'We came up short way too often': Pirates' season spiraled with stretch of 1-run losses

The Pittsburgh Pirates had just blown a ninth-inning lead in a 7-6 loss to the San Diego Padres on Aug. 8 at PNC Park when manager Derek Shelton was asked about suffering a fifth one-run loss in seven days.

“If I could put my finger on it, I would,” Shelton said. “I think it’s something we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about.”

Even after the season ended, the Pirates still were searching for answers to explain their post-trade deadline collapse that included a 10-game losing streak and nine one-run losses in the span of 23 days.

That stretch of the season saw the Pirates spiral out of control. On July 30, they were two games out of both first place in the NL Central Division and the third wild-card berth.

The Pirates acquired three players — left-handed reliever Jalen Beeks, corner outfielder Bryan De La Cruz and middle infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa — in hopes of staying in playoff contention, only to drop to 14 games back in the division and eight in the wild card by Aug. 21.

“If you had told me on July 30 that we were about to have nine one-run losses, I would’ve said, ‘No, that’s not going to happen,’ ” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said. “But it did happen, and we’ve got to own that and live with that and figure out what we need to do about it.

“It’s always more than one thing. I think that at some level, we went into August believing that we could make a push for the postseason. We also went into August ending up playing really good teams that happened to be hot, and we came up short way too often.”

Their schedule didn’t do the Pirates any favors. They blew a 4-0 lead at the AL West champion Houston Astros in a 5-4 loss where Oneil Cruz committed three errors at shortstop, then reliever Colin Holderman gave up a two-run homer to Mauricio Dubon in the sixth inning.

The Pirates returned home only to lose a pair of one-run games to the Arizona Diamondbacks, who reached the 2023 World Series and missed the playoffs this season by tiebreaker.

“Looking back, it’s tough,” Holderman said. “I feel like I was a big part of that. It was a tough stretch. Every game, I was coming in with a one- or two-run lead and it would be a two- or three-run inning in some crazy ways.”

The San Diego Padres, who clinched a wild-card spot, handed the Pirates back-to-back losses by one run. On Aug. 7, NL Rookie of the Year candidate Jackson Merrill hit a tying home run off two-time All-Star closer David Bednar in the ninth inning and the Padres scored three runs in the 10th against Holderman. The Pirates left the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th in a 9-8 loss. The next day, Bednar blew another ninth-inning lead in a 7-6 loss to conclude the six-game homestand.

“The fact that we’ve had leads in four of those games on this homestand in the seventh or later, yeah, it’s extremely frustrating,” Shelton said. “Not to beat a dead horse, but we’ve got to figure out a way to finish them because we have the lead, and we have to be able to execute to finish games out.”

It only got worse on a West Coast road trip, starting with a 6-5 extra-inning loss to the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 11.

For all their failures in close games during such a pivotal stretch of the season, the Pirates were 25-26 (.490 winning percentage) in one-run games this season. Four playoff teams fared worse: the Atlanta Braves (18-25, .419), Kansas City Royals (17-21, .447), Baltimore Orioles (14-18, .438) and Astros (18-27, .400).

“I’d like to view it in a positive perspective and say that it makes you feel better about the season, but it almost hurts more knowing that we were that close,” Pirates first baseman/outfielder Connor Joe said. “Those one-run ballgames could have been flipped, and it could change where we’re sitting right now.”

Given the Pirates finished 76-86, even if they had won all nine of those one-run games in August it wouldn’t have been enough to make the playoffs. But to Joe’s point, winning some of those one-run games could have changed their momentum over the final six weeks.

Shelton warned that it’s not as simple as blaming the bullpen for blowing late leads. The Pirates made errors on defense and often didn’t provide enough offensive support.

“I don’t think we can highlight just the bullpen. The bullpen kind of gets put in the crosshairs because it’s the end of the game and if you have a lead,” Shelton said. “The other things — whether you get a guy over, whether you get a guy in, whether you make a play. Ultimately going through that stretch of time is going to make us stronger and better, but we have to figure out how we are going to get better.”

Cherington is charged with that task and said it will be a priority to add hitting and relief pitching this offseason. The Pirates need better power production from their corner infielders, as Joe and Rowdy Tellez combined for 19 home runs and 77 RBIs at first base and Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jared Triolo for 10 homers and 55 RBIs at third base. Despite blowing seven save opportunities, they are counting on Bednar to return as the closer, especially if they can’t re-sign lefty Aroldis Chapman.

The Pirates also are optimistic that shifting Oneil Cruz from shortstop to center field will improve their defense at both positions, that they will get better defensive play and production from their right fielders and can keep their relief corps healthy after losing fireman Dauri Moreta for the season to Tommy John surgery, lefty Ryan Borucki for the majority of the summer with a triceps injury and shuffling catchers as Yasmani Grandal, Jason Delay and Henry Davis dealt with injury issues.

“It’s always a combination of things, right? There’s basically two parts of the game: There’s run scoring and run prevention. You’ve got to look at both and get better at both all the time to win more games,” Cherington said. “There were days that we probably did enough on the run-scoring side and didn’t prevent enough. There were days where it was the opposite.

“I think just get better and get better faster. I don’t see a single bullet (item where) this is what happened in August, and if we just fix this one thing it will all come together. I think it would be unsatisfying to try to do it that way. We’ve got to keep building a better team.”