The Pittsburgh Pirates tied their longest win streak of the season from MOnday through Thursday by winning 4 straight games. However, the streak ended last night in Cleveland, as the offense wasn't able to get anything going. They scored 1 run on 6 hits and lost 5-1.
Garrett Jones and Xavier Paul were the main contributors on offense, as GFJ had 2 hits and Paul had the Pirates sole RBI on a single in the 6th. Andrew McCutchen was 0/4, something that just seems impossible for him lately, and no one else could come up with any big hits either.
The top of the lineup is pretty solid, especially when Jose Tabata is hitting, which he had been recently (he was also 0/4 last night), it's the bottom half of the order that really hurts the Pirates. Names you're going to see in the bottom half of the Pirates order these days are Ronny Cedeno, Mike McKenry, Dusty Brown, Lyle Overbay, Josh Harrison, Brandon Wood, and then the pitcher in a National League game. Of those names, Harrison is the only one who has been serviceable on offense, and he's only been up for 12 games. Here are the individual numbers:
Lyle Overbay: 67 G, 234 AB, .226/.303/.355, 5 HR, 25 RBI
Ronny Cedeno: 67 G, 211 AB, .223/.277/.313, 2 HR, 18 RBI
Brandon Wood: 37 G, 99 AB, .212/.271/.313, 2 HR, 11 RBI
Josh Harrison: 12 G, 46 AB, .304/.319/.348, 0 HR, 4 RBI
Dusty Brown: 9 G, 25 AB, .080/.115/.080, 0 HR, 0 RBI
Mike McKenry: 4 G, 14 AB, .143/.143/.143, 0 HR, 0 RBI
Pitchers: 70 G, 131 AB, .076/.097/.092, 0 HR, 1 RBI
So all together, those 10 above players (including the 5 pitchers in the rotation right now) have a slash line of .195/.245/.334, which is hurting the offense tremendously.
For now there isn't really anything the Pirates can do except continue to pitch well, because they are without Ryan Doumit for another month and a half or so, and we still don't know when Pedro Alvarez is going to be back, and if he will even come straight to the major leagues when he is healthy again. The Pirates can hope for Cedeno to go on another hot streak and maybe for McKenry to hit for some of the power that he has shown in his minor league career, but I wouldn't hold my breath for either.
The Pirates have shown the ability to win games without much offense by pitching well and coming up with big hits when they need them (almost always from the top of the order), so this isn't something that necessarily rules them out from being competitive for the rest of the year, but it would certainly help if they were getting more out of the bottom half. Who knows, maybe if they are still in competition for the division title come late July, we could see them be buyers at the deadline and bring in another bat. That would be something new.
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