Kovacevic: Improving comes with incremental pain, too, at this stage

Christian Yelich circles the bases after his grand slam in the fourth inning Monday night in Milwaukee.MILWAUKEE -- The issue wasn't whether or not Derek Shelton should've pulled Zach Thompson when absolutely everyone watching everywhere knew he should've.

Nope. That part was the no-brainer.

Rather, the issue was -- and will remain for the foreseeable future -- how these Pirates can best balance wanting to win a single game vs. wanting to see what so-and-so's got in a given setting. Or against a given batter or pitcher. Or over a given time period.

And let's not delude ourselves: It's still all the stuff after every versus.

Proof?

Well, one could scan any of Derek Shelton's lineups over these…