Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading Series Loss Against the Indians

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-