Derek Shelton Gets Blunt About Pirates Struggles
An already abysmal month of August for the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a new low with their 14-10 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday at PNC Park.
After leading 10-3 at the beginning of the seventh inning, the Pirates (62-71) were outscored 11-0 by Chicago for the remainder of the game, en route to being swept by their division rival. Pittsburgh allowed 41 runs over the three-game series, the most it has ever allowed in a home series against the Cubs (68-66), according to John Dreker. The Pirates were also the first team in the last seven years to blow a lead after being up by seven or more runs at the beginning of the seventh inning, according to Jay Cuda.
Teams were 1,092-0 when leading by at least seven runs in the seventh inning in the last seven years before Wednesday.
With the loss, Pittsburgh dropped to 7-17 in August, and the frustration of his team's struggles have gotten to manager Derek Shelton.
"My concern level is we've got to finish games," Shelton said after the loss. "We look at the games we've lost in August, it's because we have not finished games. And how many of these games have we had to lead? How many of these games have we been one strike away, one pitch away? So, yeah, we've got to figure out how to finish games."
Pittsburgh is 21-26 in one-run games this season, and those struggles have become exacerbated this month. The Pirates are 2-8 in one-run games in August after being 19-18 in such games beforehand.
Last season, the Pirates were 22-17 in one-run games.
The struggles of two-time All-Star closer David Bednar have also cost the Pirates. Of his six blown saves this season, three have come this month. Bednar is 3-7 with a 6.32 ERA over 47 innings pitched this season.
In his previous two seasons, Bednar had seven blown saves combined.
"There's no complacency," Shelton said. "It's execution. We've got to execute. We're not executing. If you don't execute at the end of games, you don't win games. That's what's happened to us in August. It's what we did a really good job of in June and July. So we need to figure it out."
Pittsburgh was 29-22 between June and July and had a 3.56 ERA. Along with being 7-17 in August, the team's ERA is 5.37.
After an off day on Thursday, the Pirates begin a six-game road trip by going on the road to face the Cleveland Guardians on Friday at 7:10 p.m. ET.
NATHANIEL MARRERO