As Nick Gonzales awaited a Joey Bart throw down to second base in the top of the second inning Wednesday afternoon, his eyes never seemed to leave Dylan Carlson as he inched his way farther from the third-base bag and closer to home plate.
Lars Nootbaar had taken off for second with two outs in a scoreless ball game, prompting the throw from Bart in an attempt to potentially break through on the scoreboard. Gonzales took it in, ran towards Nootbaar with his focus still entirely on Carlson and waited for his moment. As Carlson got far enough off of third and showed enough intent in wanting to get back there, Gonzales delivered a strike to gun him down and end any hope of converting on what would have been a crucial double steal in the Pirates' 5-0 win over the Cardinals at PNC Park.
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"Just trying to slow that play down," Gonzales explained to me. "You don't want to commit to the guy who's on first, but you also know that he can't go anywhere if you're standing in the baseline in front of him. You kinda just walk him back, but keep your eye on the guy at third. Honestly, it's a play you can get sped up on really quick. If you just take it easy and take it slow, you can keep your eye on it. As soon as he got off big at third and then committed back to third, I was able to make the throw. It's huge to be able to keep a run from scoring there."
Gonzales said there's plenty of practice that goes into being able to properly execute a play like that. It's something the infielders work on often during spring training.
"It's especially helpful having actual baserunners out there so you can have a feel for what's going on, if they'll commit early or not," Gonzales said. "Having that experience allows you to slow it down a little bit."
Not only did Gonzales' heads-up focus and awareness allow him to save a run in that situation, but it also served as an example of the way taking care of the little things can lead to positive results. It would have been easy for Gonzales to get sped up and fold under the pressure of that play. But he remained calm, cool and collected to get a crucial third out in a half inning that was followed by a four-run bottom half for the Pirates.
"No panic when they ran the Mickey Mouse play," Derek Shelton said. "Going back and forth to get him to start, No. 1, and then to get him to retreat."
There was another key defensive play that caught Shelton's attention in this one. It wasn't anything flashy, but the decision-making by Oneil Cruz on a simple ground ball off the bat of Alec Burleson stood out. Carmen Mlodzinski had just allowed a pair of one-out baserunners when Burleson hit one up the middle in front of the second-base bag. Instead of flipping the ball over to Gonzales to try and get an inning-ending double play, Cruz focused on getting the sure out at first. Mlodzinski ended up inducing a flyout to end the inning and come away unscathed.
"Oneil made a really good decision on a ground ball through the middle where he was in front of the bag that I think earlier in the year he may have tried to rush and get two," Shelton said. "Just took the out, so we ended up second and third. I think it was in Carmen's inning, got the runners second and third. Little things like that, because if you make an inadvertent flip there or you don't get an out there, then we're looking at a bases-loaded situation and it changes the whole complexion of the game."
The Pirates made their share of routine defensive plays in support of Martin Perez, who saw plenty of activity on the basepaths in allowing four hits and five walks through six scoreless innings. The Cardinals had multiple chances to put runs up on the board, but Perez induced nine ground balls thanks in part to a 36% usage of his sinker and gave his infielders every opportunity to make the necessary plays behind him.
"It was very crucial," Gonzales said. "With a guy like Martin who's going to get a ton of ground balls for us, we have to do our job."
The Cardinals outhit the Pirates by a 6-5 margin and benefitted from nine free passes. Yet, stellar pitching from Perez, Mlodzinski, Colin Holderman and Aroldis Chapman coupled with a solid defensive effort helped produce a win that secured a 4-2 homestand and a fourth-straight series victory for the Pirates, who are now two games over .500 at 52-50 and sit a game behind the Cardinals for the final wild card spot in the National League.
"We played very solid defense," Shelton said. "We did not give away outs, and you cannot do that against that club. You can't do it to extend innings. I think that was the most important thing."
