Apr 9, 2002 By Mike Ciarochi 5 min read

PITTSBURGH – Lloyd McClendon calls it “small ball.” Kevin Young knows what it is and his younger teammates are proving to be fast learners. Mike Fetters knows the more “small ball” the Pirates play, the more confidence they will gain. So far, it has added up to a 5-1 start for the Pirates, a team absolutely no one picked to finish anywhere north of last place in the National League Central Division.

Granted, six games never make a season, but these six games, capped by Monday’s 1-0 gem over Cincinnati in the home opener at PNC Park, should give the Pirates a blueprint of what they need to do to win their share of the remaining 156 games.

In fact, Monday’s outstanding effort was Pittsburgh’s third 1-run win so far this season and, according to McClendon, it probably won’t be the last.

“Relatively speaking, that’s what we’re going to have to be all year long,” the manager said. “We’re not going to score a whole lot of runs, but our defense is solid, our pitching has been solid and we’re getting runs when we can.”

In this case, the Pirates got the game’s only run when Brian Giles doubled, was balked to third and came home on Aramis Ramirez’s sacrifice fly to left.

“Small ball?” McClendon said, repeating a question. “It doesn’t get any smaller than 1-0.”

In fact, if you could videotape “small ball,” you’d have a film of Monday’s game. In short, it entails getting quality innings from your starting pitching, playing solid, basic defense and manufacturing runs.

It has worked well enough so far to give the players a shot of confidence, which can carry them a long way. Monday’s starter and winner, Ron Villone and closer Mike Williams, who earned his fourth save, seemed to be battling each other to find a way to capsule this game.

“We played a good, solid game in all phases of the game,” said Villone.

“Defense, offense, pitching, catching … we’re playing good baseball,” said Williams.

McClendon, ever the psychologist, stresses that a baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. “I have to caution everybody,” he said. “We’re playing a 162-game schedule. I’m happy with our start, but that’s all it is.”

But it lasted long enough for the Pirates to break a streak of eight straight home opener losses. In fact, you’d have to go back to June of 1999 to find the last time the Pirates were four games over .500. The last time the Pirates won a home opener, Tim Wakefield was their starting pitcher.

That was 1993 and not much good has happened to the Pirates since then, unless you count PNC Park itself. Even their first year here will be remembered more as the most recent time the Pirates lost 100 games in a season. But none of the players who were here then wish to remember last year, let alone talk about it. There is too much excitement, premature though it may be, about this year’s team to want to look back.

“This is a good team we have here now,” Young said. “Our pitching has been great and we have guys like Aramis Ramirez and Jack Wilson who have matured defensively. We’re making the routine plays and we’re making the most of our opportunities. We know why we’re winning.”

There is no better example of that than Fetters’ two-pitch relief effort in the eighth inning. He relieved Villone, who had opened the inning with a walk. After the walk, Ramirez perfectly played Todd Walker’s punt and got an out at second base.

Fetters came on and, after throwing his first pitch high, coerced a ground ball to Ramirez at third. Ramirez got a force to Pokey Reese at second and Reese completed the double-play to end the threat.

“Baseball’s all about confidence,” Fetters said. “It’s a funny game. Nobody thinks much of us right now, but if we keep playing like we are, we’ll convince some people that we can play. We’ll see as each game unfolds. We only scored one run today, so we had to play almost perfect baseball to get the win.”

“It’s important for the eight guys in there to contribute,” Giles said. “We’re not going to win games sitting back waiting for a three-run homer.”

Of course, a 5-1 start guarantees nothing, except that the Pirates won’t lose 160 games this year. Their wayward ship is far from righted. They have a long way to go and there are no guarantees they ever will get where they want to be. In fact, a couple of weeks from now, we may all be wondering what happened to this sparkling start.

But this much we know: If the Pirates are to continue winning games, the wins will look a whole lot like Monday’s.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here,” McClendon said. “This is the way we are and we’re going to have to scrap every day.”

And every inning and every at bat and every pitch.

Sports editor Mike Ciarochi may be reached at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com