Sorry I’m a little late on this one. I was busy watching a team that actually wins. Penguins business. But I’m back now, and apparently I didn’t miss a damn thing worth celebrating, because the Pittsburgh Pirates offense just got shut out at one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in baseball. Four games into a season that was supposed to be different, and the Buccos are 1-3 with four hits in Cincinnati. Same roster problems. Different jerseys on half the guys.
I’ll give credit where it’s due. Braxton Ashcraft went six innings against the Reds and gave up two runs. He kept the bullpen in the dugout for the first time all week after the Mets series turned into a relief pitcher marathon, and that was exactly what the Pirates needed to see from him. Ashcraft did his job. The Pittsburgh Pirates offense had four hits. At Great American Ball Park. A park with the top home run factor in the National League. A park where fly balls have been turning into dingers for 20-plus years. And the Pirates got shut out there, 2-0.
The Same Old Pittsburgh Pirates Offense
Great American Ball Park has been a launching pad for as long as I can remember. Hitters go there and put up numbers. The walls come in and invite contact. It’s not a place where teams go and score zero runs unless they’re genuinely incapable of hitting. The Pittsburgh Pirates offense was 0 for that tonight, and after four games I don’t think we can keep blaming small sample sizes. This team has the exact same structural problem it always has. The bats that were supposed to change things are being asked to carry everything by themselves.
Brandon Lowe has three home runs in four games. Three. He’s doing exactly what the Pittsburgh Pirates went and got him for, and O’Hearn was outstanding in the series finale against the Mets with three hits and two RBIs. Both of them showed up. The problem is that a two-man offense isn’t an offense. Lowe and O’Hearn were signed to be pieces around a lineup, not to be the entire lineup themselves.
Marcell Ozuna Is Hitting .111 and the Math Doesn’t Work
Marcell Ozuna is hitting .111. The Pirates handed him $12 million to occupy the designated hitter spot, and after four games he is one for nine with nowhere else to put him because he hasn’t played the outfield since 2023. That’s not a slump. That’s a roster construction problem wearing a batting average.
Oneil Cruz needs that DH spot. The Pirates moved Cruz from shortstop to center field this year to try to finally unlock what he can do, and he opened the season by misplaying two balls in the first inning of Game 1 on a national broadcast with Paul Skenes on the mound. Two plays. First inning. Skenes didn’t make it out of the first. If the Pittsburgh Pirates offense had an actual outfielder in center field, Cruz could DH, and the defensive liability problem goes away.
But Ozuna is in that chair, and he’s not moving, and Cruz is tracking fly balls in center while hitting .200 and the whole thing is a mess. Ben Cherington built himself into a corner with this one.
Ashcraft Pitched Well Enough to Win
This is the part that makes it worse. The Pittsburgh Pirates offense didn’t lose tonight because the pitching failed. Ashcraft was efficient, stayed out of his own way, and handed the game to a bullpen that kept it at 2-0. That’s a winnable game for most teams. A team that has any kind of offensive identity goes out and scratches a run or two across in six innings. This team had four hits and went home.
That’s not an Ashcraft problem. That’s not a bullpen problem. That’s a Pittsburgh Pirates offense problem, and it’s the same one this franchise has been dealing with for most of the last decade. Better pitching, same bat rack.
A Quick Word on McCutchen
Andrew McCutchen is with the Texas Rangers. I told some of you to stop complaining when the Pirates didn’t bring him back for 2026. I was wrong. Looking at this lineup, a guy who hits, leads, and knows what it means to play meaningful baseball in Pittsburgh would not have been the worst idea they ever had. Said my piece, moving on.
The Pittsburgh Pirates offense has one win in four games. They got shut out in a park where runs are supposed to come easy. Ashcraft is real, Lowe is real, O’Hearn is real, and this pitching staff is going to keep games close enough to win them. But until somebody figures out what to do with the DH spot and the Cruz situation in center, the Pittsburgh Pirates offense is going to keep handing away games that the pitching earned. Four games in and we’re already back here. Same old Buccos.
