CINCINNATI - The Pirates have built their season on winning the hit count, piling up offense and making opponents chase. Right now, though, that edge has vanished at exactly the wrong moment.
Pittsburgh managed only two runs on seven hits Thursday night in a 3-2 loss to Cincinnati that opened a four-game series. It was another frustrating night for a lineup that still sits first in baseball in hits with 992, second in runs with 565 and tied for third in OPS at .755, but has gone ice-cold over the last eight games. During that stretch, the Pirates are averaging just 2.75 runs per game after scoring more than five per game on the season before that.
Manager Don Kelly said the issue keeps coming back to the same thing.
“We’ve been through it at times. It’s the same type of thing where we’re just lacking the big hit,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said postgame.
“Had a couple of opportunities with guys in scoring position tonight. Weren’t able to get the big hit.
[Brandon] Lowe with the big hit to tie it up at two. We just couldn’t get anything else mustered up.
Just have to stick with it. We’ve been really good as an offense for the whole year.
We just need to get back to it.”
The Pirates had chances to flip the game after Lowe’s sixth-inning homer tied it at 2-2. In the seventh, with the bases loaded and two outs, Lowe came up again against left-hander Brock Burke and couldn’t cash in, chasing a slider in the dirt and not holding up on a check swing. Lowe has been a major reason Pittsburgh’s offense has surged this year, but he has not hit lefties nearly as well, batting .215 with a .608 OPS.
Pittsburgh kept pressing in the next inning. Esmerlyn Valdez doubled and Billy Cook entered as a pinch-runner, but Ryan O’Hearn and Nick Gonzales couldn’t advance him. Then in the ninth, Jhostynxon Garcia dropped in a check-swing single with two outs, only for Jake Mangum to strike out and leave the eighth runner on base for the Pirates.
“I don't know. Obviously, we need to score more runs.
That's about it,” Gonzales said. “Score more than them.
I think we held them to what, three runs? I think we should score more.
Our offense can do better and we know that.”
That simple answer fits the moment. The Pirates have been too quiet at the plate, and the timing is brutal with the NL Wild Card race tightening.
They were shut out only once from the start of July through July 20, but since game two of a doubleheader with the Yankees on the 22nd, they’ve been blanked three times. In the last eight games, they’ve scored three or more runs off an opposing starter only once.
Reds starter Rhett Lowder came in with a 5.61 ERA and still kept Pittsburgh in check for four innings before giving up two runs. A few weeks ago, when Bryan Reynolds, Valdez and O’Hearn were driving the offense, the result might have looked different.
“Obviously, we got some really good guys. Play 162 games, you're going to have a few, and you're going to have these little ruts,” Gonzales said.
“Get back to it. These guys are working their tail off.
Everyone is. We all are.
Not worried about them. Not worried about anybody, honestly.”
There has been at least one encouraging sign as the bats have cooled: the pitching is starting to sharpen. Jared Jones has remained stellar, Mitch Keller has bounced back into form, and the bullpen has found some useful arms in Yohan Ramírez and Mason Montgomery.
Against Cincinnati, Ramírez started the bullpen game, and he, Hunter Barco, Noah Murdock and Montgomery combined to allow only two runs before Gregory Soto gave up the game-winner in the ninth.
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