One Game is One Game But Certain Issues in Opener Pirates Could Continue to Face Moving Forward
In recent years, Opening Day has served as the time fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates are happiest and most optimistic.
Fans had that during the 2026 opener against the New York Mets at Citi Field on Thursday afternoon — for one half inning.
Two batters into the game, the Pirates had a two-run lead after Brandon Lowe, who was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in the offseason, hit a two-run home run off Mets starter Freddy Peralta.
But the good vibes from the top of the first quickly evaporated in the bottom of the inning — with Paul Skenes on the mound nonetheless.
Skenes wasn’t able to escape the first inning and the end result was an ugly 11-7 loss for the Pirates in a game that didn’t even feel as close as the final score indicates.
While there’s no need to overreact to one game, there are certain issues that were apparent in the game that could stick with the Pirates in the near future, and perhaps extend even longer into the season.
No, there’s no need to be concerned about Skenes, the reigning National League Cy Young winner who opened the ’26 slate with the shortest outing of his career. It was clear Skenes wasn’t as sharp as he’s been throughout his career. He walked two batters, hit one and struggled to put hitters away in his two-thirds of an inning pitched. But if the defense was better behind him, his start probably looks a lot different.
We’ll call it an anomaly. But while there’s no real need to be concerned about Skenes, there are a couple issues that arose on Thursday afternoon that could become common.
The first, obviously, is the center field defense from Oneil Cruz, who botched back-to-back plays behind Skenes that resulted in four Mets’ runs.
With the bases loaded, Cruz broke in on a line drive off the batt of Brett Baty. The ball sailed over his head and went for a three-run triple. On the very next at-bat, a sunglasses-less Cruz lost a ball in the sun, which allowed Baty to score and Marcus Semien to pull into second base with an RBI double.
Unlike Skenes, this isn’t a blip for Cruz, who has struggled in center field since shifting there from shortstop towards the end of the 2024 season. Cruz had minus-three defensive runs saved in 23 games in center that season. He had minus-14 and an MLB-leading 11 errors in 125 games there last year.
But the defensive woes could go beyond Cruz, especially in the outfield and until Konnor Griffin arrivies to alleviate some of the concerns in the infield.
The starting outfield of Cruz in center, Bryan Reynolds in left and Ryan O’Hearn in right consists of three players who grade below-average at their respective positions. In the infield, Brandon Lowe is coming off his worst statistical season defensively at second base and Nick Gonzales is playing out of position at third.
Defense matters and that was evident on Thursday.
In addition to a bad defensive showing, the Pirates had a largely dreadful performance from a bullpen tasked with covering the final 7.1 innings.
In those 7.1 innings, the bullpen combined to allow six runs on seven hits with seven walks and nine strikeouts. Yohan Ramírez, Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana combined for 4.1-scoreless innings. All three looked relatively good.
But Mason Montgomery, Isaac Mattson and Justin Lawrence all faltered. It’s clear Montgomery has a live arm but command is an issue. He walked three batters and was charged with a pair of runs in 1.1 innings. Mattson walked a pair, allowed three hits and surrendered two runs in two-thirds of an inning. Lawrence allowed back-to-back home runs in his lone inning of work.
The two biggest red flags on the Pirates roster heading into the season were defense and the bullpen. They did nothing to remedy those concerns in their first game of the season, but they’ll need to moving forward if they want to be true contenders this year.
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