Pirates Insider Podcast, Episode 26 (6/20 at Rockies)

The Pirates suffered a 2-1 loss when Billy Cook's cleat made contact with Kyle Karros' glove at third base. It was a frustrating way to drop a game and a series, especially considering the Pirates had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth inning. Paul Skenes pitched well and delivered his eighth quality start. But the Pirates offense is missing Oneil Cruz and Konnor Griffin. Jason Mackey breaks it all down here.

Transcript

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What's up, Pirates fans? This is the Pirates Insider Podcast. I'm your host, Jason Mackey, talking to you from Denver. Want to go over last night's Pirates loss, and it was a frustrating one for sure. 4-3 to the Rockies at Coors Field. And we saw some things in this game. It was almost an encapsulation of the Pirates season to this point. We saw them struggle against a left-handed pitcher early on. That was Kyle Freeland. We saw them rally and stick it out and keep grinding and eventually get to Freeland in the Rockies bullpen. They take a lead, and then we saw them unable to hold a lead. It has sort of checked all of the boxes of this season thus far. So I want to talk a little bit about what happened there and where we go from here essentially, because I do think at least bullpen-wise, we need to go somewhere. And looking at the Pirates' bullpen right now, that group has to improve. That's sort of stating the obvious at this point. But bullpen ERA stands at 4.46, that's 20th in Major League Baseball. They've walked 147, that's the sixth most in Major League Baseball. The whip is 139, that's 22nd in MLB, and they've blown 15 saves. Only three have blown more. So again, not stating anything brand new, but the bullpen needs to be better, and the late game execution, especially with men on base, needs to be better. So we'll recap that eighth inning a little bit. That's where I'm going to pick this thing up. We can talk about Kyle Freeland in a little bit, and I do want to talk about Bubba Chandler because I thought he was pretty good. But uh as far as the eighth inning, the Pirates did a very good job getting to Freeland eventually as Marilyn Valdez with a double scalded at two, um, was 110.7 off the bat. Jared Triolo follows with a double as well to knock in Valdez. Um Brian Reynolds, who's dealing with some uh left groin discomfort. Don Kelly said it could be an adductor. Uh, they're sort of going through all of that. He's being treated and evaluated, but he pinch hits, which uh you got to admire the toughness and Reynolds being able to get himself in the lineup and have a productive at bat. He singles up the middle. Uh Spencer Horwitz hit by a pitch, and then Nick Gonzalez triple. So the Pirates bring around three runs. They take a 3-2 lead, seemingly in very good shape. Um Colorado Rockies, not a very good team, at least on paper. Entered this one 28-47. You should be able to salt that one away, and the Pirates, of course, were not. Um, I didn't love one of the decisions, and this is, you know, me personally, I know I work for the Pirates, but um, there are, you know, Johan Ramirez came in in relief of Bubba Chandler. He got four outs on six pitches, and they removed him to go left on left with TJ Rumfield and Mason Montgomery. And, you know, the situation would probably look a little different if Mason Montgomery pitched different. That didn't help. He gets one out, gets the left on left out, and then gives up a single, a single, and then a double to pinch hitter Braxton Fulford. And the issue that I have is the execution in the Fulford at bat. Montgomery falls behind 3-1. He throws a fastball over the middle of the plate. It just can't happen. Um, whether it's Montgomery, whether it's Soto, whether it's Sisk, whether it's Ramirez, anybody. You're pitching behind in couchs and you're having to throw pitches to avoid walks and just get the ball over the plate. It's going to get hit. In a place like Coursefield, it's going to get hit probably where there's some grass. It's going to carry. And we saw both of those things. So uh did not like that. And we we go ahead. The Pirates do get out of that inning. Uh Mason Montgomery ended the damage quickly, struck out Ezekiel Tovar. So they're chasing one run in the ninth inning. Antonio Sensitella is on for the Rockies. Marcelo Zona leads off with a single. Brandon Lau hits a ball in the hole. It's short. He gets on base, and then Andy Rodriguez walks. So the Pirates have the bases loaded with nobody out. Uh at that point, Don Kelly sends up Tyler Callahan as the pinch hitter for Esmerilan Valdez. You can take issue with it. I didn't. Um, I didn't have any issue with the deployment. He had Henry Davis pinch run for Marcel Ozuna. I think that's a necessary move. You need speed in that spot. Ozuna doesn't have it. Uh the only bench player left at that point is Callahan. So if something would happen, you know, infield, outfield wise, uh you probably you're going to use Davis beforehand. But anyway, uh they pinch hit Callahan and Esmerlin Valdez, by the way, entered this one 083 on the season. Now he did have a deep fly ball to center field in the second inning. That went 500 or 500 feet. That would be a really deep fly ball, 400 feet, and then he doubled. Um so you can you can nitpick a little bit and said you should have let Esmerilin Valdez hit away, but still batting 111 on the season. I'm not sure it's a crime. Still comes down to late game execution. And Tyler Callahan needs to put the ball in play there. He does not strikes out on four pitches, uh, just kind of a waste of an at-bat, honestly. Uh cannot happen in that situation. That Jared Triolo rolls over a fastball. Also can't happen. You got to get some lift on the ball, drive the run in. Uh, he grounds 6'4 to end the game. There was a little bit of controversy there, but it was uh correctly ruled a double play. Willie Castro was able to keep his foot on the back. Just very frustrating for the Pirates who claw back, they do what they're supposed to do, and they're not able to put the game away. And something has to change with the bullpen. Um, this this team, the way it's constructed, and I look at the offense, I don't have any problem with the offensive output. They've done enough, they've scored enough runs, this team should be in a competitive situation. I was saying in the offseason, if the Pirates could nudge their way up to like 19th or 20th in runs, I think they would be competitive. One, because I expected the bullpen to be a lot better, and I expected the starting rotation to be elite. I still think the starting