Pittsburgh Pirates: A Great Series For The Bullpen & Other Takeaways From Series Victory In San Fran

The bullpen was excellent

Throughout the 2019 season the Pirate bullpen has been inconsistent. This is despite the ‘pen being filled with electric arms such as Felipe Vazquez, Keone Kela, Michael Feliz, and Richard Rodriguez. Well, against the Giants the bullpen flashed their potential.

The bullpen was asked to pitch 15 1/3 innings against the Giants. In those 15 1/3 innings of work the ‘pen allowed just 2 runs. This included Feliz stranded three of the four runners he inherited during the series.

September call up Yacksel Rios was the pitcher who allowed runs out of the bullpen. Both runs the Giants scored in Thursday afternoon’s 4-2 Pirate victory came off of Rios in the 6th inning. Otherwise, the bullpen was lights out. However, it was not all bad for Rios in the series as he pitched a 1-2-3 7th inning on Monday night.

A huge reason the Pirates took three of four was the differences in the bullpens. While the Pirate ‘pen was excellent, San Francisco relievers allowed 10 runs in 15 innings of work. This included the San Fran bullpen blowing a lead in Monday night’s Pirate victory. They also did their best to blow a late lead in the lone Pirate loss of the series on Tuesday night.

A strong finish to the season for the Pirate bullpen would be great to see. The aforementioned Vazquez, Kela, Feliz, and Rodriguez, as well as Edgar Santana who will return from Tommy John Surgery in 2020 give the Pirates one of the best bullpen cores in the National League.