The Pirates dropped another frustrating game Thursday afternoon, losing a wild affair 8-7 in extra innings to the Nationals to split the series. The Pirates had plenty of chances to take this game, but shoddy defense and sloppy pitching were their downfall as they came up one run short.
Ryan and Cody discuss the sloppy, wild affair in which the Pirates lost in extra innings to split the series with the Nationals that you can watch here on YouTube. Here’s my three takeaways from this frustrating game.
The Offense Might Not Be Average…They Might Just Be Good
We said for the past couple seasons that with Paul Skenes the offense just needs to be averaged. The Pirates went to work this offseason to upgrade the offseason and they’ve been producing. In fact, they’re better than average in my opinion. People were not liking this lineup Don Kelly rolled out Thursday with a lefty on the mound for the Nationals in Foster Griffin. Well that lineup ended up pounding out 15 hits for seven runs. And they had plenty of opportunities to score more and came up short in this one, but my main takeaway is this offense is fine. It’s better than fine and it might actually be good.
The Pirates entered today tied for 8th in MLB in home runs with 20. The Big Bear Marcell Ozuna came to life in this one as he blasted a three-run homer off the third level of the rotunda. That is rare air out there…literally. That kind of game-changing power is hard to find and if Ozuna gets going from his first home run and joins Brandon Lowe, Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds and Ryan O’Hearn as players that can consistently hit them out, this lineup will be good. Konnor Griffin had two hits today and that’s his second straight two-hit game in games that he started. I thought he had hit his first home run as well, but he came up just feet short with a triple off the center field wall. He is coming around and that’s another promising thing for this lineup.
Bad Decisions in the Field Still Hurting the Team
We know the defense isn’t good on this team, especially in the outfield. But it’s not just poor defense that’s plagued this team…it’s poor decisions too in the outfield. Bryan Reynolds has made some questionable throws in this early season, Oneil Cruz has made some well known gaffes as well, but then Jake Mangum, who’s our best defender in the OF, made a couple bad decisions in this game. With the game tied at four apiece and a runner on first base in the top of the 6th inning, Joey Wiemer hits one to deep right that Mangum couldn’t get to, he dove to knock the ball further in the corner and then gets up and fires the ball into second base instead of throwing home to make it a play at the plate as the runner scores easily to give the Nationals the lead.
I hope this was just a one off from Mangum, who’s been good defensively this season, but we’ve seen decisions like this a lot in just 19 games. I know their defense is going to be limited, but you have to play fundamentally sound baseball to help make up for it or at least not to put you in another hole. In the 5th inning with Ascraft posted zeros in a scoreless game, Griffin gets a ground ball that could be a double play ball, instead of flipping to Lowe at second, he takes it to the bag himself, collides with the runner and because of that spikes it into the ground. Three runs somehow score on the play thanks to the throwing error that went into right field. Brutal play and very unlucky for Ashcraft. Bucs need to get this cleaned up and quickly if they hope to continue their hot start and compete this season
Ashcraft Continues to Impress
Ashcraft got a raw deal today from his defense and just some unlucky hits the Nats were dropping in, but he impressed me again. He ended up with five runs allowed, but just two earned and he struck out seven batters in 5.2 innings and he was cruising through four innings before the defense let him down. He won’t garner the kind of attention Paul Skenes does nationally or even here in Pittsburgh, but Ashcraft is developing into a really, really good No. 2 for this rotation. He now owns a 2.38 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 22.2 innings. His curveball generated 10 whiffs (48%) and he pumped that and his four seamer in there today each 30+% of the time. He gave up just three hard hit balls all game and only one came off the curveball and none off his four seam. He has pitched well in all four of his starts this season and gone at least five innings in all of them. Ashcraft continues to impress me, and I can’t wait to see his next start.
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