Steven Brault Shines as Pittsburgh Pirates Fall

The Pittsburgh Pirates, after securing a walk-off win the night before, fell without a whimper to the Chicago Cubs. They are now 7-26 since the All Star break.

The Pittsburgh Pirates came to the plate today with some momentum after a crazy 9th inning victory relying on some of their younger stars. Today, they followed it up with a dud.

Having a rough day with runners in scoring position is one thing, but this seems to be a constant theme for the Bucs this season. Today was no different, going 0-12 with RISP and leaving 11 runners on base.

The Pirates got busy early, loading the bases with one out in the first before line outs by Melky Cabrera and Colin Moran ended the inning.

The following inning, the Pirates once again put the lead off runner on board when catcher Elias Diaz roped a single into right; however, this was followed immediately by a double play by Erik Gonzalez, who continues to prove he doesn’t belong in a Major League lineup.

When the Pirates once again had base runners in the fifth inning, they proceeded to leave the bases loaded despite having no outs. With the top of the order up, Kevin Newman lined out before rookie Bryan Reynolds struck out, followed by a Starling Marte fly out to end the inning.

Meanwhile, Steven Brault posted one of his best starts to date. Taking the rock to start, he posted 4 no-hit frames before allowing an infield hit in the fifth. The only other hit Brault would allow was a solo-homerun (which would be the difference in the game) to Kris Bryant in the seventh inning.

Brault would finish the game with 7 innings, just 2 hits and one run, and one walk to go with a career high 8 strikeouts while relying heavily on the fastball. Despite this, and outperforming Jon Lester who walked 5 batters through 7 innings, he would go on to lose his second game of the season.

The Pirates would go on to respond in the 7th with a pinch hit double by Adam Frazier. This would eventually be a moot point as the pirates would once again strand runners in scoring position without an answer.

To add fuel to the fire, a Diaz error on a pickoff attempt would push the score to 2-0 as the Cubs capitalized in the eighth, putting the game seemingly out of reach for the struggling Pirates club.

Going into tomorrow, the strong note is the team will have another chance to win a series. With Mitch Keller (1-1) at the helm facing Jose Quintana (10-7), the Pirates should have a good chance to win the series as they play in the Little League Classic, which will be broadcasted on ESPN at 7pm.