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Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading Series Loss Against the Indians
Another series is in the books… as is another series loss for the Pittsburgh Pirates who continue to be one of the worst teams in baseball
The 2020 season has been a miserable one for the Pittsburgh Pirates. That continued this week at PNC Park when the team welcomed the Cleveland Indians to town.
Playing the Indians for the first time this season, the Pittsburgh Pirates suffered yet another series loss. In fact, they were swept yet again. With the series loss, the Pirates are now 0-6 in series played this season. This, however, does not include their yet to finished series against the Cincinnati Reds. That series saw each team win a game before a Cincinnati player testing positive for the coronavirus led to the last two games of the series being postponed.
While the series against the Indians was another painful one for the Bucs, there were some positives to come out of it. Of course, there were plenty of negatives that came out of the series loss as well.
As we do throughout the season here at Rum Bunter, we will now dish out grades for the Pirates’ series against the Indians. We will grade the performance of the Pirate starting rotation, bullpen and offense in the series loss. As always, we will begin with the starting rotation.
The Starting Rotation
Game one of the series saw JT Bruabker make his second career start. In what was treated as a piggyback start, with Derek Holland coming in for 2 innings behind Brubaker, the young righty struggled. Brubaker allowed 3 runs on three hits, he walked three and struck just one. Additionally, two of the three hits he allowed were doubles.
Steven Brault started the second game of the series and was brilliant. After walking Cesar Hernadez to start the game, Brault would allow just one base runner until the 5th inning when he allowed his first hit of the outing.
With runners on the corners and no one out in the 5th inning, Brault cleaned things up with a 1-3 line out double play that, admittedly, did feature some good luck. It was also a great play in the field by Brault. When his night ended, the lefty had pitched 5 scoreless innings, allowing just those two hits in the 5th inning, issuing one walk and striking out three.
Thursday night Trevor Williams held the Indians to just 1 run on six hits, two walks and five strikeouts. The problem is, due to pitch count, he only lasted 4 innings. That’s something he will need to improve moving forward.
The Verdict
As has been the case for much of the season, the Pirate starters were not bad against the Indians, but they did not pitch as well as you would like, either. A 3.00 ERA for the series is strong, but it came in just 12 innings of work. Failing to work more innings in the series hurts the grade the starting staff of the Pittsburgh Pirates receives for their work against the Indians.
Grade: B-
The Bullpen
The bullpen continues to be an absolute roller coaster ride for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Tuesday night, all in all, was not a bad night for the Pirate bullpen. Derek Holland pitched 2 scoreless innings in relief of Brubaker, Chris Stratton, Nik Turley, Richard Rodriguez, and Keone Kela would each follow with a scorless inning of their own.
While Sam Howard allowed a game-winning 3-run home run in the 10th inning, one of the two runners on base was there due to the new extra inning rule. So, it was not a runner Howard put on base. Furthermore, the home run appeared to go foul, but even after a lengthy review, it was still ruled fair.
Overall, any time your bullpen needs to cover 7 innings and they allowed just 2 earned runs you will gladly take it.
Game two was a different story for the bullpen. Following Brault 5 dazzling innings, Dovydas Neverauskas proceeded to allow a 3-run home run in the 6th inning. Tyler Bashlor also got tagged for 3 runs, and Geoff Hartlieb had some struggles with control. When the dust settled, the Pirate bullpen had allowed 6 earned runs on three hits, seven walks, a home run, and a hit batter in just 4 innings of work.
In game three, the bullpen performed well again. Howard bounced back with a 1-2-3 inning, and fellow lefty Brandon Waddell fired 2 scoreless innings of his own. Stratton allowed an unearned run due to a Josh Bell error in his lone inning of work, then Turley fired a 1-2-3 9th inning. Overall, good stuff from the bullpen.
The Verdict
Two good nights for the bullpen outweighs one bad night. That one bad night, however, costs the bullpen a better grade for the series.
Grade: B
The Offense
Offense continues to be a major, major issue for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The team scored 3 runs in game one, 1 run in game two and then they were shut out in game three. When you average just a tick over 1 run per game for a series, that is bad, folks!
The one bright spot in the series offensively for the Bucs was Kevin Newman. In the series, Newman was 6-for-11 with two walks and a double. After a slow start to the season, Newman is now hitting for a .292/.329/.375 slash line this season. While you want to see more power from Newman, it is good to see him rediscovering the stroke he had when he was one of the best rookie hitter in the National League in 2019.
Examining What Has Gotten Richard Rodriguez Back on Track. dark. Next
The Verdict
We continue to beat this dead horse, but the offense must be better for the Pittsburgh Pirates. While Newman has finally started to heat up at the plate, Adam Frazier, Bryan Reynolds, Josh Bell, and Gregory Polanco all continue to struggle. Outside of an increase in power, Colin Moran has regressed this season as well. Outside of Newman and Erik Gonzalez, every Pirate batter has regressed from 2019. That is alarming.
Grade: F