MILWAUKEE — The Pirates and Ray Searage have agreed on a contract extension, according to a source, keeping the pitching coach in Pittsburgh through the 2019 season.
Searage became the pitching coach midway through the 2010 season and imbued the staff with a set of simple, yet effective, tenets. By encouraging his charges to pitch inside, wear out the bottom of the zone and trust the movement on their two-seam fastballs, Searage helped the Pirates lead Major League Baseball in ground-ball rate for three consecutive seasons. Those seasons, 2013-15, corresponded with three consecutive playoff berths.
Searage also espoused the need to make something happen in three pitches or fewer, which encourages pitching to contact as well as efficiency so that starters could pitch deeper into games.