PITTSBURGH — It’s hardly been an isolated incident where Pirates manager Derek Shelton takes out a pitcher who’s doing well, something bad happens, and another loss ensues.
It happened again Sunday, too, as Shelton removed JT Brubaker. The Indians then picked up a key hit in the seventh and held on for a 2-1 victory at PNC Park, preventing the Pirates from earning their first sweep of the season.
While there’s no way to ease the frustration here that has affected players, coaches and fans alike, it has also been happening enough that some big-picture questions are warranted. Like how in the world does this stuff keep happening?
A part of it might be feel. Shelton is a first-time manager and should not be above criticism in any of this. For as much as analytics and old-school numbers may matter — and they certainly do for the Pirates, who need them to compete with teams spending sometimes five times as much on major league players — there’s also a feel associated with managing that isn’t quite a switch that Shelton or anyone can just turn on.
At the same time, it’s also true that the Pirates have given themselves little margin for error. Scoring one run, as they did Sunday, can amplify the most minor mistake. Scoring 17, as they did in the first two games of this series, can function as an important deodorant.
It’s also reasonable to recognize where the Pirates are. Sunday’s loss dropped them to 20 games under .500, and there’s little reason to believe this will get any better. The 2021 season is also 102 games longer than what teams experienced in 2020. They’re not the only team taking a conservative approach to pitching.
So, with that in mind, perhaps we should expect Shelton to think long-term about Brubaker’s right arm and the need to keep it healthy, especially with the Pirates in the middle of a substantial rebuild.
That doesn’t make things easier for paying customers, mind you, who still pay full price. It also doesn’t help the other players around the diamond who are using this opportunity to prove themselves, the same way Brubaker might need and want to pitch deep in games to build his own career portfolio.
But the point is that we shouldn’t be surprised when the Pirates take a super conservative approach, especially now.
The Indians’ seventh-inning rally started with a double from left fielder Eddie Rosario, the ball only feet away from clearing the Clemente Wall. That, though, wasn’t enough for Shelton to get Brubaker, who got center fielder Harold Ramirez to bounce out to second.
With right fielder Josh Naylor coming to the plate, and Shelton seemingly trying to play the matchup, he gave the ball to Chasen Shreve, who entered the game having been scored upon in just two of his first 16 appearances as a Pirate.
The numbers, it would seem, made this a smart decision. Lefties were hitting just .130 against Shreve, while he had given up just one hit in 21 at-bats with runners on base. Naylor, meanwhile was hitting .189 with a .520 OPS against lefties compared to .273 and .749 vs. right-handed pitching.
Those trends did not hold, as Naylor jumped on a first-pitch slider from Shreve, drove it between a shifted Kevin Newman and diving Adam Frazier, and Rosario motored around third to score easily as Phillip Evans bobbled the ball in right.
The single run spoiled a terrific outing from Brubaker, in which he tied his career-high for strikeouts with nine, the most for a Pirates pitcher this season.
Brubaker wound up working 6 2/3 innings and two runs on three hits with no walks. He threw 76 pitches, 59 for strikes and was tremendously efficient. He also picked up 14 whiffs, 11 of them coming on a tremendous slider.
It didn’t take long at all to realize that Brubaker was feeling it, either. Four pitches, in fact.
That’s how many he needed to get through a 1-2-3 first before splurging with 16 the following inning. Brubaker got the first batter of the second inning, Rosario, looking on a sinker before Ramirez — who homered twice Saturday - swing through a four-seamer.
Brubaker used his slider to strike out catcher Ryan Lavarnway and pitcher Sam Hentges in the third before picking up two more punch outs in the fourth. After it looked like shortstop Amed Rosario may have beat out an infield single, the Pirates challenged, won, and the call was reversed.
They got another dose of good fortune to start the fifth inning, when Evans slid to rob Eddie Rosario of a hit, but that would be the last of the 13 consecutive batters Brubaker sat down to open the game.
Ramirez, who homered twice Saturday, stepped to the plate and drove a 1-2, up-and-in four-seamer from Brubaker over the fence in left, giving the Indians a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning. It was the first homer Brubaker has allowed in his past four starts.
The Pirates, meanwhile, struggled to get much of anything going offensively. Bryan Reynolds reached on a two-out double in the first, a ball that popped out of Indians second baseman Cesar Hernandez’s mitt. Jacob Stallings struck out to end the inning.
Evans led off the fifth inning with a single, advanced to second on Ben Gamel’s sacrifice bunt and never got to third because Newman popped out to third and Erik Gonzalez grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.
With just two two opportunities through the first five innings, the Pirates finally broke through in the sixth. Frazier started things with a single, and Ke’Bryan Hayes gave Pittsburgh runners on first and second with his bloop single into right field.
Stallings followed by bouncing a first-pitch slider up the middle to score Frazier and tie the game at 1.
The Pirates had a chance to answer against the Indians’ bullpen in the seventh, with runners on the corner and one out. However, Gregory Polanco pinch hit and popped out to shortstop. Frazier drove a ball 369 feet to center for a long lineup.
