ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Fire everyone.
Meaning from both teams this time.
Look, there's no fairly stripping credit from these Pirates, particularly after all they've absorbed since the All-Star break, but let's not ignore that their 10-7 outslugging of the Angels on this Tuesday night at Angel Stadium came against an opponent that's now lost 10 of 12, that's routinely pulling pitchers by the third or fourth inning, that's ... that's ... OK, just watch:
That was a Josh Bell bloop single in the third inning that somehow scored two runs without an RBI.
Look familiar?
And the home team's pitcher up there, Griffin Canning, had such an awful start that he'd later observe of that comical sequence, "I probably deserved it."
Ow.
But I'll repeat: There's no way to fairly strip credit from these Pirates. Because someone still had to hammer out 17 hits for a second double-digit run total in as many days, someone still had to navigate through Trevor Williams' latest seasick start, and someone still had to do this:
Oh. My.
"So pretty," Clint Hurdle called it.
"Unreal," Kevin Newman called it.
"Not fair," Josh Bell would say.
That play, my friends, is what I love about baseball. Not this sloppy, sluggish game between going-nowhere-rapidly teams. But that play, in general, is just the pinnacle of what this beautiful sport still can bring, no matter the era, no matter the context.
So, yeah, let's toss out all of that crusty context of late and have a little fun.
It was the fifth inning. It wasn't Williams' night, to be kind. After he'd spotted the Angels the first four runs, his teammates fought back for a 7-5 lead. And here he was, about to concede a sixth when Matt Thaiss skied a ball to medium-depth center. Deep enough for Kole Calhoun to tag from third.
Not deep enough to beat Marte, who'd record his seventh outfield assist of the season and 71st of his career and 59th in the past five years alone:
#Pirates Starling Marte has 14 more outfield assists than any other #MLB player from 2015-19
— Joe Block (@joe_block) August 14, 2019
(via @StatsBySTATS) pic.twitter.com/VIIlj54uE5
I had two questions for him afterward:
How much pride do you take in that arm?
"It's something I'm very proud of. As a ballplayer, as an athlete, you have all these attributes, and it's one I enjoy a lot. It's important to be a good hitter. It's important to field well and to run. But to also have a strong arm that's respected around the league, that's huge for me."
Wait, if they respect you, why does anyone still run on you on a routine tag from third?
"I don't know," he'd reply with a broad smile and playful shrug.
The confidence is evident in his form as he sets for the throw. Rather than doing the momentum-building run-up to the catch that every child is taught worldwide, he simply waits for it -- actually backpedals slightly -- then throws off the back foot:
Wait, back foot?
"Back foot!" Bell would gush. "Who does that?"
Someone with that God-given arm that Rene Gayo found on the sandlots of the Dominican Republic more than a dozen years ago. And all those other tools, of course.
Still, it takes two to make a great throw. No one remembers Dave Parker's All-Star aerial if Gary Carter doesn't catch and tag. No one remembers Jose Guillen's Coors Field cannon if Keith Osik doesn't catch and tag. I'm not comparing those throws, the two best by the Pirates within my lifetime, to this. Rather, it's to stress that the ball might as well sail into the sun if it doesn't result in an out.
A wide receiver feels it on a quarterback's great pass. A winger feels it on a center's great feed. A power forward feels it when the point guard goes no-look.
Jacob Stallings, son of a basketball coach, gets this.
"When it's coming your way, when you can feel it's a great throw, when it's coming from someone like Starling ... just don't drop it," he'd tell me afterward with a little laugh. "That's part of what you're thinking, believe me. You want to do your best to match it."
He might have done more than match it. As Newman began saying to me before tellingly cutting himself off, "Starling's throw was incredible, but that tag might have been ... right up there."
Here's why: Although the throw arrived in a raging hurry, it did require Stallings to backhand the ball a bit up the first base line and, as I'd confirm, it left him literally out of time to apply any thought to how he'd tag Calhoun.
A closer, slower look:
"Any throws that you get from right field or the ones from center that maybe go a little up the line, that really limits my visibility on the runner," Stallings told me. "So all I could do was just dive across to where I thought the play would be. But luckily, it worked out. We got him."
Never mind that Stallings would get clipped in the mask by Calhoun's elbow, though he'd say he was "fine" from that.
