The Pittsburgh Pirates were searching for answers after losing five times in a six-game homestand and being swept by the San Diego Padres, Derek Shelton didn’t have many to offer Sunday.
So, the Pirates manager simply took the following question and turned it around: How tough was this homestand, and how much you can stress to your players the importance of winning at home?
“Yeah, winning at home is important,” Shelton said, “and this homestand was tough.”
The numbers to do a better job explaining their struggles than Shelton’s words would have, anyway. Not only did the Padres outhit (27-21) and outscore (15-5) the Pirates over the three-game series, but they had a better batting average with runners in scoring position, .364 (8 for 22), than the Pirates, .143 (3 for 21), and stranded eight fewer runners.
After a pinch-hit strikeout with runners on first and second base to end the game, Pirates designated hitter Andrew McCutchen shared that he was in no mood to dwell on the what-ifs. He had already showered and dressed for the team’s flight to St. Louis for a three-game series pitting the last-place Pirates (12-23) against the fourth-place Cardinals (16-19), who are four games ahead in NL Central standings.
“I don’t focus on negative. I try real hard not to,” McCutchen said. “Shoot, the first thing you think about is a negative thing and something bad happens. You can’t focus on that. It’s a game of failure, anyway. If you do that too much as a player, you’re going to dig your own grave. I don’t focus on it. I just get ready for the next pitch, and that’s it.”
McCutchen knows the numbers aren’t pretty. The Pirates were shut out for the sixth time and swept for the third time. Two have come at PNC Park, where the Pirates are 7-12 (.368) this season — the most home losses in MLB. The only team with a worse home record is the Colorado Rockies, who are 4-11 (.267) at Coors Field and own the worst record in the major leagues at 6-28 overall.
“It is what it is,” McCutchen said. “Home or road, it doesn’t matter.”
The home-away splits are mostly similar. The Pirates have hit 13 home runs in 16 road games, compared to 12 in 19 home games but are scoring slightly more runs at home (3.5 per game) than away (3.0) despite stealing twice as many bases on the road (26-13). But McCutchen couldn’t help but add that, in his view, things just aren’t going the Pirates’ way when they play at PNC Park.
“It seems like the games on the road have been played a little different than when we’re at home. Why? I don’t know,” McCutchen said. “Balls aren’t finding holes. Balls aren’t going out when you hit them hard here. We’ve got to find different ways to play the game.
“When you’re not being rewarded for the things that you hit well, it makes it a little harder to score runs. I’m not going to sit here and complain that that’s the reason. There’s a lot of things that go into it. We need everything we can get – every hit we can, every extra-base hit we can get, every walk – whatever it is, we needed every bit of it. We aren’t getting that. What can you do, man? Ain’t nobody going to feel bad for you, so you’ve just got to show up and try to do your job.”
The mistakes are magnified at home, especially in Sunday’s 4-0 loss. Ke’Bryan Hayes was picked off between second and third base to end the second inning. Jared Triolo was stranded at second base in the third inning when Henry Davis grounded out to third and Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds went down looking at called third strikes. Hayes grounded into a double play to end the fourth. Hayes and Tommy Pham struck out with runners on second and third in the fifth. And Matt Gorski ran into an out at home plate in the seventh.
“I think we’re trying to do a little bit too much,” Shelton said. “We’ve just got to kind of let the game come to us a little bit and not try to do too much.”
Despite seeking consistency, Shelton said the Pirates are “mixing things up, trying different things” to find a formula that works. He’s gone from mixing lineups for favorable matchups to sticking with Cruz, Reynolds and McCutchen at the top of the batting order.
Shelton insisted that the Pirates are a better team than how they have been performing so far. To his point, they rank in the top 10 in the majors in hits, walks and stolen bases, but also have grounded into the most double plays and rank 27th or lower in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, runs, home runs, RBIS and total bases.
“We obviously are a better team than we’re playing,” McCutchen said. “We can play ball. We’ve just got to consistently find ways to do it. Obviously, we haven’t figured that out this year. We haven’t been real consistent with it. Just show up and get ready for the next one. It ain’t my job to sit here and figure out why. It’s my job to go out there and try to have a good game. That’s basically it.”