After awful start, Pirates finding ways to win close games, preparing to play spoiler

From blowing a four-run lead in the ninth inning of the home opener to a weird wild pitch to a controversial foul-pole home run in extra innings to a no-hitter, the Pittsburgh Pirates have found so many weird ways to lose games this season that it became exasperating.

Rookie manager Derek Shelton always looked for the silver lining, crediting his players for competing in late innings and never showing any signs of quitting despite a 4-17 start.

“The one thing that stands out for me is that we’ve played hard for 40 games or whatever it is,” Shelton said before Tuesday’s game. “That’s one of the things that we continue to talk about and is expected from our group. This group gets after it every night. They put themselves in a position to win almost every game. We’ve talked about finishing games, and we’re getting closer to being able to do that.”

The Pirates (14-26, .350 winning percentage) aren’t the worst team in baseball anymore, after a 20-game stretch of .500 play that includes four wins in their past six games and back-to-back walk-off wins over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday and the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.

The Pirates aren’t even the worst team in the National League, a dubious distinction that now belongs to the Arizona Diamondbacks (15-28, .349). In the American League, the Kansas City Royals (15-28, .349), Boston Red Sox (15-29, .341) and Texas Rangers (14-27, .341) all have worse winning percentages.

The Pirates overcame the loss to the Brewers in the home opener in late July, a game that was interrupted by a 102-minute rain delay, lasted 11 innings and took nearly four hours to finish.

The Pirates overcame the 2-1 loss to the Tigers when reliever Richard Rodriguez hit Jonathan Schoop with a pitch, then caught his spike on the mound and threw a wild pitch toward the home dugout and allowed Schoop to get into scoring position for the winning run.

The Pirates overcame the 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Aug. 18, when Carlos Santana hit a three-run homer in the 10th inning that appeared to sail foul of the left-field pole but was ruled fair.

And the Pirates overcame being the victims of the season’s first no-hitter, by White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito in a 4-0 loss Aug. 25 that ended their season-best three-game winning streak.

“We’ve had so many close losses,” Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings said. “If you’re out there and getting your butt kicked, it’s one thing. But we’ve had a lot of close losses.”

The Pirates are 6-9 in one-run games, 1-5 in extra innings. They have had their share of walk-off wins, from Kevin Newman’s pinch-hit single to beat the Twins to the Erik Gonzalez sacrifice fly to beat the Reds to Newman’s chopper that scored Jason Martin when White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal dropped the throw from pitcher Jimmy Cordero.

After their roster was wracked by injuries and illness that decimated their pitching staff, the Pirates are starting to find more defined roles — even as Shelton continues to shuffle the lineup almost daily.

“The whole situation with covid-19 and everything, it’s not an excuse by any means, but it is uncharted territory, something that no one has really dealt with. I know other teams are having to deal with it, too,” Newman said. “But now that we’re getting a little bit more toward the middle of the season — it’s weird saying that because we have three weeks left — we’re getting more into a groove. I think that’s probably why we’re 10-10 in the last 20.”

With 20 games to play, the Pirates are 9½ games out of first place in the NL Central and 6½ out of wild-card contention, so their focus is less on making the playoffs than playing spoiler and salvaging a season that had one of the worst starts in franchise history.

“Most of the teams we’re playing (will be) fighting for playoff spots,” Shelton said. “That’s going to be good growth for our players. There’s going to be times in the future when we’re that team, and we need to have that intensity, so I think it’s going to be really good for our group.”