Tim Benz: For once, at least we can see signs that 1 plan for the Pirates may come together
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It’s early for the Pittsburgh Pirates to go full Col. Hannibal Smith from the “A-Team.” But in terms of the club’s starting rotation, don’t you just “love it when a plan comes together”?
For one series, anyway, that just happened.
And for a franchise whose best laid plans so often go astray, it was enjoyable to see them manifest for at least one weekend against a division rival.
On Sunday, the Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2, behind a strong start from Mitch Keller. The club took three of four at Wrigley Field, providing a snapshot of what the organization had been hoping this rotation would look like by roughly this point in the season.
Especially since last year’s first-round pick, Paul Skenes, is now up with the big league club, and Jared Jones has proved to be more than worthy of staying up after making his Major League Baseball debut at the end of March.
In the four games at Wrigley, the Pirates starters — Jones, Skenes, Bailey Falter and Keller — combined to allow only five runs over 25 ⅔ innings against a Cubs lineup that posted 21 runs just a week earlier during a three-game series between the teams at PNC Park.
Not only that, but the combined strikeout-to-walk ratio for the four starters was 23:6. For Jones and Skenes specifically to open the first two games of the series, it was 18:1. Skenes left his start Friday after six innings with a no-hit shutout intact, and Falter tossed 7 2/3 innings of three-hit shutout ball Saturday. Then Keller yielded just two runs, both on sacrifice flies, to earn the win Sunday.
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“The competition between us is a lot of fun,” Keller said during a post-game interview aired on SportsNet Pittsburgh. “Everyone is in a groove right now. We are just trying to keep it going and throwing up as many zeros as possible.”
The Pirates’ team ERA among starters is 3.68, largely inflated by Martin Perez’s most recent outing when he gave up nine earned runs on five homers. But that’s still good enough for fifth best in the NL. The rotation’s WHIP is third at 1.19, and the strikeout total of 233 is fourth.
“Starting pitching is the key. It’s why teams win. It’s why teams go deep into the season. If you have that every night, you are going to give yourself a chance,” manager Derek Shelton said Sunday evening. “All you ask of your starters is to give us a chance to win the game. And our guys have done that.”
Beyond all those frequently parroted baseball manager truisms, the more important angle to discuss is that this is a rare instance of the Pirates envisioning something and those of us in the public very quickly seeing evidence of how it could play out in the future.
The young-armed fire-balling Jones and Skenes are at the top of the rotation, blowing guys away, followed by a veteran slower-tossing lefty to break things up before coming back with Keller.
So far, Jones and Skenes have done nothing to dissuade optimists that they are worthy of living up to their pre-draft pedigree.
Pure filth ????
Every strikeout from Paul Skenes' first MLB win ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/QEVWWzekIM
— MLB (@MLB) May 17, 2024
Through nine career starts:
60 Strikeouts
7 Walks
0.91 WHIP
.208 AVGJared Jones has also racked up 7+ strikeouts and 0 walks in five of those starts. pic.twitter.com/7cA6W3EYaO
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 17, 2024
With a 3.53 ERA over nine starts, Falter has been better than advertised and, after allowing just three runs over his last three starts, Keller is at least beginning to resemble the guy who made the NL All-Star team last year.
Perez’s last few outings have been rough, but if the Pirates keep getting what they are getting out of Falter and Perez becomes the de facto fifth guy in the rotation, so be it.
“We’re just having a good time together, and it’s showing out there,” Keller said of the starters. “What we have up here is exceptional. What’s coming (from the minors) is really good too. Everything is great, but we just have to focus in… Pedal to the metal, and keep going.”
As Keller himself pointed out during his postgame interview session, there are still more than 100 games left. So, in what would be typical Pirates fashion, there is plenty of time for things to fall apart.
For at least one series, though, Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington can light up a George Peppard cigar and enjoy how this aspect of the franchise is coming together.