April was a tale of two halves for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They jumped out of the gates, winning their first five games of the season and not losing any of the first five series they played. At 11-5, they were battling atop the NL Central on the back of a lineup that was mashing the ball.
Pittsburgh was near the top of several categories for hitting, as they were scoring runs to overcome some shaky pitching performances. Unfortunately for them, the script was flipped in the second half of April.
They finished the month going 3-13 as the offensive production has reached alarmingly poor levels. The pitching staff is doing what they can to keep the team afloat, as they allowed four runs or fewer in six of the losses. Pittsburgh has scored more than three runs only twice and is 2-0 in those games.
Based on the up-and-down production, it should come as no surprise that the ESPN senior writer David Schoenfield gave them an underwhelming grade for the first month of the season. The Pirates received a passing, but underwhelming “C” grade from Schoenfield.
“The bright spots — most notably the blazing start from rookie Jared Jones and good work from Martin Perez and Bailey Falter — have been canceled out by slow starts on offense from Oneil Cruz (sub-.700 OPS), Henry Davis (.169, no home runs) and Jared Triolo (.556 OPS) along with a combined four blown saves from David Bednar and Aroldis Chapman. With Paul Skenes‘ debut imminent, however, and Mitch Keller likely to improve from a mediocre start, the Pirates have a chance at an excellent rotation the rest of the way, although innings limits for Jones and Skenes could come into play,” Schoenfield wrote.
This certainly isn’t what many people expected from the Pirates coming into the season. If there was going to be a weakness in their pitching staff, it would be the starting rotation, not the bullpen led by veterans in Bednar and Chapman.
The lineup wasn’t expected to be this detrimental, either. There is a lot of talent up and down the roster, but nothing has been clicking as the entire team is mired in an ugly slump at the plate.
As Schoenfield noted, help should be on the way soon with phenom Skenes. The Pirates will have one of the best young stables of arms in the MLB with Skenes, Jones, Keller and Quinn Priester. That provides optimism moving forward, and if the bats ever get going, Pittsburgh will be a factor in the postseason picture.
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