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Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading the Series Loss at Wrigley Field
Following a series loss at Wrigley Field, it is time to dish out grades for the performance of the starting rotation, bullpen and offense for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the series
The Pittsburgh Pirates have now played three series in their abbreviated 60-game 2020 season. Well, following a series sweep to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, the Pirates are now 0-3 in series played this season. Worst of all, all three of these series have come against National League Central foes.
Any time a team starts a season with three series losses that is troublesome. In a season that is just 60 games, that kind of a start can prove to be a killer. Even though the Pittsburgh Pirates are not in a position to contend this season, that is still not the start you want to see. Additionally, the series against the Cubs was a tough one both in terms of on field performance and on the injury front.
As we will do throughout the season here at Rum Bunter, it is now time to dish out some grades for the series. We will grade the performance of the starting rotation, bullpen and offense for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the series loss against the Cubs. All of that said, let’s dive in with the starting rotation.
The Starting Rotation
Trevor Williams kicked the series off for the Pittsburgh Pirates when he toed the rubber on Friday night. For the second time in as many starts this season Williams failed to go 5 innings. Williams allowed 3 runs, 2 earned, on four hits, three walks, a home run, and six strikeouts in 4.2 innings of work. The unearned run he allowed was due to an error he committed.
Williams needs to better moving forward. He has struggled with control in his first two starts and failed to go deep enough into games. His swing-and-miss rate is up from 2019, though, which is a promising sign.
Saturday night Mitch Keller took the mound and exited in the 4th inning due to injury. Prior to getting hurt, he was struggling with control, had allowed a pair of solo home runs and was failing to generate swings-and-misses. None of which is good to see.
Sunday afternoon the second take at piggybacking was going even better than the first one did. Steven Brault pitched 3 perfect innings to start the game, and Chad Kuhl followed with a perfect 4th inning. Then in the 5th inning Kuhl allowed a run, even though it was not completely on him as Willson Contreras should have been out twice before scoring but Pirate defensive blunders kept him on the base paths, before exiting with a finger issue.
With Keller and Kuhl banged up, it will be interesting to see what happens with the Pirate starting rotation moving forward.
The Verdict
It is difficult to completely grade out the starting rotation due to Keller exited his start early with his injury. That said, Williams needs to pitch better and Keller was failing to generate swings-and-misses before exiting his start. Brault and Kuhl pitched well Sunday, but it was not enough to make the rotation’s performance over the weekend anything more than average.
Grade: C
The Bullpen
It was much of the same for the Pirate bullpen against the Cubs. Outside of a few relievers, the bullpen was a disaster.
Friday night, Nik Turley, Dovydas Neverauskas and Miguel Del Pozo combined to allow 3 runs on four hits, two walks, a strikeout, and they failed to strand inherited runners. Geoff Hartlieb, however, continued his strong start to the season by pitching 1.1 scoreless innings.
After Keller exited Saturday night’s game, Chris Stratton pitched 1.1 scoreless innings of work JT Brubaker pitched 3 scoreless inning. Stratton and Brubaker have now combined to allow just 2 runs in 8.2 innings of work this season, and both of those runs were runners Stratton put on base but Del Pozo failed to strand in the Milwaukee series.
Then in the 9th inning, Michael Feliz issued a walk, allowed a home run and surrendered another hit before exiting with injury. Feliz, somehow, now owns a 32.40 ERA and a 13.89 FIP This season.
For as much as the bullpen struggled on Friday and Saturday, it was excellent on Sunday. Geoff Hartlieb inherited a runner with just one out in the 5th inning and got the final two outs to strand him. Neverauskas, Turley and Richard Rodriguez all pitched a scoreless inning. In his debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Sam Howard pitched a scoreless 9th and 10th inning, this included escaping a runners on the corners with no one out jam in the 10th.
Making his MLB debut, Cody Ponce only got one out in the 11th inning before allowing a walk off single to Javier Baez. However, Anthony Rizzo should have been intentionally walked to start the inning. Had this been done, Baez’s ball may have ended up a 6-4-3 double play.
The Verdict
The bullpen was bad on Friday and Saturday night. They were then excellent on Sunday afternoon. However, two bad games outweighs one excellent one.
Grade: C-
The Pirate Offense
In 29 innings this weekend the Pittsburgh Pirates scored 7 runs. That is an average of 0.2 runs per inning. Not good!
While the bullpen struggled, the main reason the Pittsburgh Pirates were swept by the Cubs was due to the offense. Not only did they scored just 7 runs, this included solo home runs by Josh Bell and Colin Moran in the 9th inning on Friday and a 2-run shot by Moran in the 9th on Saturday night. Those two nights they entered they 9th inning trailing 6-1 and 4-0, so one could argue those were nothing short of garbage time home runs.
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The Verdict
The Pirate offense must be better. Period.
Right now, the Pirates are one of the worst offensive teams in MLB. This is a major concern, especially with the amount of hitters struggling. Outside of Moran and Phillip Evans, no one is swinging a hit bat for the Pirates right now. Until this improves, the team will only continued to lose games.
Grade: F