Opener doesn’t work out this time
Rockies pound first 3 pitchers
The opener can be a neat gimmick.
It gives a high-leverage assignment to the reliever starting the game, while another pitcher — better known as the bulk guy — can find his footing against lesser hitters. Good bullpens might thrive because pretty much everybody has a shot at contributing.
There are two truths here, however, that must be taken seriously: The verdict is out on whether this is actually a solid, sustainable strategy, and the basic principles of pitching still apply. Strikes are good. Home runs are bad.
Four nights after using the opener to their advantage for a win in San Diego, the Pirates got a look at the other side of the coin Wednesday in a 9-3 loss against the Colorado Rockies at PNC Park.
Opener Montana DuRapau didn’t make it out of the first inning, Nick Kingham continued to struggle, and the Pirates suffered yet another lopsided loss.
“We didn’t play nearly well enough to win the game,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “We gave up nine runs. We only scored three.
“It’s pretty simple to figure out.”
And now, despite entering the season with a heap of hope founded on a terrific starting rotation, the Pirates are encountering sort of a harsh reality: There are a few holes in their structure, and they don’t have a ton of spackle.
Neither Jameson Taillon nor Trevor Williams is throwing, the result of injuries that have sidelined two of the National League’s top performers over the second half of 2018.
Chris Archer has become the Pirates’ version of Derick Brassard, while Joe Musgrove and Jordan Lyles
havebeen their only consistent starters.
Aside from that, the Pirates have been searching for answers when it comes to two-fifths of their starting rotation, spots that have been occupied by openers and bulk guys who have functioned as gum and duct tape.
Saturday, to the Pirates’ credit, the strategy worked. DuRapau pitched the first two innings, Steven Brault gave them 3⅓, the bullpen threw up zeroes, and Josh Bell went bonkers.
Wednesday, it was a much different story, starting with DuRapau in the first. The biggest blow came when he grooved a 2-1 fastball to Daniel Murphy, who rode it to right center for a three-run homer.
“He was able to make [pitches] in San Diego,” Hurdle said of DuRapau. “Didn’t make ‘em here. Paid the price.”
After DuRapau exited, Kingham basically poured gasoline on the fire.
The Pirates’ second bulk guy — Francisco Liriano would probably qualify as the third — appeared overmatched from the outset and wound up allowing six earned runs in four innings.
Rockies hitters tattooed Kingham for nine hits, and he helped their cause with some shoddy control, walking four.
The biggest mistake Kingham made came in the third, when it was still a game. Again with two outs, Kingham had a 1-2 count on the No. 8 hitter, catcher Tony Wolters, who hadn’t smacked a baseball over the fence since Aug. 27, 2018, a span of 124 at-bats.
“I don’t have all the answers right now, other than we picked on a couple things during the game,” Hurdle said of Kingham, who needed 89 pitches to record those 12 outs.
“You bring it to their attention during the game. Sometimes, it’s tough to make in-game adjustments.
“We’ll do some video work with them tomorrow, show them some things. However, the pitch-efficiency still continues to be challenging.”
For his part, Kingham downplayed his struggles.
“Overall, I still feel like I threw the ball better than what the scoreboard says,” Kingham said.
Wolters’ homer made it 62 Rockies, and it wiped away one of the few bits of good news the Pirates enjoyed all night: a mammoth blast from Bell in the second inning. The ball left Bell’s bat at 116.2 mph, traveled 454 feet and plunked into the Allegheny River, the fifth such homer in PNC Park’s history and the second of Bell’s career, both coming this season.
Bell’s drive was certainly impressive.
He annihilated a changeup that Rockies starter Jon Gray hung, showing off his strength by managing to pull the pitch on the outer half to right field. It was the hardest-hit ball the Pirates have had since Statcast began tracking such data in 2015.
But the 11th home run Gray has allowed in 10 starts this season didn’t count for much because the Pirates couldn’t pitch.
Moving forward they have a couple of options — perhaps some outside help, maybe calling up Mitch Keller, certainly getting more from Kingham, who has an 11.93 ERA over his past four appearances.
What’s unquestionable, though, is something has to give because the Pirates aren’t going to go far with the pitchers doing what they did Wednesday.