Pittsburgh Pirates Narrowly Avoid Being No Hit, Lose Series vs Cardinals

The Pittsburgh Pirates have now lost 12 of their last 16 games

Frustration continues to build for the Pittsburgh Pirates and their fans. After falling to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon, the Bucs are now 4-12 in their last 16 games. This slide has caused the team’s record on the season to drop from a high watermark of nine games over .500 at 26-17 on May 17th to just 30-29.

Sunday’s game was one that was never competitive. In fact, this was arguably the low point of the Pirates’ recent slide as the Pirates were nearly no hit in Sunday’s 5-0 loss against the St. Louis Cardinals.

On April 29th Nick Kingham made his Major League debut against the St. Louis Cardinals and carried a perfect game into the 7th inning. When his debut outing ended Kingham had hurled 7 shutout innings in a fabulous debut.

On Sunday afternoon, the Cardinals got their second crack at Kingham. This time it came at Busch Stadium instead of PNC Park. And, unfortunately, round two went to the Cards.

Kingham started out the bottom of the 1st inning by walking Matt Carpenter and allowing a base hit to Tommy Pham. Jose Martinez then hit a ball that should have been a double play. Instead, a Sean Rodriguez error loaded the bases.

After Rodriguez’s error, Marcel Ozuna launched a grand slam. Nine pitched into the bottom of the 1st inning the Cardinals quickly had a 4-0 lead.

To be honest, there was no reason for Rodriguez to start at shortstop on Sunday. Rodriguez is a porous hitter – especially against right-handed pitchers such as Sunday’s St. Louis starter Michael Wacha – and a bad defensive shortstop. But Clint Hurdle continues to frustrate Pirate fans by giving Rodriguez entirely too many starts.

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Much to Kingham’s credit he would go on to settle in after the Ozuna grand slam. He allowed just three more baserunners, one of which reached on a David Freese error, and battled to do all he could to keep the Pirates in the game.

Kingham’s final line on Sunday was as follows: 5 innings pitched, 4 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts.

This was not the first time this season Kingham showed the resiliency and mound presence of a veteran rather than the rookie that he is to bounce back after a terrible opening frame to shut the opposing team down. One could argue this outing was the more impressive of the two as it came on the road.

Even had Rodriguez turned the double play in the bottom of the 1st inning it likely would not have mattered due to the way Michael Wacha pitched for the Cardinals on Sunday.

Outside of walking Francisco Cervelli and Gregory Polanco in the 5th inning, Wacha retired every batter he faced in the game’s first 8 innings.

After a long bottom of the 8th inning that saw the Cardinals score off of Michael Feliz, Wacha took the mound in the top of the 9th inning looking for history.

Leading off the top of the 9th inning pinch hitter Colin Moran singled to right field. After losing a no hitter in the 9th inning for the second time in his career, Wacha was lifted for Jordan Hicks. Hicks would go on to finish off the 9th inning to seal the 5-0 St. Louis victory.

There is no way around it, the Pittsburgh Pirates are currently playing bad baseball. If this does not change soon a season that had much promise through most of the first two months will come unglued before a June swoon can even begin.

After blowing a 3-run 9th inning lead on Thursday, getting walked off on Saturday, and nearly being no hit on Sunday this series was rock bottom of this recent slide. Hopefully, after a day off on Monday the Pirates can regroup and get back to playing the strong baseball they did during the first 8 weeks of the season.

Next up for the Pirates is a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Game one of the series is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. from PNC Park on Tuesday night. Joe Musgrove is scheduled to start for the Pirates, while Dave Roberts and the Dodgers plan to send Ross Stripling to the mound.