Pirates flailing for ways to navigate gauntlet

CHICAGO -- The Pirates have to be happy that they are getting out of this city, following being no-hit Tuesday with a 10-3 loss to the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field Wednesday afternoon.

But while they can leave the Windy City, they can't escape the upcoming gauntlet of games before them. These were just the first two of a stretch of 15 games in 13 days, which starts to ramp up Thursday when they play a doubleheader against the Cardinals.

They also have to try to improve from their major-league worst 7-19 record.

"We just have to move on," Derek Shelton has said about the start of that stretch of games. "Last night we talked about how well it was pitched, and then today the game got away from us fairly early. [We need to] continue to fight back."

The Pirates' other doubleheader during this stretch is Sept. 4 against the Reds at PNC Park. All three games are makeups of postponed games from mid-August when the Cardinals and Reds had players test positive for COVID-19.

While those postponed games initially offered a much-needed break at first, the volume of missed contests is going to create challenges going forward this season, especially in monitoring pitcher workloads.

So if there was anything good to say about Trevor Williams' six-inning, eight-run performance, it was that it was at least six innings. That is at least an improvement over Steven Brault being pulled after three innings Tuesday.

Williams and pitching coach Oscar Marin had discussions between every inning to see how he was feeling. Williams knew he needed to eat innings, and since his pitch count was manageable and his fastball velocity steady, he kept going back out there.

"There was no reason not to go at least six today, regardless of what the score said," Williams said.

Williams threw 95 pitches on the day, three of which left the yard.

"You have to give him credit, he continued to pitch," Shelton said. "He got close to getting out of some innings and then left the ball up and gave up the three homers."

Tyler Bashlor covered the other two frames Wednesday, and Nick Tropeano gave four innings the day before. By doing so, most of the bullpen is rested heading into the double-header.

But pitching is only half the problem. With the exception of this past weekend's series against the Brewers, the Pirates' offense has struggled to string much together all season. They now have a major-league worst .626 on-base plus slugging. Their 102 runs as a team are the second fewest in baseball, ahead of only the Cardinals, who have played seven fewer games.

While there was no threat of another no-hitter Wednesday, with Cole Tucker ending Dallas Keuchel's bid by lining a single on the first pitch of the game, many of those problems continued to show up. The Pirates only had one extra-base hit -- a late Erik Gonzalez home run after the game had been decided -- and went just 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

"The results don’t lie," Tucker said. "We’re aware of what our stats as a team look like, but I would say that guys aren’t really scrambling to fix their swings, per se, in this... It’s more so, how can we show up and string together nine guys and put together good at bats so we can put runs on the board like they did today and yesterday.”

That question is going to be on their minds as they continue this stretch and the rest of the season.

"We're gonna fly to St. Louis and a new season starts for us tomorrow," Williams said. "The sun will come up."



• Williams allowed nine hits and walked two, striking out three, but the game was decided on the three home runs.

Williams said he mis-executed some pitches, and thought the one who got him good was this 435-footer from Edwin Encarnacion: