Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading the Season Opening Series in St. Louis

The Bullpen

Well… it was an interesting series for the Pirate bullpen.

Friday night Clay Holmes came in for Musgrove with two outs in the 6th inning and a runner in scoring position. Holmes gave up a bloop single to Yadier Molina which allowed a run to score, before getting the final out of the inning. He then pitched a scoreless 7th inning.

In the 8th inning, however, Richard Rodriguez would cost the Pittsburgh Pirates a game. He allowed a two-run home run to Paul DeJong, and this home run proved to be the winning hit for the Cardinals in their 5-4 victory.

As Holmes did the night before, Chris Stratton took over with RISP on Saturday afternoon. He got the final out of the 4th inning, stranding the runners, and pitched a scoreless 5th. After Nik Turley fired a 1-2-3 6th inning in his first time on a MLB mound since 2017, the wheels then started to come off.

Kyle Crick walked a pair and made a pair of defensive miscues on his way to allowing 4 runs in 2/3 of an inning. Robbie Erlin pitched the 1.1 innings of the game, allowing 2 more runs.

Then on Sunday, the bullpen was excellent. Making his MLB debut, JT Bruabker struck out four in 2 scoreless innings of work. Michael Feliz worked a 1-2-3 8th inning and Nick Burdi struck out the side in order in the 9th.

The Verdict

This is likely to be far from the final up-and-down series for the bullpen in 2020. While the ‘pen has some very talent arms such as Holmes, Burbaker and Burdi, guys such as Stratton and Feliz still need to prove they’ve overcome their inconsistencies of the past. Rodriguez, Crick and Erlin all struggled after also struggling last season, and just saying the name Dovydas Neverauskas puts fear into Pirate fans for a reason.

While the Pirate bullpen as a whole pitched well against the Cards, Rodriguez’s poor performance Friday night costing them the win and Saturday’s multi-pitcher meltdown making the game get out of hand weight down the overall grade.

Grade: B-