Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading Series Loss Against the Indians

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