Pirates Fall To Cy Estrada, Brewers 5-2

The House of Horrors took another one from the Pirates

Travis Snider and Carlos Gomez happened to run into one another at a steakhouse Sunday night and apologized to each other.  Then the Brewers did what they have done to the Pirates all season, frustrated them and took another victory.  It was their seven win in eight tries against the Bucs.

The Pirates epidemic of leaving runners on base returned, it was even worse as the club had only one hit with Bucs in scoring position, mainly against Cy Estrada.   Of course, thats Marco Estrada who just shut down the Bucs hot bats as he normally does.  The ERA has to be under 2 now when facing the Pirates.  Did you see those change ups he threw to Pedro Alvarez?

Gerrit Cole was the starter for the Pirates and he battled all night long–against himself as well as Milwaukee in the 5-2 loss giving up three runs and putting 11 Brewers on the bags.   (Cue the understatement of the year——>)Much like the Pirates ball club, Cole doesn’t quite look like as dominant as last season.  The flame thrower is striking out about the same number of bad guys, but walking more and hence allowing more runs.  Last night with two on in the fifth inning, he got the hook by skipper Clint Hurdle.  Cole got first pitch strikes, even got ahead on several hitters, but simply couldn’t get them out.

Some things to consider about Cole’s outing.  Jonathan Lucroy slapped the two-run single to right field to score the first two Brewers runs.  On the hit, Josh Harrison broke back and the ball landed in front of him.  Jordy Mercer couldn’t quite make a play on a sharp hit ball off the bat of Rickie Weeks (who Cole had two strikes on) that seemed to speed up on the fast Miller Park grass.  But again, these are excuses, Cole looked sharp at times, but simply couldn’t put hitters away.

The Pirates got a solo homer from Neil Walker in the first.  Estrada has now allowed ten homers in 49.1 innings this year, but just like last night seven of them have been solo shots. We thought the Cy Estrada era would end with the Bucs quick run in the first, but the right handed settled in and ended up with eight strikeouts in yet another disappointing night for the Buccos.