The Pirates' mistakes continue to mount and a sold-out crowd at PNC Park made their feelings known tonight on the North Shore in the midst of a 9-4 shellacking by the Yankees to kick off a three-game set.

After just two innings, the Pirates found themselves in a 2-0 hole. After three, they were in a 4-0 hole. The Yankees then extended their lead to seven in the fourth and mistakes like this error by Oneil Cruz in the top of the second inning were key contributors to this game getting away from the home team:

That one added two runs to the scoreboard and allowed a runner to take an extra base.

Then, there was this fielding error by recent acquisition Alexander Canario -- who replaced a sick Tommy Pham left field -- in the top of the third inning: It added third run to the scoreboard and allowed another runner to advance an extra base.

Lastly, with one out in the bottom of the fifth, and the heart of the order coming to the plate, there was this by Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

"That just can’t happen," Derek Shelton would say about Kiner-Falefa's mistake during his post-game press conference.

Remember the 'free 90' concept that DK spoke with Pham about during the Pirates' first loss of the year at loanDepot Park in Miami? They still haven't learned.

The mistakes made during their seven-game road trip to start the season -- especially during their four-game stretch in Miami -- came in crucial situations and turned sure wins into close losses. These ones, allowed the game to get out of control.

Both defensive mistakes either allowed runners to take extra bases or extra runs to score. And each time a mistake was made on this occasion, in front of a passionate fan base that is craving a winning baseball team, the Pirates heard about it.

Several chants of "Sell the team!" rang throughout the ballpark all evening and they were paired with loud boos that seemed constant at times. To make matters worse, the response from Shelton seems to be the same as it was down south.

"We’ve got to play better defensively in the outfield." Shelton would say. "We’ve played well defensively in the infield. We have not played well defensively in the outfield to start. We have to clean that up."

The Pirates entered spring training preaching about the need to do all the "small things" right. With the way the lineup is currently constructed, they need to play sound defense, not make mistakes on the base paths and perform up to standard in the biggest moments and through eight games, they haven't done so consistently. 

There have been times when they have. Adam Frazier's two throws to the plate in Miami and a few other defensive plays in Tampa, Fla. come to mind. However, mistakes like those that were made tonight become magnified when runs are scored and opponents are able to capitalize as the game spirals out of control.

Shelton didn't think the mistakes made today were as magnified saying, "I think today not as much because the game was a little bit bigger. In the previous games, they were magnified because they were in close games."

But when your team tallies four runs, all of which came via home runs, and has to rely on its defense and pitching to keep games close, mistakes like those matter, no matter when they occur. And if they continue at their current pace -- they are tied for the third-most errors in the league behind only the Athletics, Marlins and Diamondbacks -- they are going to keep allowing games to get away from them.

And home crowds are going to keep responding like they did tonight.