From the highest high to the lowest low. The Pirates have gone from 5-0 to 9-2 to 11-11, watching another hot start evaporate, just like last year.
They’ve been swept by New York and the Boston, losing six straight. It isn’t just losing the games, it’s the way they’ve looked.
Poor play in the field and non-existent hitting are just some of the issues that have crippled the Pirates against the Mets and Red Sox.
The Pirates beat the Phillies 9-2 on Sunday, April 14. In the six games since, they’ve scored a total of nine runs, including scoring only one run in four of those losses.
After Sunday’s loss, Manager Derek Shelton said his team played “sloppy.”
When the Pirates were winning, they were committing painful errors in the field, but were able to score runs.
Now, not so much.
Let’s take a look at some of the Pirates player batting averages.
Oneil Cruz – AVG .209 – 3 home runs – OPS .587 said he’s dealing with confidence issues.
Jack Suwinski – AVG .191 – 2 home runs – OPS .582
Andrew McCutchen – AVG .173 - 1 home run – OPS .552
Rowdy Tellez – AVG .210 – 1 home run – OPS .548
Henry Davis – AVG .182 – 0 home runs – OPS .524
Cruz, Suwinski and Davis need to be hitting better than the low .210s if they want to be successful.
The Pirates are in year five of the Ben Cherington regime so, this needs to be a year of improvement.
It’s only April so there is plenty of time to turn it around. But, there is also plenty of time for this to completely fall apart.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Pirates with the 14-6 Milwaukee Brewers coming to PNC Park for a three-game series beginning Monday.
Once again, it’s only April, but they continue to play poorly over the next three games, changes, call-ups and more need to start happening.