The Pirates started the week 2-0 versus the division leading Milwaukee Brewers. They then dropped three in a row, won an extra inning game and lost the weekly finale with Jared Jones on the mound. Mix bag of a week for the Pirates, though the same problem as the previous week was overly present with their mostly anemic offense.

In this weekly recap, we will look at each of the three major categories—Offense, Pitching, and Defense—and grade how the Pirates played.

Offense:
The Pirates scored 19 runs this past week, over double what they had scored the previous week, but 8 less then when they were consistently winning. The Pirates were also shut out for the first time this season Friday night versus the Giants of San Fransisco. So, a positive step in the right direction, also interesting how scoring more runs allowed them to win more games. Furthermore, the Pirates managed to hit 6 home runs this week, hopefully the opening salvo for more power to come. That being said it was still a poor offensive output this week. The four exceptions were Oneil Cruz, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Andrew McCutchen and Connor Joe. Outside of those four there were flashes from other Pirates but no true consistency. Bryan Reynolds for example hit a pair of home runs, but managed only four other hits out of his 27 at bats. Rowdy Tellez finally got Rowdy Sunday night, but was 1 for 13 before that game. Cutch starting to heat up will be good for the team as he is one of the ‘elder’ statesmen on the team. The issues however remain that the cold bats outweigh the hot ones. Tellez remains cold, Jack Suwinski is not getting it done yet, Jared Triolo is either very unlucky or just missing some balls. Edward Olivares has been bad since Derek Shelton said it was hard to find him playing time, Michael A. Taylor appears lost at the plate and Henry Davis is on the verge of a demotion. The Pirates as a team struck out 61 times this past week, a 25.7% rate. The 24 walks they took does not overcome the strikeouts, especially with only 52 to go with it. The offense need to get going otherwise it will be a very long summer.

Pitching:
Starting pitching continues to be a very pleasant surprise for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Both Martin Perez and Quinn Priester had six inning zero earned run starts this week. Bailey Falter continued his impressive run with a gem of a game against the Brewers. Jared Jones had a ‘rough’ game on Sunday versus the Giants but still had a good pair of starts this week. Only Mitch Keller had a truly ‘bad’ start giving up four runs over five innings pitched. The bullpen was odd this week, with the two biggest pieces struggling and the rest of it looking dominant. David Bednar and Aroldis Chapman struggled this week, though Bednar’s struggles really just came in the one game. Taking the one game out for Bednar he actually looked more like his old self. Chapman on the other hand walked 5 in 2.1 innings which was the issue. Though it should also be noted the homerun he gave up blowing the mid-week game was an oddity within itself and might not be done again if tried 100 times. The rest of the bullpen was quiet good this week. Colin Holderman and Hunter Stratton stood out with their pitching. Luis Ortiz and Roasny Contreras were also good this week. As was the call-up of Kyle Nicolas who looked dominant in his one inning of work. If this pitching can continue and the bat pick up the Pirates will start rolling again.

Defense:
Down to three errors this week, slow but steady improvement. One error was via Alika Williams in the extra innings win on Saturday. Both the others came in the Wednesday loss to the Brewers a Tellez throwing error and a Luis Ortiz fielding error. Both of these did play a factor to an extend in the loss. Regardless, this is improvement over some of the little league errors we have seen out of the Pirates to this point. There were also a few plays that while not errors were a bit maddening with plays not being made that could have otherwise been made. Some of those slow rolling grounders are what they are but can be hard to watch with a team who’s offense is known not to be able to respond. The Pirates were able to steal four bases the last week, though they also were thrown out twice. Stealing more bases will be good for the Pirates moving forward, it will allow them to put potentially more pressure on opposing pitching.

At 14-15, this isn’t a record to make fans scream in either direction, though the 9-2 start does make it a bit maddening. The issue almost solely falls on the Pirates offense. While it is easy to blame that on the Hitting coach, as discussed on the NS9 Starbucs it is more an issue of the organizations approach to hitting. Regardless, the bat need to wake up or else the team will struggle to win game and will start to alienate fans.