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Giger: Mercer’s injury another blow to Bucs’ infield

It looked like a dirty play to me, and now the Pirates have a world of infield problems that aren’t going away any time soon.

Brewers baserunner Carlos Gomez had no chance to reach second base. He started his slide more than 15 feet from the bag. He went in and raised his right leg on the slide, colliding with shortstop Jordy Mercer.

Some, including Pirates broadcasters John Wehner and Bob Walk, were describing it as “hard-nosed baseball.” That seems misguided on a play where Mercer suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury during Sunday’s 6-1 loss at Milwaukee.

Runners should go hard into second base trying to break up a double play. That’s the way the game is supposed to be played.

This was not an example of a runner going hard into second base because Gomez was nowhere near second base.

There are always circumstances to be considered. Under these circumstances, Gomez had no business sliding hard into Mercer – not that far away from the bag – and he certainly shouldn’t have raised his right leg to create unnecessary contact.

From this view, it was a bush-league play.

The fact that it’s Gomez, one of the biggest goofs in baseball who has been involved in several controversial plays during his career, also is part of the circumstances. He has a bad reputation for a reason, so he deserves no benefit of the doubt in this situation.

The Pirates, strangely, aren’t upset about the play. Manager Clint Hurdle, second baseman Neil Walker and pitcher Jeff Locke all seemed OK with Gomez’s slide Sunday.

That’s the silliness of baseball’s unwritten rules for you.

Steal signs, and teams get outraged. Stand at the plate and watch a 450-foot home run for two seconds, and teams get outraged. Accidentally hit a player with a pitch, and all hell sometimes breaks loose.

Needlessly obliterate the shortstop on a pointless slide and perhaps end his season? Meh.

Whatever your view of Gomez’s slide, there’s no denying the potential problems it could pose for the Pirates.

Third baseman Josh Harrison will be out at least another month with a thumb injury.

Pedro Alvarez is the worst defensive first baseman in the majors.

Now the everyday shortstop is out of commission.

There are major question marks for three-quarters of the infield, and Walker’s overall production has dropped off substantially from his big 2014 season.

This is a team, mind you, that hasn’t had a very strong bench all season, and now backups such as Jung Ho Kang and Sean Rodriguez will be having to fill in more with Harrison and Mercer out.

Are there any viable options in the minor leagues?

Brent Morel, who can play third and first, likely will be the first player called up from Triple-A Indianapolis today. He’s hitting .266 with nine homers and 47 RBIs for Indy.

Alen Hanson is hitting .283 with five homers and 37 RBIs at Indy, but he’s not remotely close to being ready defensively to play shortstop in the majors. He’s playing second base in Triple-A, and that’s his best position to be a big factor for the Bucs in the future.

Gift Ngoepe is a terrific defensive shortstop and hit better for the Curve this season. He’s now at Indy and is hitting .275, but as good of a story as he is, he’s not ready to step into a big role for the Pirates during a playoff chase.

Curve second baseman Max Moroff is worth mentioning here since he’s having a tremendous season, hitting .326 with an .829 OPS. But the Pirates have not called up a player directly from Altoona to the majors in seven years, and it’s doubtful they’d take a chance on Moroff, who can hit but hasn’t proven himself defensively as a shortstop in pro ball.

Count on Pirates general manager Neal Huntington making a lot of phone calls trying to pick up a veteran infielder in a trade.

Huntington already has a big problem on his hands at first base with Alvarez, who is, quite simply, a detriment to the Bucs in many ways. His defense is awful, he can’t play against left-handers, and he continues to go through long stretches where he can’t do much of anything at the plate.

The Pirates have the third-best record in baseball at 53-38, and they’re still in great shape to make the playoffs. But getting swept at Milwaukee to start the second half erased some of the fun of the fantastic finish the Bucs had to the first half, when they pulled within 2 games of the Cardinals in the NL Central.

The deficit is now back up to 4 games, and things don’t get any easier as the Bucs head to Kansas City tonight for a three-game series against the American League’s best team.

The Pirates must find a way to stay within striking distance of the Cardinals over the next couple of weeks to ensure that they have a legitimate shot to win the division come August and September.

With these growing infield concerns, that could be a problem.

Cory Giger is the host of “Sports Central” each weekday from 4 to 6 p.m. on ESPN Radio 1430 WVAM.

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