Pirates clobbered as Musgrove struggles
Ten days ago, shortly before those 10,000 simulations finished, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington made a rather bold statement on his weekly radio show.
“I think we recognize that changes are needed,” Huntington said, “and emotional decisions are rarely good decisions.”
Perhaps the Pirates are still emotional, although you wouldn’t have known it from the library- level intensity that permeated PNC Park during an 11- 1 loss to the Washington Nationals on Wednesday.
Emotional or not, there’s also the fact that this is professional sports — no, seriously, it is — and
“My focus is on doing my job, not if my job is in jeopardy. ... Those are decisions that other people make.” — Clint Hurdle
managers, coaches and front- office types have lost jobs for much less.
Which brings us back to the aftermath of another ugly loss, another non- competitive game, the Pirates stuck on one set of back- toback wins since the AllStar break. For the first time during this wretched stretch, manager Clint Hurdle was asked if he was worried about getting fired.
“My focus is on doing my job, not if my job is in jeopardy,” Hurdle said. “It never has been since I had an opportunity to be a manager. Those are decisions that other people make.
“I’m 62 years old, man. I’m going to manage as long as people have me manage. If they don’t have me manage, I’ll go home. My job is to do everything I can to get this club to play better baseball, to finish games, to execute better.”
The Pirates, who have now dropped 29 of 37 since the All- Star break, certainly have ample room for improvement.
Before Wednesday, their post- break OPS of .691 was second- worst in the National League behind only the Miami Marlins (. 684), while their ERA ( 5.29) was the third- worst such mark. Fundamentals lack, and defensively they have the worst UZR ( Ultimate Zone Rating) during the 2019 season (- 40.2 before Wednesday).
They’ve scored just one run during innings one through seven over their past six games, while they’ve been outscored by a total of 34- 6 in their past five games. Wednesday marked the 22nd time in 126 games the Pirates ( 5274) have allowed doubledigit runs — about 17.5 percent of the time.
“There are a lot of things we have to do better,” Joe Musgrove said. “We’re not scoring very much. We’re not pitching very well. We’re getting spurts of it, but I think good teams are able to do that consistently throughout the course of a season. We just have’t really done that.”
Is that all on Hurdle? Of course not. The roster that Huntington assembled isn’t good enough, and the players simply haven’t performed the way they’re capable. All involved parties would have no problem telling you that.
But the fact of the matter is that this is a high- stakes business, results ( should) matter, and rarely does any franchise let something like this drag on as long as the Pirates have without some sort of action.
Especially when the GM openly threatens it on his radio show.
“It’s not my concern at all,” Musgrove said of Hurdle having to answer about his job status. “He’s in control of what he’s in control of, and we’re in control of doing our jobs.
“I know a lot of pressure goes back on him when we’re not doing our jobs. That’s not nec- essarily fair to him. We just have to play better as a team.”
Josh Bell insisted the Pirates are as tight as ever and that neither he nor his teammates have lost focus on getting to play professional baseball for a living.
As for whether the Pirates have quit on Hurdle, a narrative that often gets tossed around in this conversation, Bell isn’t buying it.
“We play for him every night,” Bell said. “He’s the only big league manager that a lot of the guys have
known. We all fight for him. We all have his back. I’m sure he’s not worried about it.”
Maybe not, but Hurdle should be — and is — worried about what transpired on Wednesday against the Nationals, starting with Musgrove, who admitted that he didn’t have very good stuff.
After a quick first two innings, Musgrove ran into a heap of trouble in the third, when the Nationals scored six runs on Adam Eaton’s run- scoring double, Anthony Rendon’s two- run single and a three- run home run from Asdrubal Cabrera.
“It was one of those nights where I didn’t have my stuff,” Musgrove said, “and I was battling the best I could.”
Patrick Corbin enjoyed a completely different evening, as he made easy work out of the Pirates, tossing eight scoreless innings while giving up three hits and a walk.
Corbin changed speeds, sometimes showcasing a 30- mph drop in his pitch mix, and the Pirates had nothing approaching an answer.
After Musgrove, Dario Agrazal gave the Pirates two good innings before they finished it out with a lackluster performance from the bullpen.
“He’s been on a nice roll,” Hurdle said of Corbin. “Just throttled us.”