It was simultaneously as wonderful and weird a scene as I could recall at PNC Park.
In the seventh inning of the Pirates' 2-1 loss to Cubs in Game 2 of their doubleheader Tuesday night, the smallish but especially excitable crowd of 25,914 rose in unison and roared as Jung Ho Kang was announced as a pinch-hitter.
Not because of any dramatic return he was making from injury or illness.
Not because of anything specific he'd done of late.
Heck, maybe not because of anything having to do with him.
Maybe Lydia Cotrell, among those in attendance, had the right explanation when she tweeted me the following: "The fans in my section are questioning the lineup. We were excited to see a starter at the plate."
Oh, my. Really?
Because, if so, that would represent quite the mass condemnation not just for Clint Hurdle's lineup on this night but also the Pirates' oft-expressed, oft-explained approach to resting their players regularly.
And wow, would that be sensationally short-sighted or flagrantly ill-informed.
Let me put this in the bluntest terms possible: If you're shaking your fist at the ballpark or from your couch because you think the Pirates aren't doing their best to win the games that matter the most, you are dead bleeping wrong.
To start, here's why, from the mouth of one of the participants:
"We want to win the World Series," Jordy Mercer told me in the clubhouse after this game. "We know what it's taken to get us this far. We know the position we're in. We want to win every game we play. But at the same time, what we want more than anything is to win games in October. And I guarantee, if you went around this room, stall to stall, and asked everyone, they'll tell you the same thing. They believe in what we're doing. They've bought in."
They sure have. Longtime readers will attest that I'll cut through to the truth in any clubhouse or locker-room setting, even if that means going off the record to hear how a group really feels. Well, this one was unanimous and passionately in favor of the approach being taken by management and Hurdle, and that's on or off the record.
Want more?
"We all want to win games in September," Neil Walker said. "But we all understand that the goal here is to win the World Series, and that's another full month beyond this one. There's still a long way to go. We've got everything to gain from getting there healthy, fresh and ready. Believe me, we're trusting in that."
"Everyone wants to be out there," Josh Harrison said. "We're competitors. We're professionals. But you look around and realize, it isn't just you. It's five or six spots in the lineup that are fluid, where guys are going in and out. And it's with a plan. And a goal, the only the goal that matters."
He nodded toward Michael Morse passing by.
"He's a champion, man," Harrison said of Morse, a contributing member of the 2014 Bumgarner Giants. "He's been there. And we all want that. That's all this is about. We know we've got the group, and we know we won't have this chance every year. We've been to the playoffs twice now, but you can't take it for granted. You've got to do everything you can to set yourself up for October. And I mean deep into October."
And for this management and Hurdle are being widely panned?
After the results we've already seen?
As Walker put it, "What are we now, 30 games over .500?"
I affirmed that: 87-57. Second-best record in Major League Baseball.
"Yeah," he added, "I guess it's not working."
It takes a lot to get the Pittsburgh Kid talking like that, but this view is strongly held.
That's because they were informed of this plan back in the earliest days of spring training, from the stars to the bench and middle relievers. Neal Huntington, inspired by the study of the value of rest in sports conducted by the NBA's Golden State Warriors, worked with his men all through the winter to apply it to a 162-game baseball schedule. And they did, creating a template that would take into account all manner of data from travel miles to warmup tosses to swings in the cage to footsteps taken on the basepaths.
Feel free to laugh at some of that. I did myself when I heard about the counting of steps. And I've been anything but some blind follower to the ideas put forth by Huntington and his lieutenants over the years.
But arguing this? When the team is enjoying its peak performance in three decades? When the pitching, even the relentless back end of the bullpen, has held up phenomenally? When the hitting has seen nearly every regular improve from first half to second? When the team as a whole has the very best record in the majors since May 9, and yes, that's including the Cardinals? And by the way, has anyone else noticed the Cardinals finally fading a bit?
I asked Huntington after this game to share anew his thought process on managing rest, and his response, not surprisingly, sounded much like the players: "All of our indicators, all of our goals, are pointed toward making sure we have the best possible team for a deep run. That might not be what everyone wants to hear right now or even back in April when we were struggling, but it's served us well to this point and, we hope, beyond."
This, I thought, was even stronger: "We're at the point in the year where a rested club is as important as a good club. Sometimes, a rested club is better than a non-rested good club. We're trying to fight that battle of keeping our guys strong and fresh while at the same time putting this club in a position to win every game going forward."
If you know Huntington, you know his stance wasn't lightly reached. It was accompanied by rock-solid information and, I dare say, no small amount of angst. He's like that. He can be nervous if he doesn't feel supremely confident in a possible move.
Rest assured, this isn't the type of personality to ride out a hunch.
Hurdle bought in, too, well before the season. As a result, he and his staff, working closely with management and all their information, are mapping out lineups days in advance, as the manager acknowledged Tuesday. Sure, he's still got the final word, and he's free to go with his gut, but for the most part he's following a consensus script that takes into account the whole season in addition to that night's game.
Which is why, of this doubleheader in particular, Hurdle explained that one game wouldn't affect the other: “Our goal is to get everybody on the field, not overtax anybody and be competitive in both. If you just want to be reactive, you lose sight of what you want to do.”
He's exactly right.
And on this night, which I'm guessing is all most want to discuss, anyway, his alleged crime against baseball was putting out a lineup with five of his best hitters atop the order -- Harrison, Starling Marte, Andrew McCutchen, Aramis Ramirez, Francisco Cervelli -- then adding the righties Morse and Sean Rodriguez to face the lefty Jon Lester, then Pedro Florimon at shortstop and batting eighth.
That last one was dumb. Indefensible. I get that Florimon helped win Game 1 as a pinch-runner Tuesday and that it's sweet to get everyone involved. But that's plain silly.
At the same time, it's no less dumb -- outright idiotic, actually -- to blame Florimon's two at-bats for losing to Lester in brilliant form. The Pirates mustered a run and five hits as he went the distance, and I might add that the final six hitters to face him, when he should have been most fatigued, were Walker (popup), Harrison (strikeout), Marte (strikeout), McCutchen (groundout), Ramirez (popup) and Cervelli (strikeout).
Think Lester might have had a little something special going for him?
Morse also went 0 for 2, but he's batted .322 -- 19 for 59 -- since the All-Star break and was 4 for 10 with a home run, triple and double this month alone.
Was that the tragic lineup choice?
Rodriguez went 0 for 2, but he's batted .379 -- 22 for 59 -- since the start of August.
Seriously, does anybody bother to look up numbers before ripping decisions like these?
These aren't exactly hyper-advanced, geek-level metrics I'm sharing here.
Neither is this:
"Nobody, and I mean nobody on the outside, knows what we go through," Mercer told me in closing our conversation. "The people on the inside, they know. They understand. They've done the work. We trust in that work, and we're just taking the field when our number is called and playing the best baseball we can."
He raised one eyebrow.
"I think we've done pretty well. You?"
