Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
http://triblive.com/sports/
May 21, 2012
DETROIT, MI - MAY 20: Neil Walker #18 of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits a solo home run to right field in the sixth inning during the inter-league game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on May 20, 2012 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
DETROIT — Give it up for these Pirates. They’ve got to be the only team in Major League Baseball that strikes out 15 times against a pitcher with a 6.29 ERA — all swinging! — and still somehow stays in the game. At least until they bury themselves with a booted blooper, a passed ball and yet another strikeout by Pedro Alvarez, the day’s designated oxymoron.
Tigers 4, Pirates 3.
Not an easy team to love, is it?
Or to believe in.
And yet, I couldn’t help but take seriously something Andrew McCutchen was saying earlier Sunday at Comerica Park: “Look at what we’ve done so far without really having our offense yet. We know the pitching’s going to be there. If we can get the offense going, even just a little, we’ll be unstoppable.”
I wouldn’t go that far. But thanks almost entirely to McCutchen’s tour de force and one of baseball’s best pitching staffs, the Pirates are 19-22. That’s respectable, if not riveting, and it’s just 3 games off the Central Division lead.
Anyone else think that at least a foundation is there?
Not for the future. Right now.
Here’s an amazing figure: When the Pirates score as many as two measly runs, they’re 18-9.
“We’ve already got the most important thing,” catcher Rod Barajas said. “If you have that pitching — and we do — then you’ve got a chance to win every single day. Remember the Giants a couple years ago? They won it all with their pitching. If we can hit just enough, we’ve got a chance.”
I wonder if the Pirates’ management sees the same thing.
So far, based on the lack of any response to the worst offense in all of professional baseball — majors or minors, all the way down to A-ball — it’s hard to say they do.
Here’s the full list of moves made this season by Neal Huntington and the front office to address the offense: Gorkys Hernandez, a toothpick of a bat in the minors, was recalled for this series. That’s it. (He then sat all weekend while Nate McLouth’s latest futility streak reached 19 at-bats and should have him in peril of being cut.)
You already know this is a terrible hitting team, obviously excluding McCutchen.
But did you know it’s a terrible hitting organization?
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