It’s way too short-sighted to put this one on poor Ka’ai Tom, the rookie outfielder appearing in just his 11th MLB game and making his first start for the Pirates after they claimed him off waivers last week and added him to the active roster on Monday.
Tom made a couple of glaring mistakes and probably won’t be looking for any sort of framed memento from his first start at PNC Park, but what happened Friday during the Pirates’ 7-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals was much bigger than one individual player.
More than anything, a defeat like this should serve as a reminder of the Pirates’ slim margin for error. They got a fairly solid start from JT Brubaker, made a few nifty plays in the field and still lost because fundamentals lacked and they couldn’t capitalize on the limited opportunities they had.
Tom was at the epicenter of the miscues. He botched a play in left on a shallow fly ball, created an out on the bases and struck out with two on to end the fourth.
But the Pirates (12-13) also made mistake pitches, went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, couldn’t come through with two outs and turned in a generally sloppy effort, something they had avoided while winning 11 of their past 18 following a six-game losing streak.
“We have been playing really well and doing really well in those aspects,” Kevin Newman said. “We'll flush [Friday], come back and continue to play how we've been playing the last couple weeks.”
Twenty-five games into this season, there’s obviously still plenty to learn about the Pirates and every other MLB team. But this much has started to crystallize: If the Pirates play good defense and sound fundamental baseball, their starting pitchers give them a chance and the offense scratches out a few runs, they can win some games.
But a breakdown in any of those areas, and the Pirates simply aren’t equipped to have one player or a group of them fireman carry their way to victories. Maybe eventually. Not now.
As bad as Tom might’ve been, his miscues didn’t cost the Pirates four runs. Poorly placed pitches from Brubaker and Duane Underwood Jr. did. Brubaker missed with a slider up to Tyler O’Neill. Underwood did the same with a fastball when facing pinch-hitter Matt Carpenter. Both did what they should’ve done and whacked them out of the park.
“I tried to rip it and threw it down the middle and let the movement take care of it,” Brubaker said. “It was one of those spinners. He stuck with it, hung on it and took it a long way.”
Friday also stung for the Pirates because it seemed like, at times, the Cardinals were practically begging them to take control. Nine walks. A balk. A wild pitch. The Pirates certainly had chances to do some damage. But their bats came up empty, finishing the game without an extra-base hit or a hit at all over the final three innings.
If that late-game period was marked by offense, or the lack of it, the first four innings were graffiti-painted with moaning and groaning over the presence of Tom, the Rule 5 outfielder the Pirates are hoping might stick.
There was the Nolan Arenado double he looked to be a tick late on in the first, then the second Arenado two-bagger that dropped between him and Newman in the third. As the outfielder, it’s Tom’s job to take charge of the situation, and that play undoubtedly has to be made.
“Stuff like that's gonna happen,” Shelton said. “New ballpark, first time he's been out there, kind of adapt and adjust. He made a nice play later on a ball, coming in sliding. I think that one he just lost."
After a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third, Tom took too wide of a turn around second, and the Cardinals made a smart, backdoor play to nail him.
The Pirates got their first run in the fourth thanks to a Newman single and looked to possibly have something going against John Gant. But Tom took a curveball, fought two pitches off, then swung through a four-seam fastball.
The mistake aside, this was actually an OK start for Brubaker, who gave up three earned runs over five, although only one, maybe two, should’ve actually scored. He walked none, struck out seven and picked up 20 whiffs while flashing a nasty slider
“That's a good lineup,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He got some swings and misses and some off-balance swings and misses."
The Pirates even got some defensive gems. Tom’s sliding catch in the third. Bryan Reynolds’ all-out layout in the seventh. A dive to start a double play from Adam Frazier in the ninth. After a rocky start, it was encouraging for Newman to pick up a pair of hits.
But again, given where the Pirates are at, that sort of stuff quickly becomes ignorable if just one part of the machine breaks down.
“We did a couple things that contributed to giving them runs,” Shelton said. “We've played well, and [Friday] we just didn't play very well."
Around the horn
The Cardinals are 13-2 at PNC Park since the start of the 2019 season and have won five in a row here. … O’Neill now has eight homers and 18 RBIs in 28 career games against the Pirates. … Carpenter has hit pinch-hit, three-run homers in back-to-back games.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: May 1, 2021, 2:04 a.m.
Updated: May 1, 2021, 3:22 a.m.
