The Pittsburgh Pirates' offense has improved, but still needs to be better in one key area.
The Pittsburgh Pirates objectively have a better roster this season than they have in arguably the last half-decade. On any given night, the Pirates have an argument as having one of the better lineups in all of baseball, and their team's .762 OPS proves that.
That said, the Pirates aren’t perfect, and they’re well aware of that. In fact, manager Don Kelly pointed out one specific area where his team must improve after the team’s 9-5 loss to the Washington Nationals on Friday night: hitting against left-handed pitchers.
Nationals starter Foster Griffin, who is a left-hander, pitched a very solid game against the Pirates, prompting these comments from Pittsburgh’s manager. He threw 5.0 innings, gave up just one earned run, and four hits.
“We’ve struggle against left-handers. We know that we need to get better,” Kelly admitted.
“We showed that again tonight [Friday] with [Foster] Griffin, and we need to find a way to be better against lefties. I think that we can have that same type of impact against right-handers.”
Jun 29, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates manager Don Kelly (12) walks to the mound to make a pitching change against the Philadelphia Phillies during the eighth inning at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn ImagesThe Pirates' lack of production against southpaws is a more than fair criticism for the skipper to make. Pittsburgh has a .688 OPS and an 88 wRC+ against left-handers, which rank 20th and 24th in MLB, respectively.
That’s a far cry from the Pirates’ .788 OPS off right-handed pitchers.
Individually, the Pirates do have a group of players who are having success against lefties. The team leaders in terms of OPS (min. 40 PA) off southpaws are Bryan Reynolds (.949), Oneil Cruz (.868), and Konnor Griffin (.756). After that, it’s a steep drop off to Marcell Ozuna, whose .703 OPS against left-handers ranks fourth on the team.
Not having Cruz, who is still on the injured list, creates an even bigger problem for the Pirates when they’re facing a left-hander.
As long as the Pirates continue to struggle against left-handers, opposing teams will continue to save and line up their southpaws for these matchups. That’s exactly what the Nationals did on Friday.
Adding another bullpen arm, or two, was already one of the Pirates' top trade deadline needs. Now, it might be time to explore adding a platoon bat if the Pirates can’t make internal improvements against left-handed pitching in the next month.
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