Five games. Four losses, three of them by shutout. No home runs since April 26.
Everyone knew the Pirates' lineup was no murderers' row. But the bats have gone silent so quickly that we have to wonder if they'll ever wake up for any kind of sustained stretch.
The lineup that the Reds' Johnny Cueto (pictured in Associated Press photograph) mowed down on Sunday contained some names of note: Nyjer Morgan and Freddy Sanchez, both of whom still are hitting over .300; Nate McLouth, last year's token Pirates All-Star; and Adam LaRoche, who leads the team with five homers.
Then there was the lower half of the order: Brandon Moss, Andy LaRoche, Jason Jaramillo and Brian Bixler. Sounds like the core of a Triple-A roster.
Supposedly, Pirates manager John Russell has made comments to the effect that he's more impressed with the team's offensive output this season compared with last. That's because two legitimate big-league hitters, Jason Bay and Xavier Nady, were here then, and now they're not.
Injury has played a factor: catcher Ryan Doumit and shortstop Jack Wilson are on the disabled list. But even when they return, Pirates fans shouldn't expect a ton of runs to cross the plate.
Neither should they expect the Bucco pitching to keep up its impressive start. Even Pirates GM Neal Huntington admits that the staff's BABIP is very low and there might be some trouble once it starts to rise.
What's BABIP? That's batting average on balls in play, meaning that when a pitcher doesn't register a strikeout, he takes his chances with where the ball happens to land. In other words, a low BABIP means you're getting a lot of good luck, and the law of percentages tends to even those things out after a while.
And in other words, the Pirates' 11-7 start this year seems likely to have been an illusion. But the prospect of a 17th straight losing season is all too real.
Trivia #14: Prior to Sunday, when was the last time the Pirates were shut out three times in the span of four games? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete