Monday, June 03, 2013

Pirates ready to end 20 years of futility



By Paul White
June 2, 2013
Garrett Jones took this pitch into the Allegheny River, the first river shot on a fly in
 Pirates history. (Photo by: David Hague)

PITTSBURGH -- Clint Hurdle likes that his Pittsburgh Pirates' recent history causes them to play with "a rock in the shoe."
Pirates fans might liken two decades of losing more to a boulder careening downhill.
And the faithful who come out to PNC Park, bitten by fast-starting teams in each of the past two seasons, again find themselves wondering if it's safe to believe.
Sunday, the Pirates pulled off a pair of feats; one they had never achieved while the other is occurring with encouraging frequency.
Four outs from getting swept by the division-rival Cincinnati Reds, first baseman Garrett Jones hit a game-tying two-run homer, a drive that landed in the Allegheny River beyond right field, the first Pirate to hit the body of water on the fly.
Then, the Pirates surged ahead for a 5-4, 11-inning win, their 17th comeback victory this season. It was a key win from a practical standpoint: The Reds, Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals all have winning percentages north of .600, setting a breakneck pace in the National League Central.
It also provided a tangible sign these Pirates might have staying power.
"This win shows the character of our team, the backbone we have," closer Jason Grilli said. "We have the right mix of guys on this team, the right chemistry that isn't going to allow us to get down or give up.
"I know everyone has questions about us, but I feel really, really good about our team."
And now the Pirates head to Atlanta, not only the home of the NL East leaders but also where the first of two late-season collapses began in 2011.
That 19-43 finish and last season's 16-36 pratfall raise the question of why this year's team — 35-22, tied with the Reds for the NL's second-best record and 2 1/2 behind the Cardinals — should be perceived as different from its predecessors.
"We expect to deal with this," manager Hurdle said. "Somewhere down the line we expect to get to that point again. When we get to that point, we have to have better control. We have to eliminate distractions. We just have to play the game."
They've been playing it better, in ways and with talent that separates the 2013 teams from the past two.
Resiliency is key
The roster is deeper and more talented, the players are relaxed and more focused — aspects that will be needed to finally establish the Pirates as legitimate contenders. But they're already at that point Hurdle anticipates.
It's a test for a team that has displayed resiliency that was missing in the past.
The Pirates have lost the first game in 12 of their 18 series. But, they're 23-5 in the rest of the games in those 12 series. They've outscored opponents 110-66 from the sixth inning on and won nine times when trailing after six innings (compared with seven times all last season).
It's a raucous, not tentative, clubhouse where you're as likely to find a rollerblading hockey player as a life-sized Chewbacca.
"Just being a bunch of goofballs in here and keeping things loose," said Grilli, getting his first chance at being a major league closer at age 36 — and thriving with a major league-best 22 saves in 22 opportunities.
"I think we just generally like each other. We're playing like one, and that's really all that matters. I hate to steal (Willie) Stargell's thing, but we really are a family in here."
That's either excitement or sacrilege in a city that hasn't had a World Series winner since Stargell and the 1979 "We Are Family" team, that hasn't had a winner (as in over .500) since 1992.
But that '79 team was used to winning, having finished first or second in 10 of 11 seasons.
If there's a tradition with the current Pirates, it's those two collapses that squandered what seemed a certain end to a pro sports record of consecutive losing seasons that is at 20. That's the boulder teetering over the path ahead of the Pirates.
"We are engaged every pitch," Hurdle said. "That's what we're doing better than we've ever done. I love the way we're going about our business."
Hurdle, who had five losing seasons as Colorado Rockies manager before leading them to a World Series appearance in 2007, is in his third season with the Pirates. He relies as much on motivation as on teaching the game. The desk in his office before a recent game had 25 books.
The titles ranged from The Conviction to Lead to Expect to Win to The Legacy Builder. All have numerous pages marked with pieces of paper.
"That's my go-to," Hurdle said. "I pull them, and I put them in file folders … inspiration, selfishness, anger … then I pull it up, find a little something, give it to a player, have him run with it."
The sources are as varied as the messages.
"They don't always gravitate to Colin Powell," Hurdle said. "So I have to go to UFC fighters, Navy SEALs, old Indian warriors. You've got to connect with the guys."
The manager's many messages get through, but even he acknowledges what transpires when he's not in there is crucial.
Balanced mix
In there, the players gravitate to each other, from homegrown core players Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker to veteran additions to A.J. Burnett and Russell Martin.
Burnett joined the team last year after 13 up-and-down seasons with the Miami Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. In 2012, he became the leader of the pitching rotation, won 16 games and was among the most outspoken in his disdain for how the team finished.
Martin was signed as a free agent in a move general manager Neal Huntington said, "improves half the team," because of the catcher's influence on the pitching staff.
Indeed, Pirates pitchers are allowing the second-fewest runs in the NL. They're second in strikeouts, up from 12th in 2012. If they keep up their .223 opponents' batting average, it would be the lowest in the majors since 1968.
"What I do like is the guys that we've added," Hurdle said. "A.J. has an edge, Grilli has an edge, Martin has an edge. If you want to do significant things here, you have to do things differently."
Oh, they do things differently.
When Hurdle and the players decided to wear Penguins jerseys on a road trip as a show of support for the hockey team's playoff run, backup Brandon Inge, 36, added full hockey pads and burst into the clubhouse on rollerblades, shooting plastic balls in front of stunned teammates.
One of the onlookers for Inge's antics was Chewbacca, or the costume that sits in a chair at Grilli's locker — except for the time it lunged at Grilli with pitcher Bryan Morris inside.
"There is something a little bit different here," said Grilli, an 11-year veteran. "You keep a bunch of guys together long enough, there's a sense of living and dying with each other."
To keep the Pirates from dying down the stretch again, they'll need the status quo and then some.
"I think there are a lot of small reasons why we've had success," Huntington said. "The talent's better. We've pitched well. Our back-end bullpen (Grilli and setup men Mark Melancon and Justin Wilson) has been as strong as anybody's."
But Huntington is wary of placing too much burden on the relievers.
"Clint's done a great job of not burdening any particular individual, but we still have to get more innings out of our starters," Huntington said. "It was the four and five spots we weren't getting any length from."
Lefty Jeff Locke, with a 2.25 ERA in his first full season, has joined Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez as the top three starters. Francisco Liriano has had four solid starts in five outings since coming off the disabled list. Charlie Morton, James McDonald and Jeff Karstens are close to returning from injuries, easing the urgency to summon top prospects Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon.
Hurdle likes the spot his team is in now and doesn't mind last year's shadow looming.
"I think the mind-set was developed after the last month of (last) season," he said. "I think the guys came in this spring with a little bit of a rock in the shoe. We've talked about it, we've moved past it, but there are times you need to hold on to that."
And maybe throw that rock over the right-field wall and into the Allegheny once and for all.
Contributing: John Perrotto

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