The Pirates’ Big Problems Come Down to All the Little Things

PITTSBURGH — Manager Derek Shelton has said that the Pittsburgh Pirates need to “win in the margins” in order to be successful.

The phrase might be a bit ambiguous, but what it essentially boils down to is that the Pirates have very little room for error. If they want to win, they have to do all the little things right.

Capitalizing on chances. Being sound fundamentally. Taking an extra base when able and preventing your opponent from doing so. Just a few examples that apply.

Well, the Pirates aren’t doing the little things right. It cost them in a 2-1 loss to the San Diego Padres on Saturday. It’s cost them, really, all season, and it’s why they are now 12-22 and in last place in the National League Central.

In Saturday’s loss to to the Padres, the Pirates left a whopping 10 runners on base, including at least two runners on in four of the first five innings.

The biggest blow came with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth. Alexander Canario chased a pitch out of the zone for strike three, and the Bucs came up empty.

“Yeah, I think that always happens when you’re not scoring as many runs as you want, guys can continue to press,” manager Derek Shelton explained. “We hit into one double play ball today that Joey (Bart) hit a hard ground ball to Manny (Machado). It’s almost the same ball that (Fernando) Tatis hit. It was just a step more to (Ke’Bryan Hayes’) left than that one. It ends up being a double play. Bryan lines into one. Sometimes it’s just the way it goes.”

With the score tied 1-1 in the top of the ninth, Tatis doubled to left off David Bednar to open the frame. He then stole third without a throw after taking a walking lead and scored the winning run on a wild pitch from Bednar on a bang-bang play at the plate.

Part of the chaos Tatis caused on the bases is due to his talent. He’s fast and athletic, and a really damn good player. But you can’t let the winning run move 90 feet away so easily, and you definitely can’t throw a wild pitch in that situation.

Just too many mistakes in a winnable game.

“We have to be more consistent in total,” said Shelton. “I mean, we threw the ball really well today. There were times we had really good at-bats and we didn’t get a big hit. So, I think it comes back to that consistency point.”

Bailey Falter, who started Saturday’s game, needed to be perfect for the Pirates to win. Unfortunately for him, he was was almost as perfect as you can get without actually being there.

Falter matched a season-high with 7.0 innings and set a season with six strikeouts. He allowed three baserunners — two hits and a walk.

The Padres only had one hit through the first six innings. Their second hit, however, was a Manny Machado solo home run with one out in the seventh. Despite the score being tied, it just felt like the outcome of the game was going to be a loss for the Pirates.

Falter, as he should be, was pleased with his performance, even though he didn’t get the win.

“I noticed in the bullpen that we had a really good fastball today, so I tried to use it as much as possible,” he said. “Then just being able to establish the heater down opened up a lot of room for all the other stuff. I just overall think it was a really good day.”

It was a performance more than worthy of not only a win for the Pirates, but a win for Falter.

But the miscues and missed chances on Saturday encapsulate what has been going wrong for most of the first five-plus weeks of the season.

The Pirates aren’t winning in the margins. They’re losing games, and the hole they’ve dug themselves into seems insurmountable.

The season is at a breaking point, if not already past it. And it’s only May 3.