Constant Pirates issues on full display during losses in Toronto.
One thing was certainly different about the Pittsburgh Pirates series in Toronto. For a change, Rowdy Tellez was good.
The much-maligned first baseman was 4 for 8 with a walk and four RBIs.
Aside from him, many of the same old storylines that have troubled the Pirates all year pinched them in their two losses against the Blue Jays.
Sandwiched around an 8-1 victory over the Jays on Saturday, the Pirates dropped a 5-3 contest in 14 innings Friday and a 5-4 result on Sunday.
In the series finale, Tellez was 3 for 3 with runners in scoring position. The rest of the team was 0 for 13. The club left 13 men on base.
In Friday’s series opener, the team was 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position, leaving eight men on base. The lineup went the final eight innings without a hit.
Those issues have been ongoing all year, as the Bucs are hitting .207 with runners in scoring position — 29th out of 30 Major League Baseball teams. They are 27th with runners on base at .228. The team batting average overall of .229 is 25th. The franchise’s 7.34 men left on base per game is the worst in baseball.
Those issues really aren’t fixable. What are the low-budget Pirates going to do? Overhaul their lineup and trade for a bunch of veteran bats? Eat the contracts of underperforming veterans they currently have to promote some of the Quad-A guys they have in Indianapolis?
To a certain extent, they’ve done as much of that as they are going to do until or unless they get rid of Tellez, which (at .194 for the season) they still may do
