Thursday’s series finale was hardly a problem involving effort or fight. The Pirates were fine in that department.
No, their 8-7 loss to the Nationals in 10 innings at PNC Park was ultimately defined by a lack of execution, sloppy play or plays that must improve for the Pirates to reach their goals this season.
Along with committing four errors, Yohan Ramirez allowed runs to score via hit by pitch and a walk. There were mistakes on the bases and more strategy that seemed to cause a debate among fans.
Bottom line, it was an ugly game and one the Pirates (11-8) absolutely should’ve won considering they pounded out 15 hits and scored seven runs.
“Not our cleanest baseball,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “We need to play better. But the fight, they continued to stay in the game. A lot of times that can get away from you. It didn’t today.”
Let’s use these nine observations to discuss the many elements in this one:
1. One of myriad plays of note came in the ninth, when Brandon Lowe tied the game with a single up the middle.
With Oneil Cruz (tying run) running, third-base coach Tony Beasley waved Cruz home, then stopped and pointed at the base — seemingly telling Cruz to hold up — before once again windmilling toward home.
If you’re Cruz, what would you do there?
He ultimately stopped, but after watching the video more, the problem seemed to be Beasley’s indecision after not knowing exactly where the ball was located.
“It looked like [Beasley] maybe caught it late,” Kelly said. “It certainly wasn’t a thing where Oneil was not running hard.”
Cruz has taken ample flak for his baserunning. This one wasn’t on him.
2. Another key play came in the fifth, when first baseman Luis Garcia Jr. hit a ball to Konnor Griffin with the bases loaded. Weird all around.
Griffin was right on the border of flipping versus taking it himself. He also could’ve gone to first because it wasn’t hit terribly hard, but second base was an easier — and more sensible — play.
While trying to turn two, Griffin took an extra beat to plan and spin and wound up getting caught with second baseman Nasim Nunez.
There was contact. It may have affected Griffin’s throw. But all parties agreed, it was not intentional. After contact, Griffin tried to keep the ball but wound up spiking it into the grass.
“I thought I had a chance to turn and throw, and my back leg got stuck under his,” Griffin said. “At that point, I just tried to hold onto it. It kinda slipped out of my hand and three runs scored. That’s on me. Keep working on that.”
3. That gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead. They upped to 4-0 on Braxton Ashcraft’s errant pickoff throw, which was one part of his outing that he didn’t like. Ashcraft worked 5 2/3 innings and struck out seven. Curveball has been nasty.
But Ashcraft also walked two and hit a batter, and two of those three scored, including when his off-balance throw sailed over Brandon Lowe’s glove.
“It was fine,” Ashcraft said. “Free passes have to be eliminated. But there was very little hard contact. My identity is throwing a lot of strikes. Today in the later innings, that broke down. That’s where I got into trouble.”
4. Our lessons so far: Decisiveness at third base, Griffin ensuring one out and walks, hit batters and pickoff throws. Now, strategy.
Sixth inning. After retiring the first two hitters, Ashcraft allowed a single to designated hitter Jorbit Vivas on his 90th pitch. With Joey Wiemer pinch-hitting, Kelly swapped Ashcraft for Evan Sisk.
The situation was surprising. Wiemer, a righty, has a 1.406 OPS against left-handed pitching this season compared to .596 versus righties. It’s less dramatic throughout Wiemer’s career but still fact: .842 versus lefties, .561 against righties.
Nevertheless, Kelly chose the fresh arm, and Wiemer beat the Pirates with a double to right.
5. A second strategy question came in the top of the 10th. With two outs and a runner on second, the Pirates pitched to Nationals right fielder James Wood.
It made sense. Wood had been two for 15 with nine strikeouts in the series. Right-on-right, Dennis Santana. Hardly a bad matchup.
The problem: Santana fell behind 2-0, then grooved a slider Wood smacked into right to score a run.
6. Speaking of pitches that missed, the Pirates ceded two more runs in the seventh when Ramirez couldn’t find the strike zone consistently enough, hitting center fielder Jacob Young before firing a wild pitch.
Ramirez has been so good for the Pirates this season, excelling in a number of roles. But he didn’t have it in the seventh, and the Pirates paid the price.
7. Back to strategy … bottom of the 10th. Henry Davis running at second for Joey Bart, Griffin singled. Should Kelly have started Griffin?
Based on how the Pirates had Orlando Ribalta timed, it would’ve been a huge risk.
The Nationals reliever shifted to a slide step, designed to hasten his time to the plate and control the running game. Kelly said they had the time around 1.2 seconds, which would’ve taken an incredible jump to beat.
Bryan Reynolds struck out, and Jake Mangum hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end it.
“It was pretty quick,” Kelly said. “Wanted to give Bryan and Mangum a chance. Ryan O’Hearn on deck. Didn’t want to take the bat out of their hands.”
This ranks near the bottom of my concern list, along with Griffin’s error. He’s 19; there will be growing pains.
I’m more concerned about the high number of walks, baserunning mistakes like Nick Gonzales getting thrown out at second or indecision at third, plus Mangum throwing to second when he probably should’ve thrown home early on. Gonzales and Nick Yorke also made errors at third.
Regardless of offensive output, those things need to be less.
“We continue to have conversations and work on it between games,” Kelly said. “For the most part we’ve played pretty well. We’re gonna continue to work every single day on cleaning those things up.”
8. Let’s end on a positive note … Griffin responded with an impressive triple in the sixth, launching a first-pitch cutter 403 feet at 108.7 mph for what would’ve been a homer in multiple parks. Griffin got to third in 12.06 seconds, too.
“Felt good, got a cutter on the outside and was able to get extended and catch a good barrel there,” Griffin said. “That’s what we are chasing every day. That was fun.”
Back-to-back multihit games for Griffin. Please stop talking about the need for Triple-A.
9. In the fifth, Cruz smoked a ball 119 mph, hardest in MLB this season. Marcell Ozuna followed with his first home run as a Pirate, sending a cutter off the third deck of the rotunda in left, 423 feet away.
“It felt good,” Ozuna said. “I’ve been grinding every single day, trying to do some damage and put my team on top. Thank God I got the first one.”
As for the structure of this column, it was done for a reason.
It’s been a long time since baseball nuance matters like it does now. Also, over the course of 162 games, there are going to be decisions Kelly and Co. get wrong or ones with which you subjectively disagree. That’s OK. That’s baseball.
But for the decisions to continue to matter, the Pirates have to play cleaner baseball than they did during a series finale they should have won.
Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.