Pittsburgh Pirates: Sloppy Weekend & Other Takeaways From Being Swept At Wrigley

A sloppy weekend for the Pirates

Over the weekend the Pirates had their fair share of self inflicted wounds.

In the final 2 innings on Friday afternoon Pirate pitchers issued four walks. Two of these four walks came around to score. Another of the walks came with the bases loaded to force in a run. the Pirates went on to lose the game 4-3.

The walks continued on Saturday. Starting pitcher Jordan Lyles failed to get out of the 1st inning. A big reason for this was due to four walks. All four of these walks came around to score.

The infield defense continued to be an issue as well.

Also in Saturday’s disastrous 1st inning, shortstop Jung Ho Kang failed to keep a slowly hit bouncing ball off the bat of Anthony Rizzo in the infield. With how poorly Lyles pitched it may not have mattered had Kang made this play, but it would have been nice to see what would have happened in the rest of the inning had the play been made.

Sunday afternoon the Cubs took the lead with a 3-run 5th inning. A key play in this inning came when Rizzo slowly rolled a ground ball to the right side of the infield. The only play was for Josh Bell to field the ball and tag first base for the second out of the inning. Instead, he let it go even though second baseman Adam Frazier did not have a play.

As a result, the ball slowly rolled into right field allowing Kris Bryant to go to third base. Bryant then scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly that, had Bell fielded Rizzo’s ball, would have been the final out of the inning. The sac fly was followed by a 2-run home run by Jason Heyward that gave the Cubs a 5-3 lead they would not relinquish.

Self inflicted wounds have been an issue for the Pirates all season and are a big reason why this team currently sits four games under .500. The self inflicted wounds continued to be an issue over the weekend in Chicago.