Pittsburgh Pirates Home Stand Report Card For 7/1-7/7

Starting Pitching

While the Pirate offense has been fantastic, the starting pitching has been, well, just ok.

The home stand started with a rough outing from Trevor Williams. The Pirates scored 18 runs, however, so it didn’t matter too much that Williams gave up five, especially considering he helped himself with an RBI single.

The next night, it looked like Joe Musgrove was on his way to a gem, striking out four over the first three innings, but then the rains came and cut his outing short. Chris Archer was OK Wednesday, giving up three runs and, wait for it, two homers. On Independence Day, Jordan Lyles got shellacked for 10 hits and seven runs through four innings, further indicating that his dominance over the first two months is donezo.

Against Milwaukee, Steven Brault held his own before leaving early with an injury. The next night, the Pirates got another fine effort from youngster Dario Agrazal. The rookie allowed just two runs over six and showed that he’s capable of hanging in a big league rotation, which the Pirates may need him to do depending on how long Brault is on the shelf. Musgrove concluded the home stand with another good outing, although it featured two Jesus Aguilar bombs.

There’s reason for concern with the Pirates rotation. Archer hasn’t been the guy the Pirates sold the farm for, Lyles has been underwhelming since mid-May, and Brault going down after a stretch of good outings is a bummer.

This team can hit, and that is well established, so the staff doesn’t need to be great right now. There will come a time, however, when the bats slow down, and when that happens, the pitchers will need to step up.

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