Woodford's strong spot start not enough to end Bucs' skid

SAN DIEGO -- The Pirates were dealt yet another blow amid their longest losing streak of the season, finding out they will be without Marco Gonzales the rest of the way. Jake Woodford was able to make another strong spot start in his place Monday, but the Pirates fell short of the Padres at Petco Park, losing 2-1.

The loss was their eighth in a row, the longest active streak in the Majors. Five of those losses have been by just one run, and in Monday’s case, it came down to a Jackson Merrill dive with two outs in the ninth. If he missed Bryan Reynolds’ drive, it likely would have been a game-tying extra-base hit. Instead, Merrill made the grab.

"I think if you were painting up how the last 10 days have gone, that kind of sums it up right there,” said manager Derek Shelton. “We just have to make our own break. Bryan has a not good at-bat there, swings out of the zone but squares the ball right up. [Merrill] makes a heck of a catch, and that ends up being the difference of the game."

The Pirates had opportunities with runners in scoring position in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings but could not cash in, stranding Oneil Cruz -- who reached base three times -- twice. They squandered a quality start on a day the staff got bad news.

Gonzales was one of the Pirates’ main starting pitching acquisitions this winter, taking a bet that he was healthy after being limited to 10 starts last season with a left forearm strain. He would end up suffering another forearm strain in mid-April, and after three months of rest and rehab, he returned to make four more starts. However, this injury and trip to the 60-day injured list will end his regular season, and perhaps his Pirates career, since it seems incredibly likely the team will decline his club option for 2025.

“It’s extremely challenging and unfortunate because of the fact that he did battle back and worked his butt off to get back,” Shelton said before the game. “We just need to see what we’re dealing with and kind of go from there.”

The Pirates felt good about their starting pitching depth at the Trade Deadline, which is why they were willing to deal a pair of their rotation options: Martín Pérez to the Padres and Quinn Priester to the Red Sox. With Gonzales done for the year, they don’t have a ton of options at the moment. Jared Jones is going to need at least one more rehab start, if not multiple. Prospect Mike Burrows has been streaky in his first outings in Triple-A since his Tommy John surgery, and Braxton Ashcraft is on the injured list.

The cupboard is a lot more bare than it was a couple of weeks ago. But at least they had a Woodford reserve.

Woodford has been one of the few bright spots over the past few weeks, going from a midseason Minor League free agent after being let go by the White Sox to the Pirates’ spot starter. While he was far from overpowering, he was able to pitch off of his sinker and mix in his cutter and sweeper, the latter of which has been getting more break and dive than it did earlier in the year. That kept the Padres off the barrel, all the way until the seventh, when Jurickson Profar led the inning off with a double. He would later score the game's first run on a Xander Bogaerts single.

Sour ending aside, it’s a start any team takes 10 times out of 10 in a pinch.

"Just trusting myself,” Woodford said. “I've been aggressive with it. I think I've just stayed within myself and I haven't tried to do too much. Today, Joey [Bart] and I had a really good plan, and we stuck to it. We were stubborn with it.”

Being a swingman isn’t easy. Woodford would have had to pitch the 11th at Dodger Stadium on Sunday if the game had been extended, and instead had to start the next day.

It’s an odd spot, but these are odd times.

"I've kind of pitched in every role at this point of my career,” Woodford said. “You have a routine, and you have stuff that gets you ready. It's preparing a certain way, but you don't live or die by it. You've got to be fluid with situations, especially right now. I'm just prepared for whatever role they need me to take."