As for the throw, "Honestly, I wasn't sure we'd have a chance because I thought Thaiss hit it pretty good. But Marte's got that arm."
There was one final variable and, small as it'll seem, all concerned cited it: The grass in Southern California stadiums tends to play slicker than others. Hurdle brought it up in suggesting that's why Marte's throw didn't lose any steam upon skipping just below the mound, and Stallings went further, saying it kept him from worrying whether the ball might take a detour.
OK, that's beautiful about baseball, too.
• Hurdle, on two in a row: "Good for the Buccos."
• Marte had his second three-hit output in as many days, by the way, giving him 15 on the season, second-most in the National League. Also his 50 extra-base hits on the season are second-most among all center fielders to ... Mike Trout, his counterpart in this series, who's got 64.
• I'd been joking with Bell here that there was only one swing of his I hadn't liked on this trip, and that was a stab he took on a pitch on the outer corner in St. Louis ... and launched the other way over the fence.
When he asked why, I began to respond, and he cut me off to say, "Because I went of my zone?"
Yeah, I came back.
"That's going to be strike three if I don't swing at it."
Fair enough. So it was a defensive swing?
"Oh, I wouldn't say that."
Ha!
So now, watch this one Tuesday night, his fourth home run in three games after none in a month:
That's 0-2 count against Taylor Cole, and it's essentially a waste pitch, way up and away, barely in the zone. And there went No. 31.
So, I had to ask again, mostly to be annoying: Defensive swing?
"Nope. Saw the pitch and hit it," he answered. "Was it out of the zone?"
I advised that the graphic box sure made it look like it could have been called a strike.
"That's cool."
• The Bell revival is in full bloom, actually: In the five games on this trip, all since Hurdle gave him that three-day breather, he's 9 for 19 with four home runs, two doubles, three walks and nine RBIs.
• It's his 27th birthday, by the way.
• Bryan Reynolds also homered for the second time in as many days, on both occasions sending Trout all the way back to the fence in center.
"And I was sure he'd go up and do one of those Trout-like things to take it away," Reynolds told me.
He's not having a bad trip, either, at 7 for 19 with two home runs, two doubles, three walks and three RBIs. But then, he doesn't really have streaks or slumps. He just does this.
• Williams' deeply disappointing 2019, maybe the greatest regression of anyone on the roster, dragged on with a five-inning line of five runs on seven hits and five walks. And the latter wasn't an anomaly: 40 of his 93 pitches were balls.
Hurdle described Williams' path as "an obstacle course," and that was about right. But he still wound up with a W, which seemed to sit well enough with him.
"You can make an argument that I didn't get the job done," Williams said. "But I kept the game close, and we won."
He had a 3.11 ERA in 2018, then a 2.49 ERA through five starts this season, and he's now at 5.25.
• Hurdle summoned Clay Holmes for the ninth with a five-run lead, and it naturally became a save situation. Felipe Vazquez came on to record his first since July 16 at St. Louis.
One pitch, double play, good night.
"How about that?" he'd say.
• Just for fun: If Trout walked through Market Square back home, would anyone recognize him?
That's a legit question I'm posing, not a jab of any kind. He's the undisputed best player in his sport, and some metrics suggest he's among the best ever, and I'm not sure if anyone would. And not just because Pittsburgh is a National League city. This guy doesn't get anywhere near the facetime of the best players in other sports, for reasons I'm not sure I understand.
• All of them. Every last one of them.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE INJURIES
• Richard Rodriguez (10-day IL, shoulder)
• Gregory Polanco (10-day IL, shoulder)
• Francisco Cervelli (60-day IL, concussion)
• Jameson Taillon (60-day IL, elbow)
• Rookie Davis (60-day IL, forearm)
• Lonnie Chisenhall (60-day IL, testing cryogenic therapy on his feet)
Here's the most recent full report. Todd Tomczyk, the Pirates' director of sports medicine, will have an updated report Wednesday afternoon.
THE SCHEDULE
Chris Archer's really feeling it of late. Just needs to zip through the first inning, and he's fine. He'll face lefty Dillon Peters. First pitch is 8:07 p.m. Eastern. Clubhouse opens to media at 4:40 p.m., and Hurdle will speak shortly thereafter.
THE COVERAGE
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