Alford.
“Just to see the pain and anguish in his eyes, it’s difficult,” Shelton said. “It’s something that we have to move through. But I definitely feel for him.”
Pain and anguish has been a recurring theme for the Pittsburgh Pirates this summer, as we have watched so many players lose opportunities to prove that they can be everyday major leaguers.
We watched Phillip Evans break his jaw in a collision with Gregory Polanco, when Evans was leading the team in batting (.359). We watched Nick Burdi, Michael Feliz and Clay Holmes suffer season-ending arm injuries. We watched Keone Kela, named closer at the start of spring training, miss all of training camp after testing positive for covid-19 only to experience right forearm issues when he returned.
The injuries are taking a toll on the Pirates, though Shelton refused to blame their 6-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night on Alford’s injury when serving up three home runs to Eugenio Suarez had more to do with it.
“I think when we have injuries, we just have to build on the opportunity,” Shelton said. “We’re seeing guys that are stepping up and doing things. We’ve talked about opportunity a lot. Honestly, any time you have injuries, (this) is one of those ones that’s a freak one. Then you have arm injuries and you have other things. We just have to continue to move past it, kind of challenge guys to seize the opportunity and then when we do get back to full strength, it’s going to make for good competition and interesting conversation.”
Tucker Barnhart - Cincinnati Reds (3) pic.twitter.com/YBfMP57vwf
— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) September 6, 2020
1. Who’s in center?: With Alford headed to the injured list, there is an opportunity for someone to split playing time in center with Cole Tucker.
The most likely candidate is Jason Martin, who has played in only two games this season. He could be recalled from the alternate training site in Altoona on Sunday, given that he’s a natural center fielder with good speed who has played in only 22 career games.
It’s also possible, however, that the Pirates could use Adam Frazier in the outfield and give someone else a shot. Frazier played three games in left field last week when Bryan Reynolds was on paternity leave, but has 13 career games in center.
That would allow Shelton to use Kevin Newman at second base, with Erik Gonzalez at shortstop and Ke’Bryan Hayes at third.
JT Riddle also has 30 career starts in center, so he could play there and allow the Pirates some flexibility with their roster move.
Another candidate could be first baseman Will Craig, who was 0 for 3 in starting the first game of a doubleheader at St. Louis but played solid defense. Then again, the Pirates also could bring up someone like Jose Osuna, who can play the corner infield and outfield positions but is batting .148 in 18 games this season.
2. Speedy delivery: Trevor Williams has struggled this season, and the Pirates have spent some time trying to figure out what was going wrong for the right-hander.
Williams dropped his windup and pitched strictly out of the stretch against the Reds, something he attributed to a group discussion with the coaching staff.
“There’s certain checkpoints in your delivery that you need to hit, and once everything’s timed up right, you want to be to be in a certain position every time you release a ball,” Williams said. “And with the windup, for whatever reason, I felt like I was rushing through it. So, we looked at guys around the league that switched. It’s an easy reset, it’s an easy thing to out of the stretch, it’s up-down-go, up-down-go.”
Williams threw a career-high 111 pitches (68 strikes) in six innings, but gave up three home runs while striking out six. The results weren’t what he wanted but Williams liked the way it felt. He has to make a few adjustments, mainly to keep it fluid, but found that “it opens up a lot of different options” for a pitcher.
“I thought, overall, it put my body in a good spot to do what I needed to do to perform and to be as consistent as I can getting my hand to a certain spot,” Williams said. “But we’re going to work on it again in two days in my bullpen and then see if it’s going to stick. But so far, it felt good going out of the stretch.”
3. Captain Hook: When Shelton made a mound visit in the sixth inning, Williams was ready to hand him the ball. He had thrown 106 pitches and just walked Shigo Akiyama.
Derek Holland, who was warming up in the bullpen, was even announced in the press box as the new pitcher. Holland headed toward the bullpen exit, ready to take the field.
One problem: Shelton wasn’t taking Williams out.
“I think that’s the first time with any of our starters I’ve gone to the mound and haven’t taken ‘em out,” Shelton said. “I think the pitch before he was frustrated on the walk. I wanted to make sure that he was all right. I asked him, ‘How are you feeling? You good?’ Let’s go after Garcia. And he did.”
Williams, who got Jose Garcia to fly out to right to end the inning, laughed about it afterward.
“That was funny,” Williams said. “I was at 100-plus pitches. I thought he was coming to get me. We had a ‘What are you doing?’ moment. ‘I don’t know. What are you doing?’ He said he trusts me to get the last guy out, and I said, ‘All right, here we go. Let’s get Garcia out right here.’ I’m glad that he trusted me to finish the sixth. It’s something that I hope he gives me the option to from now on. I’m gonna hold that ball until he rips it out of my hand from now on. I’ve learned my lesson.”
4. Numbers game: Williams has been the most durable of the Pirates’ starting pitchers, throwing a team-high 40 1/3 innings in eight starts, but has a 1-6 record with a 5.80 ERA and 1.51 WHIP.
Williams knows he can’t escape his statistics.
“Your numbers are going to be your numbers,” Williams said. “If it looks bad, so be it. I know that I’m a good pitcher. I know that, at the end of the day, I’m executing most of my pitches. And there are some things that I do need to work on, there’s no doubt about that. However, I’m taking as much positive as I can.”
Williams focused on how he was spinning the ball, his success pitching out of the stretch and how he kept the game flowing. He also had three 1-2-3 innings, and got out of a second-inning jam with runners on first and second by striking out Garcia.
“There were some tremendous positives,” Williams said. “Whenever I pitch next, I’m going to keep my head down and continue to hunt those positives and hope to catch a couple breaks along the way, but it’s one of those things where it’s a short season. Sometimes all it takes is a couple bad starts or a bad stretch for a hitter to not be able to make up like you usually can in a season.”
5. Cap tip: Another number that doesn’t reflect well on Williams is that he has given up 10 home runs, second on the Pirates to Holland.
Williams gave up three homers, one to Tucker Barnhart and two to Suarez. Together, he and Holland allowed four against the Reds. Williams said he was trying to get Suarez to ground into a double play on the first homer but the second was due to fatigue.
“The one he hit in the sixth is one of those where I have to do a better job recognizing my body, my heater up at 100-plus pitches may not play as good as it did earlier in the game,” Williams said. “You just have to read swings and read certain things. But it’s one of those things that you tip your hats to those guys. Barnhart put a good swing on it, and Suarez did twice.”
Suarez became the first to hit three in a game against the Pirates since last season, when St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong hit a trio on July 24. Before that, Derek Dietrich of the Reds hit three against the Pirates on May 28.
That three-homer game gave Dietrich 17 home runs before June. He hit two more the rest of the season for the Reds.
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.
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