Five Games In, It's Not Time To Hit The Panic Button Just Yet
After watching last night's game against the Cincinnati Reds, things look like they are completely falling off the rails before the train gets going. It started with Ke'Bryan Hayes heading to the Injured List on Saturday, and just snowballed to the Pirate's 14-1 loss last night. The Pirates are now 1-4 through their first five games of the season, and social media has been erupting with talk of the Pirates never winning a game again. However, with a young group like the Pirates have, you are going to take your lumps throughout the season. However, it is not time to hit the panic button on this team yet as the young guys are still learning and adjusting to life in the Major Leagues.
Even in last night's downright dreadful ball game, the offense still managed to be able to get people on base. While the pitching left little to be desired, this was also the first time that I have seen the staff just completely fall apart on the mound. The other key factor is we are only five games into the season. If it were the other way around, we would be saying it's only five games, so why can't we do the same when the Pirates are bad. The Pirates are not the only 1-4 team in baseball, and in fact, are not even the worst team (Oakland Athletics 0-5) or the second-worst team (Atlanta Braves 0-4) in the league. Today, we look at why it is not the time to panic after just five games into the 2021 season.
Offense Has Hit Despite Struggles
One of the promising parts of this Pirates team heading into the season was the offense, and through the first five games, they have done a nice job getting on base. Even in yesterday's loss, the team still managed to pick up five hits, which is still their season-low. They had five hits in the opener against Cincinnati as well, and put up hit totals of five, seven, six, and nine in their last four games. Most of those hits have also come from key guys in the lineup like Bryan Reynolds (.316), Colin Moran (.333), and the emergence of Phillip Evans (.416). However, the problem has been that there is no support behind these guys as the bottom of the lineup has been dragging.
The real problem with the Pirate's offense so far this year is their inability to pick up the "Big Hit." Last night alone, the Pirates combined to leave nine runners on base, and with the mountain, they had to overcome that wasn't going to cut it. The worst instance of this happened in the Pirate's only win of the season on Opening Day. Despite picking up the 5-3 win over Chicago, the Pirates left a combined total of 36 men on base in the win. This was also a factor in the opened of this three-game series, where the Pirates lost 5-3. They had a chance in the top of the third to blow the game open with runners at first and second and no outs. However, they were unable to bring runs in, and a similar situation in the sixth was thwarted as well with two strikeouts and a caught stealing.
The good thing to see is that the young guys in the middle of the lineup who should be producing are. So far, Bryan Reynolds has seemed to bounce back from last year's struggles and is hitting .316 through his first five games. Colin Moran looks to be featuring a whole new approach at the plate and it has helped him to a .333 average and two home runs in the first five games of the season. However, these guys need some help around them if this offense wants to score runs with any consistency. In yesterday's lineup after Phillip Evans, there was not one player hitting over the .200 mark. The bottom half of the lineup has to pick things up, and guys like Jacob Stallings (.154), Anthony Alford (.000), and Gregory Polanco (.071) are the key. Once they can get going, this offense could be on track to score a lot of runs.
Pitchers Length Will Come
We have taken one turn through the Pirate's starting rotation, and there seems to be a theme that continued from last season. Tyler Anderson was the only starter to last five innings in a game, as the other pitchers lasted four innings or less. This means that the bullpen has had to cover a lot of innings early on and, as they showed last night, it may be starting to affect them. Some of the non-length from Pirates starters is due to pitch counts and missed spring training time, but this is something that should also improve the second time around. With Chad Kuhl making his second start of the year today, I would predict he is ready to go at least five innings in this start, and after yesterday the Pirates need him to.
The biggest reason why the starters aren't working deeper into the ballgames is simply because of wildness. In Kuhl's case, the last time he was on the mound, it took him 63 pitches to get through his three innings of work. For a guy who only threw 8.0 innings this Spring, that is about where his pitch limit was set prior to the game. As a team, the Pirates are tied for the fifth most walks in the league with 23, sharing the spot with the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and Los Angeles Angels. Anderson was the only starter who worked efficiently in his outing and as a result, he got to work deeper into the ball game. After Pirates starters averaged just 4.0 innings per start last season, seeing these shorter outings is concerning. However, if they start to be more efficient and hit the strike zone more often, you will start to see them last deeper into games.
The biggest thing to think about when looking at this team early on is that we are just five games into the season. If it were the other way around and the Pirates were 4-1, we would be saying it's only five games, so the same should be said when the Pirates are 1-4. All of these players still have very small sample sizes, and one good game could make a .071 hitter go to a .260 hitter and vice versa. Especially with a young team, there will be some growing pains and some mistakes that you don't like to see. But, in the end, the biggest thing to watch for this season is going to be the growth of these young players. There is still a lot of baseball left to play, and it isn't time just yet to hit the panic button on this year's team.
The Pittsburgh Pirates (1-4) try to salvage a game of their three-game series with the Cincinnati Reds (4-1) this afternoon at 12:35 pm. Chad Kuhl (0-0, 3.00) is looking to go deeper into this one for his second start of the season against Luis Castillo (0-1, 21.60). You can watch the game on AT&T Sportsnet, listen on 93.7 The Fan, or follow along with us on Twitter by following @Buccos_Cove.
Comments
Post a Comment