Rangers closer Will Smith had gotten out of the inherited bases loaded jam in the eighth unscathed, and the Pirates' ninth inning paled in comparison.
Jason Delay opened with a tapper for the first out. Chris Owings watched a 95 mph fastball go by for out No. 2. Finally, Andrew McCutchen lifted a fly out to center. Ball game, Rangers 3, Pirates 2.
For a team that was flying sky high in April, Wednesday afternoon's loss at PNC Park put the Pirates' head barely above .500, now 25-24. They have not won a series in May and are 5-15 overall this month. Given the context of the whole season to this point, have undoubtedly taken a step forward compared to the first years of the rebuild, but as of now, it's not the long stride that it appeared to be just three weeks ago.
"We came into 2023 focused on improvement and wanting that to be continuous over the course of 2023 and beyond 2023," Ben Cherington said before the game. "Nothing's changed there. We have improved, we're not satisfied with that."
It can be argued that a stretch like this is one that should encourage roster shakeups, especially when it comes to a team's top prospects. Endy Rodriguez told me last week that there are some things that he still wants to get better at before he gets his call. In a less direct way, so did Quinn Priester. They are mature answers, but if the call was to come, there is no way they wouldn't jump at the opportunity.
So is calling up some prospects -- whether it is Rodriguez, Priester, Henry Davis, Nick Gonzales or whoever -- the answer? "There's a number of variables to that," Cherington would start.
The following is his full answer from there:
"Start with the individual players themselves," Cherington continued, "whether they're a player on the major league team or the minor leagues, where are they, what is the performance? Where are they working on? Trying to get under the hood on that as much as we can, what are the skills that may or may not translate as smoothly to their environment? The simple way to answer is, is a particular player actually going to help us have a better chance to win a game? And if so, when is that? What is the answer you asked to that question.
"That's kind of what we focus on. I think it's important to keep a few things in mind as it relates to our team, specifically. First of all, we made no secret, we came in 2023 focused on improvement and wanting that to be continuous over the course of 2023 and beyond 2023. Nothing's changed there. We have improved, we're not satisfied with that. We want to keep getting better, we know we need to keep getting better, and the best way for that to happen for us will be by players who are already in the organization contributing even more over the course of 2023 than is happening now, both players who are here on our major league team already and players who are potentially in the minor leagues. We do have the benefit of time and games to continue learning more about that.
"Occasionally it can, but I would say most of our focus is internal, how do we help our group of players both from the Major League and minor league level continue to improve so that they can help our team win more games? On that, you got to weigh with what's actually happening at the major league level, what parts of the team are working well and part of giving us a chance to win and what parts of the team need to improve. We talked about pitching, catching is a part of pitching, we believe, catching defense is a part of pitching. In our internal stuff, we believe our catching defense has been a strength, we've been one of the better teams in baseball in catcher defense. If you believe that contributes to pitching performance, we believe it does, Well, then that's something we got to be mindful of. So, it's, a long answer, there's a lot of stuff that goes into it. But, we want to keep getting better and we want to keep finding ways to do that.
"We want to keep getting better and we want to keep finding ways to do that," Cherington said. "And, if there are players in the organization that can help us do that in some way, whether it's short-term or at some point this season, we're not going to be shy about trying to make that happen."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Johan Oviedo's first inning struggles continued again Wednesday, where the Rangers piled on three runs in his first five batters, starting with Marcus Semien going deep on the first swing in the game.
This has been a common theme this year for Oviedo, who has allowed 12 of his 24 runs in the first inning.
"I’m tired of that," Oviedo said.
Oviedo believes the issue is he thinks teams know he throws more first inning fastballs, though data from Baseball Savant suggests he actually throws fewer in the first frame. He also threw an even amount of fastballs and breaking pitches over those first five batters, too.
"We just have to be a little more fine with our pitch selection and kind of go from there," Shelton said. "It's hard to pitch with your your back against the wall. We just need to look at what the execution is early."
Oviedo pitched 5 2/3 innings with six hits allowed, two walks and five strikeouts. He also pitched an immaculate inning, which you can read about in the Freeze Frame.
• Offensively, it was more of the same from this month. There were two rallies to speak of, the first coming in the second whenever Delay appeared to have a game-tying single, but third base coach put the breaks up for Rodolfo Castro. Chris Owings followed by grounding into an inning-ending double play.
"I've got a lot of respect for Rabs, who does a really good job at third base as a coach," Castro said via interpreter Stephen Morales. "Whatever the decision he makes, I'll back him up."
In the eighth, the Pirates loaded, but as previously mentioned Smith got out of the jam with a Castro pop out to left and a Jack Suwinski strikeout.
• Castro couldn't come through in the eighth, but he had a multi-hit game and boosted his season OPS to .805. Despite those good offensive numbers, the Pirates have opted to use him primarily as a platoon against left-handed pitching.
"Just continue to work and look for any opportunity to help the team," Castro said about staying prepared. "Whatever comes, I'll be ready for it. Just sticking to my routine helps a lot."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 15-day injured list: RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow)
• 60-day injured list: 1B Ji-Man Choi (Achilles), RHP Wil Crowe (shoulder), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Andrew McCutchen, DH
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Connor Joe, RF
6. Rodolfo Castro, 2B
7. Jack Suwinski, CF
8. Jason Delay, C
9. Chris Owings, SS
And for Bruce Bochy's Rangers:
1. Marcus Semien, 2B
2. Kyle Seager, DH
3. Nathaniel Lowe, 1B
4. Adolis Garcia, RF
5. Josh Jung, 3B
6. Jonah Heim, C
7. Robbie Grossman, LF
8. Josh Smith, SS
9. Leody Taveras, CF
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates are off Thursday before they embark on their first west coast trip of the season. First up is a three game set in Seattle. Mitch Keller (5-1, 2.44) will get things started Friday against George Kirby (5-3, 2.62). First pitch Friday is set for 10:10 p.m. Eastern. DK will have you covered for the first leg of the trip.
THE MULTIMEDA
THE CONTENT
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