PITTSBURGH — At PNC Park on Wednesday afternoon, the Pirates fell to the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2, picking up their 82nd loss of the season. That lost ensures the Bucs will not have an above .500 record this year, extending the streak to 19 consecutive seasons.
However, this year has felt different for the city, the fans and even the players.
“The bad streaks kind of feel similar to the bad streaks last year,” Charlie Morton said. “But the season as a whole, even the way we we’re losing games, it’s totally different. The atmosphere is totally different. Everything’s different. Obviously we were in contention for a good time. We never had anything close to that. So it’s just a stepping stone.”
In July, the Pirates saw themselves a season-high seven games over .500 and in first place in the National League Central division. But after enduring a tough extra inning loss in Atlanta and a 10-game losing streak, things took a turn for the worst. Since July 17th, the club has gone 16-38, dropping them not only out of first place but into fourth in the division and 15 games under .500.
“It’s obviously disappointing, but then again, most of us haven’t been here for the last 19 years,” Pittsburgh native Neil Walker said. “I’ve lived in this city for the last 26 years so I do kind of understand it a little bit more. The baseball that we played for the first four months of the season, we know what we are capable of. We had a lot of injuries and overcame a lot of adversity. We know that feeling of playing good baseball against good teams and winning close games. We also know the other side of it.“
“This is a building block kind of thing. More than anything else it’s a mentality. When you don’t feel good and it’s tough to score runs or the pitching is fatigued, you have to find different ways of putting up runs and winning games. That’s been a tough thing for us this year. But I don’t think by any means that this losing streak is going to happen next year. I don’t think anybody is going to have that deer in the headlights look. I think we’ll respond quicker.”
Despite another losing season in Pittsburgh, there has been a lot of positives from the season. For starters, the first four months of the season could be a glimpse of what is possible from this talented organization. PNC Park saw attendance sky rocket during the first half of the season. The young team overcame injury after injury and even adversity. All things that only help the team and players grow as they get more experience in the big leagues.
“Obviously you have faith in what you believe you’re doing,” Manager Clint Hurdle said. “The pace is what’s hard to control, or try to even deal with or talk about. We want to win. That being said, we haven’t won enough. We have a core group in place. We obviously have areas we think we need to improve upon. But as far as working extremely hard to get better in many areas that were exposed last year? We’ve made some strides in those areas. I think one thing we’ve always learned, there’s much work in front of us…We’ve got room for improvement all over the board in offense.”
“We got into situations in the last two games where we had people in place to make plays, or do things or score runs. We didn’t, they did. That’s why they’re in a pennant chase right now and we’re not. It comes down to execution and we were very good at it for three and a half months. We have not been good at it in the last six weeks in a number of different areas. The game exposes that. But these guys tasted it. One of our good characteristics is that we’re stubborn. They continue to work at it. Their attitude and effort is there everyday. We’ve got to improve our how to. Our how to has got to improve for us to become a championship organization. And for us to play, or get to the point where we don’t talk about consecutive losing seasons anymore.”
Right-hander Charlie Morton took the mound for the Pirates, his first start in nine days after skipping a start in the rotation.
Morton allowed three runs on six hits over seven innings. He walked three and struck out six.
Morton made his 27th start of the season, Pittsburgh is one of the three National League teams (also the Mets and Brewers), and only four Major League teams (also the Rangers), with five pitchers making at least 25 starts this season.
To put that into context, only four other times in club history have the Pirates had five pitchers make 25 or more starts in one season. The others came in 1997, 1984, 1976 and 1925.
“We’ve got five starters that made 25 starts this year,” Hurdle said. “That’s the fifth time that our franchise’s history that that’s happened…I think that’s one of the building blocks that we need to get in place to move forward. And to create the organization and the Major League club, that Championship level that we want to. Charlie getting out of the last inning jam was just a micro-Cosmo of that. Facing [Albert] Pujols, couple guys on, game in check, getting that last out. I think that was another step forward for him to build on.”
Morton has thrown 160.1 innings this season in the Majors and is looking to finish his first season from post-to-post.
“The workload, knowing the responsibilities, the expectations, those are all things I need to go through and I need to face,“ Morton said. “I’ve been given that opportunity…To get to where I want to be, I have to be able to go out there and take the ball and get the innings.”
Not just Morton. Pitcher James McDonald and several other players are experiencing their first full season, post-to-post, in the Majors this year.
“That’s a part of sport and a part of life on gaining experience and having been through the battle and experience what it takes,“ Hurdle said, “They’ll probably have a better understanding on how to prepare this winter as well. Knowing some of the challenges they’ve faced, whether it’s mentally or physically as they go into next season. It’s all part of the journey they’re on.”
The Cardinals plated a run off Morton in the 1st inning. Rafael Furcal took the first pitch of the game for a double down the right field line. Jon Jay laid down a sac bunt to advance Furcal to third base. Pujols drew a full count walk and then Allen Craig lined a RBI double off the scoreboard in right field to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
The Bucs battled back in the 3rd to tie the game up at 1. Michael McKenry hit a leadoff double into left field. With one out, Alex Presley hit a RBI double into left field to tie the game.
In the 4th, the Cardinals retook the lead off Morton. Lance Berkman drew a leadoff walk and Allen Craig was hit by a pitch. Both scored from a Yadier Molina two-run double off the Clemente wall to retake the lead, 3-1.
“I thought he pitched a quality ballgame out there today,” Hurdle said. “The number of pitches that he had to use to get through the seven innings, pitches that he was able to make to keep the game in place. I thought his left-handed package was much improved today. Just a much improved effort from Charlie across the board.”
The Bucs cut the lead in the 6th inning to one run. Alex Presley hit a leadoff double –his second two bagger of the game and 17th multi-hit game with the Bucs this season. Derrek Lee hit a RBI double off the wall in right center field to cut the lead, 3-2.
Despite being out of contention this season, there is still a lot to play for. Rookies like Chase d’Arnaud, Josh Harrison, Jared Hughes, Jeff Locke, to name a few, are all looking to put themselves in big league uniforms after spring training.
“Even thought we’re out of it, technically there’s not as much to play for, it’s still very important for a lot of guys in here, getting some opportunities for the first time at the Major League level,” Walker said. “To play well and prove that they belong here and to set themselves up going into spring training.”
“By no means am I seeing any guys rolling over and playing dead here in the last three weeks of the season. And I don’t expect that to be the case.”
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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