The pain and misery for Pirates fans continue as the team was obliterated tonight in Sacramento to the tune of 11-1. The tandem of Jared Jones and Carmen Mlodzinski got rocked and the offense couldn’t muster any response despite being in a small minor league park. It is bot June 16th and the Pirates have won 4 games in the month of June. The Pirates have also fallen under .500, and sit at 36-37. Watch Dinardo and I break down the game in more detail here:
The Jones and Mlodzinski Piggyback Isn’t Working
Carmen Mlodzinski was moved to the bullpen in hopes of relieving some of the ailments faced by the lack of good right-handed pitchers. Instead, he is simply being utilized as a mop-up man after Jared Jones exits the ballgame after 4-5 innings. Neither pitcher was very good tonight and surrendered a ton of hard contact to a very good Athletics lineup. The question must be asked: Why are we using Mlodzinski for 3+ innings in a game where the score was out of reach before the 5th inning? Instead of using a guy who can be reliable for 1-2 innings, he is being sent out to die as he gives up 6 runs himself. This arrangement isn’t helping anybody, and it is weird they continue to persist in it. Mlodzinski isn’t being used in his best role nor in the role he desires most. Jones clearly doesn’t feel any benefits from this, as his ERA is now over 6. There needs to be a big change in how this is handled because at the moment we are burning arms for no reason.
The Team is not Deep Enough
The Pirates are mostly healthy; all the starters they wanted at the beginning of the season are ready to go. All 3 of the biggest offseason bats are also healthy, as well as their main bullpen addition. Despite this, the team is clearly hurting badly with the absences of Oneil Cruz and Konnor Griffin. The dynamic pair was pacing to provide the Pirates with 45-50 home runs and over 70 stolen bases before injuries have taken them out for the foreseeable future. Because of this, the offense has lost a lot of its spark, and that was apparent tonight. Despite reaching base over 10 times and facing a pitcher with an ERA over 5 at home, the Pirates barely created any real threat to score tonight. Instead, they let JT Ginn pitch 6 stellar innings, and the game was never really close. This stretch in June has proven that there is a lot of talent on the team and they are close to being a playoff team. However, these injuries have derailed the season and have put them firmly out of the playoff race for the time being.
So Many Bad Plays
The Pirates kept shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly tonight, which compounded the loss. Jake Mangum failing to take 2nd base with runners on the corners and 1 out was only the beginning. Instead of a fielder’s choice from Esmerlyn Valdez that made the score 3-2, Mangum’s passivity leads to a double play. Ryan O’Hearn struggled to make plays in the outfield, Valdez struggled to simply throw the baseball, and Spencer Horwitz threw a baseball to the next zip code. Mlodzinski was bad, but the defense sold him down the river by ceding 3 hits that had no business resulting in base runners. When the team is struggling, you need to play smart, fundamental baseball to try and set matters straight, and instead the Pirates made it even worse with numerous defensive woes.
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