Perrotto: Bigger Stage Proves Too Large for Pirates

It took five years for the Ben Cherington-Derek Shelton management team to get the Pittsburgh Pirates to the point of playing important games at PNC Park in the final third of a season.

When the Pirates finally reached that point, they tripped over themselves.

The Pirates finished the most important homestand of this decade with one win in six games. Even worse, they went 1-5 against two teams – the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres – ahead of them in the National League wild-card standings.

The Pirates lost two of three gamers to the Diamondbacks and then were swept by the Padres in a three-game series.

The Pirates’ postseason chances are dim following the poor showing. They are 4.5 games out in the race for the third and final wild card and two games under .500 at 56-58.

Standing between the New York Mets, holder of the third wild card, and the Pirates are the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants.

The Pirates still have 48 games remaining but it’s a significant amount of ground to cover and an even more significant number of teams to pass in the standings. And any hopes of winning the NL Central are effectively over as they are nine games behind the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers.

I admit, in retrospect, I was overly optimistic before the homestand started last Friday. I always think of the pennant race beginning on Aug. 15, but I moved it up to Aug. 2 this year.

I felt Pirates fans deserved a pennant race after enduring losing seasons in 27 of the past 31 years. Selfishly, I wanted to cover a pennant race for the first time in nearly a decade.

My pay stays the same whether the Pirates win or lose, and I put away my fandom when I began covering baseball in 1988. Still, September baseball would have been fun.

However, the Pirates showed over the last week that they are not ready for that big stage yet.

David Bednar blew back-to-back saves after converting 19 straight opportunities. Colin Holderman had possibly the worst homestand of any relief pitcher in franchise history. Oneil Cruz’s throwing error in the ninth inning on Thursday afternoon cost the Pirates the game. Bryan De La Cruz, the team’s biggest trade deadline acquisition last week, went 2 for 23 while starting five games.

There were other culprits, and Shelton deserves his share of the blame. He made strategic missteps throughout the homestand and didn’t like the media questioning some.

The passing of the blame should also not skip Cherington.

The Pirates’ lineup for Wednesday night’s loss to the Padres included light-hitting catching Yasmani Grandal batting fifth. It looked like the type of lineup they would take to Dunedin in March to play the Toronto Blue Jays in an exhibition game.

That the Pirates couldn’t roll out a better lineup in such an important game exposes the lack of organizational depth. As did the promotion of reliever Ben Heller from Triple-A Indianapolis before Thursday’s game after the 33-year-old compiled a 49.50 – 49.50!!! – ERA during his time with the Pirates in June.

Despite such a woeful performance, the Pirates still look good in the big picture. They are far better than when Cherington and Shelton started this rebuild.

The Pirates aren’t a playoff team yet. That became painfully obvious over the week.