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Pittsburgh Pirates: Has The June Swoon Begun? And Other Takeaways From Being Swept In Milwaukee

By Marty Leap

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - JUNE 08: Francisco Liriano #47 of the Pittsburgh Pirates hands the game ball over to Clint Hurdle #13 of the Pittsburgh Pirates after being relieved in the eight inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on June 08, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - JUNE 08: Francisco Liriano #47 of the Pittsburgh Pirates hands the game ball over to Clint Hurdle #13 of the Pittsburgh Pirates after being relieved in the eight inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on June 08, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) /
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MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – JUNE 07: Nick Kingham #49 of the Pittsburgh Pirates hands the game ball to Clint Hurdle #13 after being relieved in the seventh inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on June 7, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both teams wore throwback uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears and the Pittsburgh Crawfords in honor of the Negro League. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – JUNE 07: Nick Kingham #49 of the Pittsburgh Pirates hands the game ball to Clint Hurdle #13 after being relieved in the seventh inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on June 7, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both teams wore throwback uniforms of the Milwaukee Bears and the Pittsburgh Crawfords in honor of the Negro League. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) /

It was another poor weekend for Clint Hurdle

Stop me if you have heard this before – Clint Hurdle is bad at managing a bullpen. This was on full display once again this weekend in Milwaukee.

On Friday night, Nick Kingham made his final appearance before getting designated for assignment. With the Pirates trailing 7-3 in the 7th inning, Hurdle removed Kingham to put in Geoff Hartlieb who would finish the game. This made Hartlieb unavailable for Saturday, in addition to a few other relievers, which impacted Hurdle’s bullpen decisions for Saturday.

With the game out of hand, Hurdle should have just let Kingham finish the game to try and save the bullpen as best he could. Especially if they knew Kingham would be DFA’d on Saturday anyway.

Saturday’s offense was even more egregious. With the game tied in the 4th inning, Hurdle made the boneheaded decision to go with Michael Feliz. Earlier that day Feliz, who should not be on a MLB roster, was recalled from Triple-A. In a shocking development, Feliz allowed a run to give the Brewers a lead they would never relinquish.

The move to use Feliz always hampered the bullpen moving forward. After starter Jordan Lyles pitched just 3 innings the team needed length. The pitcher’s spot had just hit, and this seemed like the perfect spot to go to Alex McRae or Clay Holmes, both of whom have pitched better than Feliz this season, to try and give the Bucs 3 innings. Instead, Hurdle went Feliz, and then Richard Rodriguez and Francisco Liriano. Both Rodriguez and Liriano had to be pulled due to a rising pitch count in an effort to keep them available for Sunday’s game. A game in which both would be use, likely rendering them unavailable until at least Wednesday.

Sunday afternoon Hurdle went to the bullpen with two Brewer runners on base and one out in the bottom of the 7th inning. At the time, the Pirates led 2-1 and the obvious choice appeared to be shutdown set up man Kyle Crick. Instead, Hurdle went with Rodriguez who proceeded to allow a game tying hit to Ben Gamel.

After the game Hurdle cited Rodriguez’s ability to strand inherited runners as why he went with him over Crick. Well, entering play on Sunday Rodriguez had stranded just 50% of inherited runners this season while Crick had stranded 70%. Oops.

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