Kevin Gorman's Take 5: It's really bad when Shane Bieber has more wins than the Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates couldn’t decide which was worse, how Shane Bieber blanked them in a 2-0 win or that the Cleveland Indians right-hander has more wins this season (five) than they do (four).
But who’s counting?
The Pirates (4-17) not only have the worst record in baseball but the worst batting average (.210) in the National League. The only team hitting worse? The Indians (16-9), who are hitting .201 but outscored the Pirates, 14-4, in sweeping their three-game series at PNC Park.
Staying positive amid a four-game losing streak isn’t easy, but Pirates pitcher Trevor Williams said the players are working hard and dealing with the circumstances as best they can. Injuries have taken a toll on the pitching staff, and postponements have thrown hitters’ timing off.
“We’re all trying to keep as much perspective as possible,” Pirates pitcher Trevor Williams said. “There’s no denying that we’ve lost a lot of games, and we are all guys that demand greatness and demand perfection. …
“We’re waiting for opportunities for the game to present itself to us where we can capitalize on mistakes from the other team. In this series, we had a few times where we look at the game and we say, ‘We beat ourselves here.’ It gets amplified in a season, in a truncated season, a 60-game season; however, guys are showing up at the field, and they’re going to show up at the field tomorrow expecting to win. It’s a mindset that we haven’t lost. No matter what our record says, we’re showing up at the field tomorrow against the (Milwaukee) Brewers expecting to win.”
The Pirates had a bit of both against the Indians. Bieber was as advertised in striking out 11. But the Pirates also made costly mistakes that prevented them from capitalizing.
1. Whiffed: Bieber is the fourth pitcher to register double-digit strikeouts against the Pirates this season, and the second in the span of a week.
Sonny Gray fanned 10 in the Reds’ 8-1 win on Aug. 14 at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. Before that, Tyler Chatwood had 11 strikeouts for the Chicago Cubs in a 4-3 win over the Pirates on Aug. 1 at Wrigley Field. And Milwaukee’s Brandon Woodruff had 10 Ks in a 3-0 win over the Pirates on July 29 at PNC Park.
“We’ve faced some really good arms. I’d be hard-pressed to find a team in the league that has to face collectively some of the arms that we have to face this year,” said Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings, who had two hits Thursday night. “You have to go out, and you have to compete and answer the bell. Yes, we are facing really good arms. But also, yes, we can do better.”
Shane Bieber 85 mph Slider⚔️ pic.twitter.com/EdbF76kDqH
— Pitchertoday (@pitchertoday) August 21, 2020
2. Below the line: Prior to playing the Indians, the Pirates had six days off in an eight-day span because of positive covid-19 tests that forced postponements at St. Louis and Cincinnati.
That’s a long layoff for Pirates hitters, and their timing is clearly off. Josh Bell is batting .200, and four regulars are batting below the Mendoza Line: Adam Frazier (.171), Bryan Reynolds (.174), Jarrod Dyson (.133) and Gregory Polanco (.070).
Shelton gave Frazier, Reynolds and Polanco the night off, but Frazier had to fill in at designated hitter after Colin Moran was ejected and Reynolds was used as a pinch hitter in the ninth.
Their results? Three strikeouts.
3. Picked off: The Pirates have a penchant for pulling themselves out of scoring position. On Wednesday night, Dyson was thrown out while taking a lead at second. On Thursday night, Erik Gonzalez got a terrible jump and was thrown out at third in the third inning with one out and Bell at the plate.
“I think he thought he had an opportunity to catch (Jose) Ramirez napping,” Shelton said. “It wasn’t a straight steal. I think he sort of pseudo’d the length, thinking that Ramirez was going to drift off farther. Obviously, that did not work out.”
Nor did Bell’s at-bat, as he struck out to end the inning.
Crew Chief reviews call that Jacob Stallings hits a foul ball in the 7th; call confirmed, foul ball. Powered by @Mitel. pic.twitter.com/ew4DQ50vY5
— MLB Replays (@MLBReplays) August 21, 2020
4. Foul up: The Pirates thought they tied the game in the seventh when Stallings hit one deep to left that appeared to ricochet off the foul pole and into the left-field seats.
But video replays showed that the ball actually hit the wire that holds up the protective netting along the third base line. Which leads to this question: Why is there still protective netting up when there are no fans allowed in the stands?
Stallings still hit a two-out single off Oliver Perez, but Nick Wittgren replaced Perez and got Gonzalez to ground out to end the inning – and, perhaps, the Pirates’ best scoring chance.
5. Losing grip: The Indians scored their second run in the eighth, when Beau Taylor hit a bases-loaded grounder to first and Bell was charged with an error on the throw to the plate.
Bell’s revamped throwing motion continues to cause issues, as he has gone from sidearm to submarine. His throw to the plate sailed and pulled Stallings off the plate, and Franmil Reyes scored when Stallings failed to put the tag on him.
For that, Stallings apologized to Bell.
“I just told him, ‘Sorry.’ I tried to reach as far as I could,” Stallings said. “He said he kinda got a bad grip on it. That’s why it sailed on him a little bit. I feel bad for him because he has worked really hard on his throwing. He’s gotten so much better. To get a bad grip on that one and make a little bit of a wide throw, I feel bad for him because he’s put the work in, and he deserves to make those plays because he has gotten a lot better.”
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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