The Pirates are absolutely reeling right now. They’ve just lost their sixth straight game, and suffered back to back sweeps at the hands of the New York Mets and now, Boston Red Sox.
Their most recent defeat, I would argue, is their worst one yet. Boston was clearly phoning it in on a Sunday afternoon with the lineup they fielded. Five of the starting players for the Red Sox had a batting average of .169 or below.
And yet, this rag tag group from up north found a way to beat the Pirates at home, 6-1.
The Pirates’ bats, meanwhile, continued to struggle immensely. After Connor Joe hit a leadoff double (and eventually scored), in the first inning, the offense stalled for the remainder of the game. Despite the Red Sox lineup being hilariously thin, they outhit Pittsburgh 8-7 in this game.
On the mound, Martin Pérez had his first real bad game of the season, lasting only 4.0 innings and giving up 4 runs before being pulled.
But to be honest, Pérez, or any other pitcher for that matter, could toss a near perfect game, and it might not matter. The Pirates’ offense has been so incredibly bad, you cannot trust them to score at all right now.
In the midst of all these struggles, the organization does have some extremely hot batters down in Triple-A Indianapolis.
Nick Gonzales, who has been in Triple-A all season long so far, has been outstanding for the Indians. He is currently slashing .385/.435/.590 for Indy, and has an OPS of 1.025. That’s some pretty good baseball.
Gonzales also has 11 doubles so far this year, and extended his on base streak to 19 games in the team’s win today. Both of those are team-leading. In addition, he has 10 RBI to start the year, good for third with Indy.
Gonzales did get some time at the major league level last season, when he appeared in 35 big league games for the Pirates. His numbers with Pittsburgh were largely underwhelming: .209/.268/.348 in 128 plate appearances.
Those numbers as a whole don’t tell a full story of what Gonzales did at the MLB level last year. He started off incredibly well, recording a .280 batting average and having a five game run where he recorded 10 hits. After that, his standing started to falter, and soon plummet.
However, he did show some good flashes in Triple-A last season, particularly at the end of the year, when he averaged .348 at the plate in the month of September for Indy.
Clearly, that progress at the Triple-A level has carried over into this season, and with so many Pirates struggling to do anything with the bat, it’s time to give Gonzales a call and bring him to Pittsburgh.
This is a very big season for Gonzales. The soon to be 25-year old has failed to take full control of a big league roster spot, and that title of a former first round pick (7th overall) has been a dark cloud hovering over him.
Maybe he isn’t the long-term answer in the infield for the Pirates, but it’s worth a shot given his batting success with the Indians so far.
Calling up Gonzales will also give the Pirates some extra depth in the middle of the infield. Jared Triolo ran away with the starting second base job out of spring training, but he is starting to show cracks that maybe he isn’t an everyday player. Triolo’s batting average has slumped to .227, and his defense has suffered some bad gaffes as of late.
A lot of the same can be said for Oneil Cruz, who is on an incredibly concerning cold streak right now.
Cruz’s 37 strikeouts leads all of Major League Baseball right now as his batting average has fallen to .209 on the year.
Cruz looks absolutely lost at the plate right now. Genuinely lost. Something isn’t right with him, and whether it’s something physical he is trying to work through, or there’s a mental block of sorts, the 6′ 7 shortstop might in serious need of some time off.
Cruz also has 5 errors on the year, and dropped an easy pop fly in the field during Pittsburgh’s loss today.
With both positions looking a little fragile, Gonzales helps fill that perfectly. He played 29 games at second base for the Pirates last year, and 9 at shortstop.
Even if Gonzales suffers a similar fate as last season, where he burst onto the scene but then melted as time went on, you’d take that right now if you were the Pittsburgh Pirates. Anything to provide a spark to this offense.
(Featured photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
Fifth Avenue Sports 
Leave a comment