Marte vows of sloppy Pirates: ‘We’ll be back’

by • Coverage •

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MILWAUKEE –The Brewers tried to hand the Pirates a victory. But the Pirates haven’t looked right — in any capacity — in the first two games of the season’s second half, again performing in horribly sloppy fashion in an 8-5 setback in their personal House of Horrors.

Jordy Mercer committed an error for the third time in six games. Francisco Cervelli committed an error when attempting to throw a runner out at second. He was also guilty of a passed ball. The pitchers walked five batters and hit another. The hitters left runners in scoring position in three different innings.

Things now look scary for the Pirates.

They face Milwaukee’s hottest starter, Taylor Jungmann, on Sunday and will oppose him with No. 5 starter Jeff Locke. Then it’s on to Kansas City for three games against the defending American League champs. Then it’s home for more fun with Max Scherzer and the Nationals.

The Pirates might want to snap out of it soon.

“It was a crazy game,” Clint Hurdle said. “And there were a couple of misplays that didn’t help.”

Pedro Alvarez wasn’t charged with an error but had another tough game at first base. On a ground ball to Neil Walker in the first, Alvarez broke toward the ball — this has been a problem all season — before heading back to first. Walker had to wait on him to return to the base, and Ryan Braun was safe at first.

Alvarez wasn’t much better at the plate. He struck out in the third with two runners on and one out. He struck out in the seventh while representing the game-tying run.

“We put on 16 pitches because of misplays,” Hurdle said of the Pirates’ pitch count. “We just haven’t done enough in these two games.”

It would be easy for the Pirates to feel frustration two games in the second half of the season. That magical series at PNC Park last weekend against the Cardinals feels like a long time ago. Suddenly, the Pirates trail by 4 1/2 games and their schedule is considerably more difficult than that of the Cardinals over the next six weeks.

Starling Marte, however, insists the Pirates aren’t the least bit frustrated. He suggested that patience will pay off, in a conversation we had long after the game.

“We aren’t frustrated at all,” he said. “This is just the start of the second half. We had a few days off. Maybe some of the bats aren’t ready yet. It’s only two games. We know we can get hot at any time. We’ll be back tomorrow.”

• Francisco Liriano was a late scratch for a stiff neck.

He didn’t feel right when he woke up Saturday morning, complaining of a new round of recurring stiffness. Still, he thought he’d be able to pitch and didn’t alert anyone that he might be unable to go. When he reached the bullpen for his pregame session, however, it became apparent to him that it wouldn’t be in his best interests to pitch.

He didn’t seem to think the injury was serious:

Hurdle said that he isn’t sure how this will alter his starting rotation. He wants to keep left-handers Liriano and Locke separated. The preliminary plan is to keep the staff intact for the next four games. Locke will pitch Sunday. A.J. Burnett, Gerrit Cole and Charlie Morton will pitch in Kansas City.

Liriano’s next scheduled start would be Thursday at PNC Park against the Nationals.

“We’ll see,” Hurdle said. “I don’t have any answers right now.”

• Vance Worley was told he would start this game “five minutes before the anthem.” He was in the clubhouse when Liriano’s bullpen session ended prematurely.

“I just pulled my hoodie off, jogged to the pen and got ready,” he said. “I had 10 minutes.”

Worley said he ordinarily goes to the bullpen 30 minutes before the national anthem for a long-toss session. He had no such opportunity on this night.

He never looked comfortable on the mound and had particular trouble with leadoff hitter Gerardo Parra. He led off the first with a single but did even more damage in the fourth inning. Worley and Parra battled for 10 pitches before a walk was issued. Jonathan Lucroy went deep on the next pitch and the Brewers never looked back.

“I threw him a lot of different pitches, man,” Worley said of Parra. “He put up a good at-bat. I wasn’t going to give him anything good.”

Hurdle said he liked the way Worley “battled” but added his pitch count quickly became an issue. He made it through four innings, throwing 81 pitches.

Worley also noted that the extremely muggy conditions took a toll. A nasty storm went through Milwaukee about two hours before first pitch.

“There is always a lot of adversity in this game,” Worley said. “That was something I just had to deal with. I got as loose as I could.”

Because Worley won’t be available for a few days, Hurdle said the Pirates will consider bringing up a reliever from Class AAA Indianapolis for the Kansas City series.

• I chatted with Marte about what was, in my opinion, the game’s biggest play. The Pirates were up, 3-0, with no outs and runners at second and third in the first inning. Cervelli was up. It was an opportunity to put the game away before it started.

Cervelli hit a shallow fly to right, where Braun, who possesses a pretty strong arm, was waiting. Marte went home and was thrown out by a mile.

It was unclear at the time if Marte went home on his own or was told by third base coach Rick Sofield.

“I was tagging,” Marte said. “And he told me to go. I just listened and went. It wasn’t hit very far, but we like to be aggressive. I thought I could get there.”

In fairness to Sofield, Marte doesn’t get thrown out very often at any base in any situation. But it was a gamble with no outs.

Braun’s throw was right on the money. Marte was surprised Braun unleashed such a powerful throw.

“Yes, very,” Marte said. “It got to the plate very fast.”

• The Pirates were supremely unhappy to have lost because of how the Brewers played.

Consider what the Brewers gave away in the first inning: A Carlos Gomez error, a Jean Segura error, a walk, a hit batter, a wild pitch, a mental error in the field by Segura, and three Pirates hits. Oh, and those two errors were really, really awful.

Seriously. Watch this.

And as if that wasn’t enough, there still weren’t any outs. The Brewers couldn’t have been more dreadful. Their fans had turned on them and the Pirates were about to blow them out. But it didn’t happen.

Hurdle was right about it being a crazy game. One more loss, and it’s a sweep to start the second half.