rotation is going to be fine, but I have some concerns about the bullpen. I think a lot of people do. I've warmed a little bit to the trade of Hunter Stratton, at least I understand it a little bit more. He's somebody who helps now. I'm not sure Joey Bart's value was sky high, but you know, they have a problem that they need to address now before it becomes a gigantic problem, meaning the Pirates are out of it around the trade deadline. They need to make sure that they are in it, competitive, giving themselves a chance to win, come late July. And if they don't do that, if they don't address the problem now, then the other one's going to be irrelevant. So that's that's sort of how I look at this one. And as I mund Monday morning quarterback, Saturday morning quarterback, this loss. Something, a lesson that I'd like to see them take out of this one. If you have somebody throwing well, the way Johan Ramirez was, don't stop them. Let them go. Um that move screamed to me something that was pre-scripted, um, something that, you know, we're always gonna go lefty lefty, um, we're gonna try to play percentages. And sometimes feel and eyeballs and what's happening in a game need to override percentages. And that was one of those six pitches. I uh you might look at it and say, oh, he's throwing two innings, but if he throws two innings on 19 pitches, what's it matter? And Johan Ramirez, throughout his career, has shown himself to be two very different pitchers. And if you get the bad version of him and you're gonna pull him early in an outing, that's fine. But the good version of Johan Ramirez can be really, really good. And I think at least through four batters last night, we saw that we got the good version of Johan Ramirez. And I'm gonna ride that. I'm gonna try to ride that through the eighth inning. Now, you know, that doesn't change anything. You know, maybe you go to Mason Montgomery in the ninth and maybe he's not able to hold it. Like it's not, it's not a problem, but it's just something that I'd like to see them sort of change moving forward, moving forward, as Mike Sullivan might say. Um, but uh you need to look at a way to deploy this bullpen differently. And ideally, I think they're on their way to this. I'd like to see Dennis Santana backed up in the game a little bit more. He's pitched well in these like lopsided kind of rehab outings to fix himself. He's been pretty good. He's earning the chance to do a little bit more recently, and Isaac Matson being back with the team. He's somebody who has late game experience. I'd like to see them going with Matson a little bit more. And the other one is Karmen Majinski. And I think we're gonna see a turn with that tonight. I wouldn't be surprised to see Karmen Majinski follow Paul Skeens against the Rockies. And I think we need to get to a point where Karmen Majinski is not pitching, you know, three, four innings, 70 pitches, something like that. I think Karmen Majinski needs to be pitching when it's an important situation. And so with that one, you know, if I'm looking at turning things over from Johan, I'd probably run Johan as pop as long as I possibly could. And then I've got a situation like that in the eighth with a lead, I'm probably going to Carmen. Carmen's done that before. He's been really, really good. He might be the best reliever on this team other than Gregory Soto. And, you know, if it's one inning, it's one inning. But that's a big inning for the Pirates. They've scratched back and gotten a lead in the eighth. You want to be able to put a nail in the coffin. And to me, that's the value that Carmen Majinski can bring if they just think about this a little bit differently. And it doesn't have to be so regimented. I do think they're there. I think it took them a little bit longer than any of us would like to get there, but I do think they're in a spot now to deploy Carmen Majinski differently, and I'd like to see it. Just a couple final thoughts. The struggles against lefties continued. I was baffled by what Kyle Freeland was able to do. He entered this one just in sad shape at the starter was one and seven, a 7.98 ERA. I think his ERA was over nine in the previous four starts, something like that. The numbers were really, really rough. Um, and he shut the Pirates down. Seven and a third, gave up two earned runs, four hits, eight strikeouts through 81 pitches, 57 for strikes, um, had the best outing of his season by far. The Pirates need to adjust their approach, uh revamp their approach, whatever you want to say, maybe look at lineup construction. I'm not sure, but he is certainly not the first left-handed starter to handle them this season. And along with the bullpen, that is an area of their game that absolutely has to correct. And the last thing, this is something that is needed to correct. So let's shout out a positive. Bubba Chandler was really good again. Uh, six innings, two earned runs. His second quality start of the season gave up six hits, walked two, struck out one. I liked how aggressive Bubba was uh before the game. Donnie Kelly talked about Bubba Chandler's off-speed stuff, setting up his fastball. But I think what was most impressive to me with Bubba was the intent which with he was throwing things. There's no more dancing around trying to be cute. Uh there's no more trying to be kind of a finesse guy. Um I had Michael McHenry on Bucko talk on sports radio 93-7th fan this morning, and he was talking about Bubba Chandler maybe trying to be a little bit too much like Paul Skeens, and I thought it was a good comparison because, you know, off the field personally, that's one thing, but even on the field, uh Paul Skeens can pitch a certain way because he has that ability. And I'm not saying Bubba doesn't, but he's best when his mentality is attacking. Don't think as much. Just throw. You have a hundred mile an hour fastball. And I liked what we saw out of Bubba last night in that regard. His past three starts, he's really filled up the zone. He's challenged guys with his fastball, and I thought it was very good. Got a couple of key double plays when he needed them. He worked around, like I said, two walks. He hit two guys, uh, but still an attacking mindset and not really caring. Uh, Bubba Chandler, kind of a unique personality, and I like what he did. All right, Paul Skeens on the mound tonight against the Rockies. 7 10 my time. 9 10 your time. I'll talk to you tomorrow and wrap that thing up. Hope you enjoy the game, everybody. This has been the Pirates Insider Podcast. Make sure you subscribe to this. You can get this every day, breaking down the buccos. I'm Jason Mackey. Thanks for listening.