Pirates Insider Podcast, Episode 34 (7/2 at Phillies)

The Pirates were again struggling to hit with runners in scoring position ... until Esmerlyn Valdez came through in a big way. Again. What has he added? What makes him different? Jared Jones and Carmen Mlodzinski formulated some excellent pitching, and the Pirates split a series with the Phillies. Jason Mackey breaks it all down here.

Transcript

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Good morning, Pirates fans. This is the Pirates Insider Podcast. I am Jason Mackey talking to you from Washington, D.C. Actually, we bust here from Philadelphia, and good to be in D.C. for the 4th of July. This place is always near and dear to my heart for reasons that I'll probably expand upon on Twitter over the weekend. But in any case, the reason the lead of this podcast, the Pirates 6-1 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, of course, want to talk about Esmeriline Valdez again. Boy, what an addition he has been. And the Pirates in this one going along early, Jared Jones started. I liked what he did, but the key hit to me was Esmerlin Valdez in the seventh inning getting something going. And the Pirates to that point were struggling, leaving men on base. They left two in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth, one in the fifth, two in the sixth. And we know anytime the Pirates have struggled this season, they've struggled hitting with men on base. And I think this was a sign, or is a sign, I should say, of as Marilyn Valdez's maturity. He hits into a double play to end the third inning, bounces the third, and that's it. A lot of young hitters might go in the tank at that point. He's not a lot of young hitters. We've seen this in his approach. I talked to Jake Mangum after the game about the impact that Valdez is having. One of the things that Mangum brought up was it's not just the fact that he has an approach, it's also the fact that he executes that approach. Mangum's really impressed with Valdez. A lot of guys in the clubhouse have been talking about the impact that he had. Anyway, Valdez lines a single to center, gets past the center fielder. He starts running. He said, I couldn't even feel my legs. That was funny. He's running hard, but he's chugging along and knocks in a triple. It ends up being the go-ahead run for the Pirates. They take a 2-1 lead. They add it on from there, goes 113 off the bat. Excellent approach, excellent swing, sinker middle away, does exactly what he should do with it. But let's just step back and think about what Esmeraline Valdez has added to this team. He's given them an outfielder with Ryan O'Hearn needing to play a little bit more first base. O'Neuse is injured. He's a guy who hit cleanup today. He's been driving in runs. He's been a consistent offensive producer. One of the things that I think about with Valdez is what happens whenever the Pirates get some guys back from injury. I know this, he's not going anywhere. Where he's producing, what he's doing, all that, you don't turn it down. He has been so darn good. Uh, and this heater that he's on is very impressive. He has hits in nine of his past ten, hitting 485 during that span, four doubles, a triple, four homers, and nine RBIs during that stretch. Now, you know, it's 10 games. It's not all of them. He had a quiet stretch before that, but Valdez was talking post-game about when he came back, making some adjustments with the Pirates hitting staff, and really feeling more comfortable, more confident. His teammates have been helping him, coaches have been helping him. So if this continues, he stays in the lineup. That's an easy one. What happens around him? Um maybe he dh's, maybe he plays some outfield. You could have a little three guys for two spots action. The other one DHs if you look at like Ryan O'Hearn, Spencer Horwitz, and Valdez. Um, you know, maybe he plays a little bit more outfield when you try to get O'Neil Cruz a DH day. Same thing with Brian Reynolds. Bottom line, you've got a young kid from the right side of the plate producing a ton. And he takes a very mature at bat. He's not your typical sellout for power kind of hitter. He's a mature approach. He'll work some walks, that kind. Um, just so, so impressed with him. But this game to me was about a lot more than his Marilyn Valdez. Andy Rodriguez Homer, that was a big one. He continues to add some important power behind the plate. That gave the Pirates some breathing room. Nick Gonzalez had three hits, including a home run in the ninth inning. Jake Mangum had three hits, scored two runs, had a double. Uh, Mangum, by the way, I talked to him a little bit about this as well. His season has been, it's it's been a tale of two seasons. Uh, prior to this game, he was hitting over his last 27 games, 358 with an 839 OPS. That includes seven extra base hits and 11 runs scored. In his first 39 games, Mangum was hitting 247 with a 586 OPS, just two extra base hits in 14 runs scored. One of the things that he told me has been a big difference is getting more left-handed at bats for whatever reason. That has sort of locked him into some comfort. Whatever the case, he's been very good. Nick Gonzalez has been a consistent producer, is obviously over 300, has been for most of the season. Brandon Lau, I thought, had a really good game, had two singles, scored a run, even stole a base his first of the season. And overall, the Pirates were able to split the series with the Philadelphia Phillies. So after all that, they have the big comeback the first night of the series. Then they face Christopher Sanchez, can't do anything. They lose last night. Paul Skeen's start or two nights ago, I should say, and you know, the world is caving in, it seems like, and they come out of here with a split. It sets them up well for DC over the weekend. If they take two of three from the Nationals, or even if they're able to split them, this is a big series. This is a big stretch for the Pirates. We've talked about a 22 straight against teams 500 or better. Don Kelly talked after the game, said we're a good team too. And they've maintained that. That's been sort of a mantra for the Pirates that they're not just somebody that's lucking into this, but but they