Pirates pitcher Wil Crowe hopes rocky September doesn't define his entire season

As the ball sailed over the left-field fence and into the stands, Wil Crowe bent down into a catcher’s crouch on the mound, his body language oozing major frustration.

He had good reason to be upset. The home run was a no-doubter, a 3-1 changeup Aaron Judge demolished at an exit velocity of 111.6 mph, per Statcast.

Surrendering the home run to Judge at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 20 was ignominious in two ways.

On one hand, Crowe had blown an 8-4 Pirates lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, allowing the Yankees to rally and win by a run.

And then there was the fact that his name would forever be etched into the MLB record book as the man who allowed Judge’s 60th home run of the season, tying him with Babe Ruth, whose 60 homers in 1927 stood as the MLB record until 1961.

At the end of the day, it was a single appearance, but one that seemed to exemplify Crowe’s late-season slump that’s tanked his numbers and sent him searching for answers.

As the Pirates prepare for their penultimate series of the season, three games in St. Louis, Crowe owns a 6-10 record and 4.38 ERA. In 76 innings pitched, he has struck out 68 and walked 38.

Few relievers are exempt from having slip-ups throughout a season.

Crowe is no exception, but starting with a rough outing at the end of August, in which Crowe blew a save and was the losing pitcher in a 7-5 defeat at Milwaukee, things have come undone for the 28-year-old.

Since Aug. 29, through his last nine outings, Crowe owns a 13.70 ERA.

“It’s not easy, to be frank,” Crowe said. “It’s a grind. … You go home, you digest it, but as a reliever, you’ve got to be ready to pitch the next day. For me, it might sting a little bit, you might not get as much sleep, and you might think about it a little more, but when you wake up, you’ve got to clear those thoughts and get back out there.”

In 2021, Crowe led the Pirates with 25 starts, but this past spring training, following conversations with manager Derek Shelton and pitching coach Oscar Marin, he was sent to the bullpen.

Crowe went on to thrive in his new role, turning into one of the Pirates’ steadier relievers throughout the first few months of the season.

After a rocky June in which Crowe posted a 1-3 record and 5.93 ERA, he returned to form the next month, earning eight holds and looking solid as the team’s eighth-inning set-up man for David Bednar.

When Bednar was placed on the injured list in early August, Crowe was thrust into the closer’s role.

Things started off well enough, with Crowe getting a save Aug. 2 and a win the following day in 1 1/3 innings of work against Milwaukee.

As August progressed, Crowe had a couple of shaky appearances during the Pirates’ road trip to Phoenix and San Francisco, allowing three earned runs in three innings pitched Aug. 10 and Aug. 14.

But dating to mid-August, Crowe’s bad outings have felt less and less like isolated incidents.

Granted, Crowe did enjoy something of a minor bounceback during his most recent outing, tossing two shutout innings, the sixth and seventh, Tuesday against Cincinnati and picking up the win.

With respect to Crowe’s role these last few games, it may be most likely to expect to see him coming in as a middle reliever.

“I think we’ll probably play it situationally, like we’ve done all year long,” Shelton said. “I would assume his outings come earlier in games, but it could all depend on who we have available that night, if he goes back to a leverage spot, too.”

While his performances have left much to be desired of late, Crowe hopes to find a silver lining in what he was able to do earlier in the year.

“For four or five months, I was really, really good — that’s who I am as a player,” Crowe said. “These last three, four or five outings don’t define my year and don’t say that I’ve had a good or a bad year.

“The numbers are what they are, but if you look at the full body of work and pay attention to most of the season, then you don’t worry about what’s happened recently.”

Shelton echoed that sentiment, giving Crowe credit for making the transition from starter to reliever, in addition to dealing with a shifting bullpen role as the season went on.

“Overall, I think he’s had a very productive year,” Shelton said. “I think what we’ll do is we’ll look at the whole body of work and realize this guy’s done some really good things. He started off the year in a different role, kind of transitioned back, but overall, there’s a lot of positives there and that’s what we’ll dwell on.

“We will not just highlight three or four outings that aren’t as consistent as we would like them to be.”