Preseason Concerns Arise in Pirates Opening Day Loss vs. Marlins

It’s one game out of 162 on the schedule, so drawing any real conclusions from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 5-4 loss to the Miami Marlins on Opening Day on Thursday would be foolish.

And yet, it’s hard to ignore some things that transpired. For the Pirates’ sake, some of these issues better be early-season blips and not a sign of what’s to come.

There were a handful of concerns entering the start 2025 season in Pittsburgh. But one thing that was definitely not a concern was the ace of the pitching staff.

Paul Skenes became the youngest Pirates’ pitcher to start a season opener since Frank Killen in 1893. The reigning Rookie of the Year looked pretty sharp in the first start of his second big-league season.

Skenes allowed a pair of runs on three hits with seven strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched. He cruised through the first five innings before the wheels fell off a bit with back-to-back walks in the sixth, ending his outing.

Overall, it was a strong first start for the 22-year-old.

But outside of Skenes, the questions raised during the offseason and in spring training were addressed, but not with the answers many were hoping to see.

Bullpen Woes

The Pirates’ bullpen last season was a major letdown, and it looked like last year’s bullpen was still in place to kick off the 2025 season.

Dennis Santana walked a pair of batters and recorded one out in relief of Skenes. Left-handers Ryan Borucki and Caleb Ferguson combined to record four outs without allowing a run, preserving a two-run lead for the back of the bullpen. Things were going according to plan until they no longer were.

Colin Holderman was tasked with keeping the score at 4-2 in the eighth inning but allowed two runs to score. Both RBI-singles came on pitches outside the zone, and Holderman was squeezed on a two-out potential strike three call, but the right-hander also featured spotty control by walking a pair of batters. No win for Skenes.

After Holderman, David Bednar tried to get the game to extra innings, but instead, the Marlins went triple, intentional walk, walk-off single. Game over. No win for the Pirates.

Center Fielder Oneil Cruz Still an Experiment

Oneil Cruz had to learn a brand new position on the fly late last season when the Pirates decided to move him from shortstop to second base. With an entire offseason and full spring training to try and get acclimated, Cruz as a center fielder is still a work in progress.

Otto López was responsible for cutting the Pirates’ lead to one run in the eighth inning with an RBI-single. But he advanced to second base on an ill-advised throw home from Cruz and scored on a two-out single from Dane Myers. If Cruz instead hits the cutoff man, maybe the outcome of the game is different.

Then in the ninth, Cruz appeared to have misjudged a screamer that ended up sailing over his head and going for a leadoff triple. Two batters later, the game was over. Again, speculation doesn’t do much good, but the game could have again had a different outcome had it not been for the miscue.

Offense Underwhelms

The Pirates were going against a former Cy Young winning starting pitcher in Sandy Alcántara on Thursday so they get a pass from me against him. But outside of a two-run home run from Nick Gonzales off of Lake Bachar in the sixth, they were silenced by the Marlins bullpen.

The lineup combined for just four hits, 11 strikeouts and seven walks. Seven of those 11 strikeouts were looking. Still too passive. And too many non-competitive at-bats.

But Hey…

It is only one game, a drop in the bucket of the season as a whole. But the aforementioned takeaways from from an ugly first impression must quickly be erased if the Pirates want to be true contenders this season.