Pittsburgh Pirates: Bullpen, Defensive Woes Continue In Series Loss vs St. Louis

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ST LOUIS, MO – JULY 15: Michael Feliz #45 of the Pittsburgh Pirates delivers a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals in the sixth inning at Busch Stadium on July 15, 2019 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

Late inning bullpen woes continue

Entering the season many people, myself included, expected the bullpen to be a strength for the Pirates. Especially the back end of the ‘pen. Through the first 100 games of the season, this could not be any further from the truth.

After the bullpen blew a 7th inning lead on Wednesday, the Pirates have now lost 10 games this season when they’ve led after 6 innings. Last season, they were 66-6 when leading after 6 innings of play. That’s a drastic drop off.

Felipe Vazquez has anchored the bullpen all season long. However, other than Francisco Liriano no other reliever has been consistent. Well, consistently good that is. So, when Liriano struggles as he did on Wednesday the bullpen, and in turn the team, is in a lot of trouble.

The injuries to Keone Kela and Nick Burdi, as well as Kyle Crick‘s control issues/recent collapse have decimated the Pirate bullpen. Richard Rodriguez struggling for the first two months of the season did not help, either. It has not helped that none of the arms promoted from Triple-A have been able to find any sort of consistency.

For much of the season the Pirate bullpen has been a mess. This trend continued in their series loss against the Cardinals.

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