Bednar takes the loss as Pirates walked off again
The Bucs lost 3 of 4 to the Marlins in their opening series of the season.
The Bucs lost 3 of 4 to the Marlins in their opening series of the season.
The inability to perform one of baseball’s most basic and important tasks — hitting safely with runners in scoring position — haunted the Pittsburgh Pirates throughout all four games of their season- opening series in Miami.
The Pirates lost three of the four in one-run, walk-off fashion, including 3-2 to the Marlins on Sunday at loan-Depot park.
Matched against a team that lost 100 games last season and hadn’t won a season- opening series since 2000, the Pirates hit .200 (8 for 40) with runners in scoring position in the four games, including 1 for 5 on Sunday. Worse, the Pirates gifted the winning run to the Marlins in the ninth inning.
“We have some things we really need to correct,” manager Derek Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “It’s challenging. We have some things to work on.”
But the games keep coming. The next nine are against the Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals, teams that have opened their seasons a collective 8-1. It’s early, but Shelton understands the seriousness of his team’s situation.
“Sometimes, when you have young players, we have to make sure we slow the game back down,” he said.
With the score tied 2-2 on Sunday, the game ended suddenly after closer David Bednar threw only eight pitches to two batters without recording an out.
Derek Hill led off with an infield single. When Hill tried to steal second base, 24-year-old backup catcher Endy Rodriguez, who also played first base in the series, threw wildly into center field. Hill sprinted to third and scored on Bednar’s subsequent wild pitch.
Bednar, a two-time All-Star closer, was the losing pitcher in two of the three Marlins victories.
The losses were even more difficult for the Pirates to accept because the starting pitching was mainly effective in all four games. All four starting pitchers allowed two runs or fewer for a total of six.
“I thought our starting pitching throughout the series was really good,” Shelton said.
Left-handed starter Andrew Heaney, a 12-year veteran who won a game for the Texas Rangers in the 2023 World Series, lasted through 79 pitches and five innings while allowing only four hits, one run and a walk. He struck out two. Right fielder Brian Reynolds saved a run in the fifth — on Heaney’s last pitch — by making a diving catch of Otto Lopez’s line drive into the gap with Xavier Edwards on second base.
“Felt good with the fastball,” Heaney said. “Made pitches when I needed to, got some good defense out there. I’m going to get the ball in play and trust those guys. Good one to get underneath your belt and go from there.”
The Pirates scored first in the second inning when cleanup hitter Andrew Mc-Cutchen hit a home run into the left-field seats. The 393foot blast was the 800th extra- base hit of his career and 236th homer as a Pirates player, fourth in franchise history behind Willie Stargell (475), Ralph Kiner (301) and Roberto Clemente (240).
After the game, McCutchen had more on his mind than his 17-year career.
“It still hurts no matter what when you lose how we have,” he said, “especially those three games where you’re in a position you feel you should win them. For me, I feel that more than I do the personal accolades. Those will continue to happen no matter what. It’s inevitable as long as I stay on the field and do my job.”
The 1-0 lead didn’t last long. The Marlins answered in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double by Nick Fortes.
The Pirates inched ahead in the fifth when Rodriguez walked and reached third on a throwing error by Marlins first baseman Eric Wagaman. Then, Isiah Kiner-Falefa beat out a high-chopping infield single to score Rodriguez.
Marlins starter Max Meyer struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings, but the Pirates chased him in the sixth with singles from Tommy Pham and Jack Suwinski. The Pirates recorded 25 hits in the four games, but 18 of them were singles.
The rally ended when relief pitcher Xzavion Curry entered and got Rodriguez to bounce out to first base with both runners in scoring position.
Meyer pitched out of a jam in the fourth inning when Reynolds led off with a double, but Pham and McCutchen struck out and Suwinski flied out to center field.
The Pirates wasted another scoring opportunity in the eighth when McCutchen and Suwinski walked. Ji Hwan Bae, running for McCutchen, was thrown at third base trying to advance on a pitch that eluded Fortes, the Marlins’ catcher. A few pitches earlier, Bae appeared to injure himself when he attempted three steals of second base but stopped each time and returned to first. Pirates assistant trainer Tony Leo checked on Bae, but he stayed in the game.
”We have to keep going. It’s four games,” Shelton said. “We’ve been in every game. It’s not like it’s been a lopsided score.
“We knew our pitching was going to be our strength. Offensively, we have some work to do still, and we have some guys who are trying to find their footing in the early going. That’s the challenging thing. Guys get a couple 0-fors, and then they press a little bit. We just need some balls to fall.”