need to continue to prove it. And they're proving it offensively. I believe they scored 23 runs in the four games in Philadelphia. That is going toe-to-toe with somebody. But if you look at the Pirates and, you know, sort of we'll say question, but you know, if you're going to poke holes in their argument about being a good team, part of it starts at the bullpen. And I thought today or Thursday was another indication of their progress. Um we're just going to talk here for a little bit about their pitching situation in general. But Jared Jones started, and I thought it was a notable outing. His last time he ripped on himself, said he's getting rocked, gave up four and run four earned runs and uh four and two thirds innings, two starts before that, gave up five earned and four innings. This was a completely different version of Jared Jones. He went four innings, gave up one earned, gave up two hits, two walks, struck out six though, threw 73 pitches, 41 strikes. The heat was absolutely a factor. First pitch, it was 98 degrees. He talked about navigating that. Carmen Majinski, who followed Jones, talked about that. And it's not making excuses for anybody, it's just realistic. It was hot. So he throws 73 pitches, 41 for strikes, gets out of there, finishes with 11 whiffs. This is arguably, for my money, the best Jared Jones has looked. He was able to throw breaking balls starting out at bats. His changeup was a good weapon for him. He threw a slider a little bit harder, which wasn't necessarily intentional, but I think it's effective when he's doing that. His velocity was certainly there. Just a lot to like from Jared Jones. We also saw today the Pirates' pitching strategy with Karma Majinski work like a charm. And this is why they're doing what they're doing. Karma Majinski kept them in it during a key part in the game. It was a leverage situation. It allowed their bats to get going. You could have made the argument that they should have kept with Majinsky. I'm kind of fine with it. They went with Gregory Soto and Mason Montgomery to finish things out. That's a subtle usage change that we're seeing too. Gregory Soto has been pitching exclusively the ninth, but right now Don Kelly's been a little bit more liberal with them and deploying them based on matchups. Fine with that as well. But you know, you cut Carmen off at three innings, he's available to you sooner. But Jared being effective, Carmen being effective, Mason Montgomery, Gregory Soto, like I said, they've they've had a rough June. They were better today. And then you've got guys like Isaac Mattson, Dennis Santana, Evan Sisk can kind of fill in the other spots. And the bullpen, I do believe, and I know a couple days ago we're talking about what a problem the bullpen was because there was a blow-up, but um I do think we're seeing some things that are important that it's getting better. We need to see more of them. We need to see more of them consistently. But if the Pirates are going to make a run at this thing, if they're going to consistently navigate this difficult stretch, and don't forget you've got Atlanta and Milwaukee uh back at PNC Park when that happens. But oh, and Johan Ramirez, too, has been somebody. He didn't pitch in this one, but certainly somebody to highlight. He's allowed only seven hits in his past 44 at bats. That's a 159 average. He's thrown 13 consecutive scoreless innings dating back to June 6th. So Johan Ramirez has steadied himself quite a bit, and the bullpen in general has been better. The Pirates are going to need more from those guys. But um, I've just been so impressed with not only the offense, but where the offense is coming from in somebody like Esmeraline Valdez. I wrote a story, I think I talked about it uh on a podcast the other day, uh, about the friendship between Connor Griffin and Esmerilin Valdez. And any sport, any team that I've covered, and I think about maybe the Penguins in 17, even 16, 17, when you've got guys like Brian Rust, Connor Sherry, they came up, Scott Wilson was a name at the time, Brian Dumelin, um, you know, and not to go too deep down the rabbit hole, but you'd be amazed what guys coming from out of nowhere does for the collective. You know, all of a sudden you're kind of entering the dog days of the season, and here's as Marilyn Valdez picking up the slack when somebody doesn't have a great night. And it's been what's what the pirates have been waiting for out of Marcelo Zuna. And I guess that's a point I didn't make earlier in the podcast about, you know, I do worry about the roster spot for Ozuna. I'm not sure where I see him fitting at that point. I mean, you can send Billy Cook down, that's fine, but you know, you're gonna get to a point where you know you're basically looking at a backup catcher spot. I would expect them to keep Jared Triolo, and then you've got two spots that are gonna go to Valdez, Callahan, or Ozuna. Pick two of the three. And I mean, come on. You we all know what two of three need to be picked there, and Callahan does different things. He swings from the left side, hits right-handed pitching, bounces around, gives them another utility option. So, I mean, at that point, I think Ozuna or you know, Ozuna gets squeezed out of a spot. But just the energy that he's brought, the energy that Connor Griffin's brought, it's been really good, really encouraging for the Pirates. Happy to see them salvage a series split with the way it's gone the past two nights, and now they're set up well for the national series. Mitch Keller will start on Friday night. Braxton Ashcraft for the 11 a.m. 11 a.m. game on Saturday. That's gonna be a little bit uh that that's gonna be interesting. And then Bubba Chandler for 1 p.m. on Sunday. They're off on Monday. But thank you so much for listening, everybody. Hope you enjoyed the Phillies series. Uh, reminder, we're gonna be doing these things Monday through Friday now. So there won't be a podcast on Saturday or Sunday. Uh make sure you listen to Bucko Talk on 937 the Fan, and then I'll be on uh Pirates Radio Network with the Ben Charrington show on Sunday, an hour four before first pitch from Nationals Park. But this has been the Pirates Insider Podcast. I'm Jason Mackey. Talk to you tomorrow.