Pirates rally late to edge Chicago
Newman again delivers in ninth
Kevin Newman has produced some seriously fun and exciting walk- off wins, ones featuring terrific hits and plays worth watching over and over again.
Suffice to say, what happened in the ninth inning Tuesday night was not one of those moments, though it counted just the same.
Newman helped the Pirates nab another walkoff win, this time 5- 4 over the White Sox at PNC Park, after Chicago pitcher Jimmy Cordero tried to flip a comeback ground ball toward home, and catcher Yasmani Grandal couldn’t handle it and was charged with an error. That allowed Jason Martin, who was pinch- running for Gregory Polanco, to slide home safely.
The win helped the Pirates improve to 14- 26 on the season while completing their second 20- game stretch at 10- 10, markedly better than 4- 16 over their first 20.
Down, 4- 2, heading to the bottom of the eighth, the Pirates mounted another late rally, which included back- to- back doubles by Newman and Jacob Stallings to start. That cut Chicago’s lead to 4- 3 before Erik Gonzalez tied it with a run- scoring single.
Gonzalez reached third after two wild pitches from reliever Evan Marshall. But White Sox manager Rick Renteria brought in left- hander Ross Detwiler to pitch to Colin Moran, and Moran grounded out to first to end the inning. That led to the wild ninth.
Building continues
Much of the conversation surrounding the Pirates revolves around the future.
This current team is 1426 after Tuesday, among the worst records in Major League Baseball. So the obvious question from that is: What’s next? Which players on this roster can contribute to winning in years to come, and which can not?
These are calculations the Pirates are making, too.
“It’s more [ about] shaping the roster, in terms of our expectations of guys, what their functionality is defensively and offensively, and then just continuing to get better,” manager Derek Shelton said Tuesday, prior to the Pirates’ matchup with the White Sox. “We have to continue to isolate on specific developmental tools for these last 20 games, so we can make decisions and have conversations going into the offseason.”
The evidence of that can be seen before every game, when the Pirates release their lineups. On Tuesday, for instance, usual left fielder Bryan Reynolds started in center. Usual infielder Adam Frazier was in left.
The way Shelton sees it, this gives him the opportunity to both see what they can do at their secondary positions defensively, while also allowing him to start a lineup with Frazier, Reynolds, infielders Newman and Gonzalez and third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes all at once.
The point isn’t necessarily that any or all of them will be moving positions, but it’s all part of the evaluation process.
Basically, the Pirates are trying to get as many looks on as many players as possible in 2020, so they can make the most informed decisions about their roster this offseason and beyond. The small sample so far this season isn’t nearly enough to feel confident about much.
Brubaker’s adjustment
Those aforementioned opportunities are not limited to position players. Right- handed pitcher JT Brubaker has pitched in just about every role on the Pirates pitching staff, beginning the season in the bullpen before moving into a piggyback starter’s situation and now lengthening out to pitch five innings in each of his past two starts.
To this point, Brubaker has been steady. He’s given up some runs and gotten into some jams at times, but in his five starts, he hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs and carries a 3.96 ERA for the season so far.
With the prominent role Brubaker has taken on, it’s easy to forget he is a rookie.
“I feel like I’ve done pretty well. It’s definitely been a learning curve,” Brubaker said. “That’s the one thing I am going to take from this year, just going out there and learning something new and just taking something from each start.”