Five takeaways after fruitless trip to Big Apple

NEW YORK -- Make that an 0-and-6 trip to New York.

The Pirates were clobbered, 14-2, by the Yankees at Yankee Stadium Wednesday, capping a trip to the Big Apple that featured chasing unflattering records, blowouts and games where they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

It's a lot to take in, so let's cap these series thoughts style.

SO, THIS BULLPEN...

The old "you get what you pay for" narrative is about as low-hanging of fruit as you can get with Pirates commentary or opinion.

Sometimes it's just too on the nose to ignore, though. Take these charts, for example, that track bullpen ERA vs. how much the team spends on relievers:

This is as cut and dry as it gets. Few teams spend as little on the bullpen as the Pirates, and few teams are getting worse results out of the bullpen than the Pirates. 

Those figures are going to get worse after Miguel Yajure and Eric Stout were both tagged for four runs and a home run each in the eighth inning Wednesday, turning what was an at least a fairly close game into a blowout.

It's worth pointing out that the Pirates' All-Star this year is a closer too, meaning David Bednar has done more than his fair share to try to keep that staff ERA down.

In three years, Ben Cherington has signed one reliever to a major-league contract: Heath Hembree, who has long since been released. I don't know how that's really possible. You don't need to spend a ton of money to have a good bullpen -- though that chart does strongly suggest it's more likely that way -- but some outside help is needed to add some very necessary depth.

Because when there is a game like Tuesday where they have a nearly 99% win probability in the ninth and still lose, it stings even more. During the pre-game availability Wednesday, Derek Shelton talked about that Tuesday collapse and said that there were a lot of things he liked about his team's effort and performance, but that ending hurt.

"Was I pissed afterwards?" Shelton said. "Yes, probably as much as I've been in two years."

Give him and the pitching team more quality relievers to work with. By trading Chris Stratton, there were virtually no other potential leverage guys for a late-inning role after Bednar hit the IL than Wil Crowe, and while he excelled in middle relief, those last few innings have been very unkind to him.

At the moment, the only three members of the Pirates' bullpen who were not acquired via minor-league free agency, waivers or a minor trade after they had been designated for assignment are Crowe, Yajure and Zach Thompson, the last two of whom came into the season as starters and are now in long relief. There's not much there in terms of proven arms, and it's easy to see why the staff ERA is so high. 

IN DEFENSE OF STOUT

I believe Stout after he said he wasn't working around Aaron Judge. After a lengthy Yankee rally in the eighth, Judge got one more chance to try to tie Roger Maris for the American League record for home runs in a single season, but Stout walked him on four pitches.

The crowd was less than thrilled. After chanting "we want Judge" a few batters earlier, the Pirates' lefty was showered with boos for failing to deliver a strike.

“No, never. I’m focused on the at bat, trying to get him out," Stout said when asked if he thought of the possibility of home run No. 61 during that at-bat. "I know I fell behind, threw him some good pitches that I thought just missed, maybe could’ve been there. I’d have to go back and look. Regardless, that’s what I was thinking.”

Stout was probably just wild. After all, he entered with a walk rate of just under 15%. And even if he did pitch around him, well, I wouldn't blame him. Would you want your career-defining highlight to be surrendering a historic home run?

YAJURE ISN'T CLICKING

Is it time to start getting worried about Yajure?

It's been a rough year for the right-hander, starting with a back injury in spring training and needing to relearn some mechanics after missing time and getting out of sync.

But when I look at this pitch chart, I don't see the guy who had a couple potentially plus breaking pitches when he joined a couple years ago:

The slider has disappeared. You can point to the cutter, but they aren't slider locations. We're seeing a lot of curveballs of late, which is a fine pitch, but it's only part of his arsenal.

It's probably the better part of his arsenal because he's not locating the ball up. In the eighth inning Wednesday, catcher Jason Delay gave a very strong signal for a fastball up to Gleyber Torres. He would end up missing his spot in about the worst place possible, pumping a flat 94 mph fastball right down the chute:

"You throw the ball right down the middle to this club in this ballpark, you're going to get damage," Shelton said. "We got damaged."

Yajure could still bounce back next year, but this season has gone about as poorly as it could for him. If he doesn't take a step in 2023, it may be fair to wonder what's next for him.

SOME BUILDING BLOCKS

I'm not blinking twice at Roansy Contreras' shaky start Wednesday. He was pulled after 4 2/3 innings and allowed six runs, four of which came on this one swing from Oswaldo Cabrera on a slider that just didn't slide:

But he would end up finding that breaking ball to go on to post 10 strikeouts, efficiently pounding the strike zone, sometimes for better or worse.

"Outings like this are eventually going to happen in your career," Contreras said through interpreter Mike Gonzalez. "These are things that are gonna happen. You just have to remain focused, mentally prepared for situations like that and outings like this just to get an opportunity to grow and learn from them."

That's a really mature response from a 22-year-old. He'll be fine.

Someone else who will also be fine is Rodolfo Castro, who had a couple hits and a triple as he continues to be just one of the most dangerous power hitters since being recalled.

If you took issue with him watching his home run Tuesday, he and Shelton had a conversation about it Wednesday. It wasn't about taking the fun out of the game -- and you can so clearly see his love of the sport when he plays -- but just making sure he is mindful of situations and ballparks. If that wasn't a homer, it would have been an issue.

I think I've hit the point that if he and Oneil Cruz are the opening day double play duo, that would be just fine.

AND THE COUNTDOWN

With the loss and the sweep, the Pirates fall to 55-94. They need to go at least 8-5 down the stretch to avoid a second straight 100-loss season.

This is one of the worst stretches in franchise history, if not the the worst. They need to get a lot better with urgency.

Because if the goal is to get better, a good way to start would be to stop losing games by a dozen. That's the sixth time this season they lost by at least 12 runs. They lost by at least 12 six times last season too. Going by Stathead, whose records go back to 1901, the only other National League team to lose that many games by at least a dozen in back-to-back seasons was the 1929-30 Phillies.

This isn't normal.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: RHP David Bednar (back), RHP JT Brubaker (right arm inflammation)

• 60-day injured list: Yerry De Los Santos (lat), OF Canaan Smith-Njigba (wrist), RHP Colin Holderman (right shoulder), RHP Blake Cederlind (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), C Roberto Pérez (hamstring)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Oneil Cruz, SS
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Rodolfo Castro, 2B
4. Ben Gamel, RF
5. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
6. Cal Mitchell, DH
7. Jack Suwinski, LF
8. Zack Collins, 1B
9. Jason Delay, C

And for Aaron Boone's Yankees:

1. Aaron Judge, RF
2. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
3. Glebyer Torres, 2B
4. Josh Donaldson, 3B
5. Giancarlo Stanton, DH
6. Oswaldo Cabrera, LF
7. Harrison Bader, CF
8. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, SS
9. Jose Trevino, C

THE SCHEDULE

Back to Pittsburgh. Mitch Keller (5-11, 4.03) will welcome the Cubs and Hayden Weneski (1-1, 2.30) to PNC Park Thursday. First pitch is at 6:35 p.m. I'll have you covered.

THE CONTENT

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