Pirates maintaining optimism amid current free fall

LOS ANGELES -- After an eye-opening stretch in which they won three of four series and were steadily sitting above .500 following the All-Star break, the Pirates are in the midst of an August free fall that has them losing valuable ground in the National League Wild Card race.

Their miserable month continued in opening up their West Coast trip Friday night, as the Pirates suffered a 9-5 loss at the hands of the first-place Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. With the defeat, they have now dropped five straight games -- their longest losing streak since they lost five in a row from April 28-May 3. They've lost six of seven games this month and have ultimately suffered defeats in seven of their last eight games dating back to their series finale in Houston on the final day of July. 

This most recent stretch of disheartening results has the Pirates sitting three games under .500 with a 4.5 game deficit in the race for a wild card spot: 

"I feel like we're playing good baseball, we're just not finishing the job," Isiah Kiner-Falefa told me. "I just feel like it's closer than the record shows."

While the season seems to be slipping from their grasps, belief and optimism still exists within the clubhouse of a Pirates team that has shown glimpses of being able to hang with just about any team in their path. That was evident in a series win over these same Dodgers in early June and again was put on full display before and after the All-Star break when they won four series in a row against the central-leading Brewers, the White Sox, the NL-best Phillies and another team with playoff aspirations in the Cardinals. That encouraging stretch was highlighted by a season-best six-game winning streak, which seems all for naught at this point. 

Still, the Pirates are seemingly embracing a glass-half-full type of mentality in acknowledging that while the results haven't been ideal, five one-run losses and a few valiant comeback attempts have provided enough fuel for them to stay the course and find a way to climb out of this current hole they find themselves in. 

"We didn't play great tonight, but through this stretch, we've lost, what, five one-run games. Since the break, I think we've lost seven one-run games," Derek Shelton said. "We've just got to keep going. We've got to continue to play, and we're playing good teams. We're playing the top teams in the National League West. And right now, we've just got to find a way, like I said, to finish games when we're at home. And today, we just got off to a tough start and couldn't get back up."

After two games in which the Pirates rallied back to take a late lead only for David Bednar to suffer two blown saves, there was a sense of relief knowing Mitch Keller was taking the mound in an attempt to serve as a stopper to this growing losing streak. Keller, whose last start was limited to just four innings due to a lengthy weather delay last weekend, has been a model of consistency for a strong starting rotation, but he struggled to keep the hard-hitting Dodgers off the board early, as Freddie Freeman got all of a 2-0 cutter on the inner part of the plate to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead in the first inning: 

Keller limited the damage to just the one run through his first two innings before another blow was dealt in the form of a two-run shot by Shohei Ohtani:

Keller allowed four more runs on three singles to Will Smith, Miguel Rojas and Teoscar Hernandez over the span of two more innings. He ultimately lasted four for a second straight start, only this time Mother Nature played no part in it. Keller allowed a season-high seven runs on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts. 

Acknowledged as the ace of the Pirates' rotation by his manager, Keller wasn't able to stop the losing ways from continuing. But, like his new veteran teammate and his manager, Keller is remaining positive with five more important games remaining on this pivotal road trip through Los Angeles and San Diego. 

"It sucks. We're trying to win every single game. Obviously, we know what's at stake. It sucks to have a bad stretch here," Keller said. "We're gonna flush this game, come back tomorrow and act like it never happened. We're gonna start the game off zero-zero tomorrow and try to start a new winning streak. No one is hanging their head in here. We know what's at stake and we know what we need to do. Flush it, come back tomorrow and win tomorrow." 

One of the bright spots in this latest defeat was the play of Kiner-Falefa at the top of a Pirates lineup that generated five runs with an 11-hit output that topped the Dodgers' eight hits. He went 2 for 4 with a double, a walk and a run scored. A veteran with seven years and over 700 games of experience under his belt, Kiner-Falefa has experienced the highs and lows of a major-league season. He's aware there are things that need cleaned up, but he's evidently been impressed by the fight the group has shown in a number of their close losses since he was acquired from the Blue Jays ahead of the trade deadline. That includes this one where a 6-0 shutout turned into a 7-4 game after a solo home run by Oneil Cruz and a three-run shot by Joey Bart in the middle innings. And even when the Dodgers were one out away from closing things out, Cruz kept the game going with an RBI single. The game was all but over, but there was at least one last punch thrown. 

In the eyes of Kiner-Falefa, that willingness to fight until the last out is what has stood out when the results haven't been there. He's still optimistic the Pirates have a chance to bounce back and contend even when everything is pointing towards an August collapse that could ultimately sink their hopes of securing an opportunity to play into October. 

"We haven't been able to get the wins, but you look at the way we fight to the end, we go down early, find a way to claw back and make the games interesting," Kiner-Falefa said. "At the end of the day, all we can control is our effort, the attitude and the fight. Things definitely haven't been going our way in the win-loss column, but the way we fight is contagious.

"We still believe in ourselves. Just like we fight til the ninth inning, we're going to fight until the end of the year."