CINCINNATI — After a stretch where the Pirates played games on 13 consecutive days — it should have been 16 if not for a postponed contest on April 11 — they’ve encountered some bumps in the road of late, the rain and weird scheduling forcing Pittsburgh to compete in clumps.
Rain postponed Friday’s game against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. It’s rescheduled as part of a split doubleheader back here on July 7. Combined with Tuesday’s postponed game in Detroit, the Pirates had two off days on either side of Wednesday’s doubleheader and will play another twin bill in Cincinnati on Saturday.
The weird scheduling has been great for keeping pitchers rested. It’s been tougher for hitters trying to find timing or carry something over from one game to the next.
“I would prefer to play,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Guys get ready, they go. Even in this stretch right here, we have two off days within the span of four days, and then all of a sudden, you get [postponed], you play a doubleheader, and then you have weather.
“I would rather play, because when you don’t play, you’re talking about adding games in stretches where you don’t know where you’re going to be at. In terms of how we’re running our pitching, it’s way easier to do it this way. But I would prefer not to do it.”
The other part here — and Shelton laughed about this — is that he really doesn’t have any other choice. The schedule was odd to start, including two days off in the same week after originally having just one over the final three-plus weeks of April.
While the stop-start nature has been fairly simple for the Pirates' pitching staff to cover, especially given how little they ask out of their starters and how freely they’ve been able to rotate relievers, it hasn’t helped some of their best offensive players who are trying to find a rhythm.
For example, Ben Gamel, who has scuffled some thus far, finished Wednesday’s doubleheader by raising his batting average 45 points by going 5 for 8 with a double, triple and three RBIs. Now, he’s forced to wait, unable to feel whatever he felt again.
Same for Bryan Reynolds, who doubled twice in the second game and has raised his average to .217 — not ideal, obviously, but a slow climb from where he was. Yoshi Tsutsugo, another heart-of-the-order hitter, has some good peripheral numbers and has shown signs of a possible breakout. But he’s still hitting just .188 with one extra-base hit through 19 games.
In addition to the lack of games, the Pirates have also had to navigate flipping back and forth between night games and day games a lot, in part because of scheduling and also the weather. It’s not the biggest deal, obviously, but it doesn’t help when you’re trying to find a rhythm.
“The night/day is almost as relevant as the doubleheader stuff, because when you run into a day game the next day, the recovery aspect of it is when it really comes into play,” Shelton said.
“You’ve got to be really mindful of what you’re doing and who you’re playing and how you’re doing it. You’re looking at it not only over the course of this two-day stretch, but probably a seven-day stretch.”
Moran memories
Friday’s game was supposed to feature a visit with Colin Moran, who signed a one year, $1 million contract with the Reds this offseason after the Pirates non-tendered him in November. That will have to wait 24 hours, obviously.
Moran is hitting just .190 with a .474 OPS in 17 games with the Reds, where he’s surprisingly been playing some third base, a position from which he moved while with the Pirates. With Joey Votto on the COVID-19 injured list, Moran has been earning some starts at first base as well.
In four years with the Pirates, Moran hit .269 with a .750 OPS. His best year came in 2019, when he hit .277 with a .751 OPS. That included 30 doubles, a triple, 13 home runs and 80 RBIs.
Moran was quiet and certainly stoic, but his sense of humor was very much appreciated inside the Pirates clubhouse.
"C-Mo is one of the sneaky funny people in this game,” Shelton said. “A lot of people don't realize that. I'm excited to see him. I'm going to be excited to ask him about his family. I enjoyed my conversations with C-Mo. They were always very funny. He's very quick-witted. Very good responses.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: May 6, 2022, 11:36 p.m.
Updated: May 6, 2022, 11:51 p.m.
