Pittsburgh Pirates Slide Continues In 8th Consecutive Series Loss
By Marty Leap
Make it eight consecutive series losses for the Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates remain stuck under their month long black cloud. Following a 4-3 loss against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night, the Bucs have now lost eight consecutive series since the All-Star Break.
This loss dropped the team’s post-break record to a pitiful 4-20. As a result of this 24 game plummet, the Pirates are now just 48-65 on the season.
Steven Brault started for the Pirates on Tuesday night. In his return from the injured list, Brault picked up where he left off prior to getting injured.
Brault retired the first 12 batters he faced before walking Ryan Braun to lead off the 5th inning. Braun scored on a double by Yasmani Grandal and went to third base on a Manny Pina single. With the game potentially teetering, Brault buckled down and got a 6-4-3 double play ball to clean things up.
After allowing a one out infield hit to Ben Gamel in the 6th inning, Brault’s day was done. Richard Rodriguez took over for Brault and struck out Keston Hiura and Mike Moustakas to end the inning.
In his return from the IL Brault held the Brewers to just 2 runs in 5 1/3 innings of work. He allowed three hits, issued just one walk, and he struck out six Milwaukee hitters. It was great to see Brault pick up where he left off before going on the IL. Hopefully, he will continue to pitch well in the final two months of the season and solidify a rotation spot for 2020. Something no Pirate pitcher has done yet.
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With one out in the bottom of the 6th inning the Pirates got on the board. Bryan Reynolds put a charge into a ball and drove it into the bushes in center field. His 11th home run of the season cut the Milwaukee lead to 2-1.
After the Reynolds home run, Starling Marte singled to right field off of Brewers starter Chase Anderson. Jose Osuna then hit a double under the glove of Moustakas at third base, and, for some reason, Milwaukee left fielder Trent Grisham made the poor decision to throw to second base. This allowed Marte to come all the way around to score, tying the game at 2.
With two outs in the inning Anderson walked Elias Diaz, bringing his night to an end. He was replaced by Junior Guerra who got Pablo Reyes to pop out to shallow center field to bring the inning to an end.
Francisco Liriano took over in the 7th inning. After allowing a single to Braun and a double to Grandal, he recorded a strikeout. He then issued a walk to load the bases with one out. Orlando Arcia then hit a sacrifice fly to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead.
Facing Jake Faria, who was making his Brewers debut, Erik Gonzalez singled to lead off the bottom of the 7th inning. However, Gonzalez apparently missed the day at little league practice when your taught to freeze on a line drive as he got doubled off first base when Melky Cabrera lined out to third base. Adam Frazier then struck out to end the inning.
Still facing Faria, Osuna double with one out in the bottom of the 8th inning. The Bucs could not capitalize though as Colin Moran‘s struggles would continue as he grounded out to second base to end the inning.
Facing the struggling Kyle Crick the Brewers would add to their lead in the top of the 9th inning. After Crick issued a walk to start the inning, a one out double put runners on second and third with just one out. After a ground out and a hit by pitch, the Brewers had the bases loaded with two outs.
With Gamel batting, Diaz fired the ball to first base where Travis Shaw had wondered off the bag. Osuna then fired the ball back to Diaz to make sure Arcia did not score from third base, and this is where things started to go wrong. Not only did Diaz screw up the run down by not running Arcia back to third before throwing to Moran, he stood in the base line after throwing to Moran. This led to Diaz being called for interference and Arcia scoring, despite him being tagged out.
This play epitomizes the second half of the season for the Pirates. Since the All-Star Break the team has done nothing right, even the most fundamental things. Not being in the base line is about as fundamental as it gets.
Veteran Matt Albers took the mound for the Brewers in the 9th and allowed a lead off single to Diaz. Reyes then doubled into right-center field. On the play, Diaz initially stopped coming around third base before breaking for the plate. Thankfully, the throw in the dirt got away from Grandal allowing Diaz to score. This cut the Brewer lead to 4-3.
After Gonzalez bunted Reyes to third base, the Pirates had the tying run 90 feet away with Cabrera stepping to the plate. Thankfully, Hurdle gave this out away. Cabrera grounded out to first base, Kevin Newman lined out to the pitcher, and the game was over.
Fire everyone.
The third and final game of the series is scheduled for 7:05 on Wednesday night. Trevor Williams (4.75 ERA, 4.53 FIP) will start for the Pirates and will look to build off his last two starts after he struggled when he initially returned from the IL. After placing Zach Davies on the IL due to back spams, the Brewers will be going with a bullpen game.