Big Innings Hurting The Pirates And How To Avoid Them
Monday afternoon's Pittsburgh Pirates Spring Training game was moving along just like most of them do. The Pirates were trailing the Orioles 3-2 entering the bottom of the seventh, but the team was still very much within striking distance. However, if you look at the final score, it looks like it was a wash all afternoon, and the Pirates fell 12-3. How did things get so out of hand you ask? The Orioles ended up putting up an eight-spot on the Pirates in that bottom of the seventh inning, erasing any chance the team had at formulating a comeback. The Pirates have now lost their last three spring training games and have moved to 7-7-1 on the season. The recurring theme in each of these games is the Big inning or innings the Pirates have suffered.
In each of their three most recent defeats, there has been an inning or series of innings where the opposing team has scored most of their runs and put the game out of reach. This can be devastating for a team trying to compete and can knock any chance they had right out of their sails. Whether it be an obvious big inning, like Monday's eight-run bottom of the seventh, or a more subtle inning like Saturday's four runs allowed over two innings, they both have the same effect on the team. The Pirates offense is not going to be able to go swing for swing with a team so it is going to be up to the pitchers to limit the opposition. Today, we look at how these big innings are starting, and what the Pirates need to do to limit them.
How the Runs Start Scoring
In the case of both big innings during this three game losing streak, the trouble starts with lots of traffic on base. The Pirates pitchers aren't missing bats like they should, and the ball is being put in play and finding a hole. Now, the encouraging sign is that many of these early hits aren't in the air, but rather are groundballs that find holes on the infield. This is a fixable problem, as the Pirates work more with shifts and scouting reports they will be able to turn some of these into outs. Still, when you work with a lot of traffic on the base paths it leaves you more susceptible to the Big inning. In each of the recent big inning attacks, a common theme was followed as the opposition stockpiled hits.
On Saturday against the Yankees, the big inning started right from the get-go against starter JT Brubaker. In the first, Brubaker allowed a soft line drive single into left field to DJ LeMahieu to start the inning and then got a lineout by Aaron Judge for the first out. However, Aaron Hicks would end up making Brubaker pay by hitting an RBI Double that brought home LeMahieu and gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead. The scoring continued in the second and once again a groundball single started things off, then after two groundouts, another groundball gave the Yankees their second base runner. Then, the big hit came when LeMahieu burned the Bucs again with a three-run home run that pushed the lead to 4-0 Yankees and downed the Pirates.
While Saturday's big inning spanned over two innings, yeaterday's started to rain down in just one inning. After the Pirates pitchers had cruised through the first six innings of the game allowing just two runs, Edgar Santanna came on in relief in the seventh inning. After getting a lineout to start the inning, Santana came off the rails allowing four straight singles that gave the Orioles a 5-2 lead. However, the big blow came when Jahmai Jones launched a three-run home run to left field to make the Orioles lead 8-2. Another walk would spell the end of the day for Santana and brought on Shea Spitzbarth. Spirzbarth allowed three more runs on a single and two wild pitches before the inning was over. As you can see, both innings pushed the Pirates out of contention and made what was a competitive game into a more lopsided affair.
Avoiding the Big Inning In The Future
In order for the Pittsburgh Pirates to be able to be competitive game in and game out, they will have to rely on their pitching staff. As long as they can keep the team in games, the Pirates can allow their young guys to battle and have shots at winning ball games. In order to avoid these big innings, the Pirates pitchers are going to have to limit the number of people they allow on base. Working with less traffic allows a pitcher to be calmer and work from the wind-up. As Chad Kuhl showed in his outing this afternoon, working quickly and efficiently can have it's payoffs. Kuhl allowed just two hits over three innings of work and his offense rewarded him with four runs over the first four innings of the game.
Even with the recent slip ups, the Pirates pitching staff still ranks as one of the lowest ERAs in all of Baseball. Following Tuesday's Spring Traning Game, the Pirates had the ninth best ERA in all of baseball sitting at 4.21. After a year that saw them finish in the bottom third of the league, the Pirates are looking to improve upon their pitching numbers with an inexperienced staff. General Manager Ben Cherington has said that the Pirates will go with 14 pitchers at multiple points during the season. That means that lowering the team ERA will be a team effort as the Pirates see what their young pitchers have during this rebuild of a season.
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