MIAMI -- After an overall effective but not particularly efficient first four innings, Paul Skenes may have done his best pitching in the fifth inning Thursday. Making the first Opening Day start of his career, Skenes needed a quick inning and retired the Marlins in order on just six pitches.
That quick inning let him go on to the sixth, where he walked a pair of batters and was pulled. The results were quite good -- 5 1/3 innings, two runs (one of the runners he left on base scored once the bullpen took over) on three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts -- and he turned the ball over to the bullpen with a three-run lead. Skenes, however, is quite the perfectionist, and while not explicitly said, it was clear he wanted to do better and not get pulled in that spot.
¡°Just gotta capitalize on it in the sixth, but it's early,¡± Skenes said. ¡°There are always adjustments to be made. I'll do that."
Things went sideways shortly after Skenes exited. The Marlins plated a run in the sixth off a passed ball. They scored two more times in the eighth, the second aided by Oneil Cruz firing a throw toward home, rather than hitting the cutoff man, allowing Otto Lopez to advance into scoring position and eventually score on a Dane Myers base hit. In the ninth, Cruz misplayed a bounce off the wall, allowing catcher Nick Fortes to reach third with a leadoff triple. He scored the deciding run two batters later on a Kyle Stowers base hit, clinching the 5-4 Marlins walk-off.
The common prevailing opinion on the Pirates is they have the starting pitching to be a competitive club, headlined by Skenes. The question is: Do they have enough of everything else? Enough bats, enough defense, a strong enough bullpen. It¡¯s just one game, but that first game played into the concerns surrounding the ball club, especially the defense.
"We didn't play good enough defense,¡± Derek Shelton said. ¡°We had opportunities. We didn't close it down. We had the lead late in the game and we didn't close it down [because] we didn't play good defense."
The Pirates¡¯ defensive woes weren¡¯t limited to just the outfield. They were unable to convert a double play in the third, which eventually led to a run, and first baseman Endy Rodr¨ªguez booted a ball in the fourth for an error. But there¡¯s plenty of focus on Cruz as he enters his first full season in center field, and the early returns weren¡¯t great.
¡°You learn a lot from days like this,¡± Cruz said, via coach and interpreter Stephen Morales. ¡°You just learn from it and try to get better at it that way it doesn¡¯t haunt you in the future. Just go at it the next day.¡±
With the benefit of hindsight, Cruz wouldn¡¯t have attempted to throw out Stowers at the plate in the eighth.
¡°I think, as an outfielder, your first reaction is to throw everybody out, but I think that was not the throw that I needed to make,¡± Cruz said. ¡°It was supposed to be a lower throw to give our infielders a chance to cut the ball and keep the double play in order and keep that guy at first base. Like I said, we¡¯ll learn from it.¡±
Offensively, the Pirates found ways to get on and stole six bases, but went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. A two-run lead in the bottom of the eighth would often be enough to seal a win, too, but Colin Holderman and David Bednar -- who both struggled down the stretch last year -- were tagged for the final runs.
Shelton isn¡¯t pushing the panic button with his bullpen, though.
"It's one game in,¡± Shelton said. ¡°We have guys that have to perform. I have faith that our guys will get it done."
It is just one game, and there is plenty to be taken from the game. But the same way that Skenes¡¯ focus is on making tweaks and executing better even after a good, but perhaps not great, start, the same can apply for the whole team.
"There are always adjustments to be made,¡± Skenes said. ¡°Little thing here, little thing there and we're 1-0. So, just gotta make those adjustments."