Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading the Series Loss in Milwaukee

Following a trip to the long standing house of horrors that is Miller Park, the Pittsburgh Pirates have suffered yet another series loss and are now just 10-22 on the season

The Pittsburgh Pirates played the rare wrap around four-game series in Milwaukee this past weekend and leading into Monday evening. Unfortunately, following a 6-5 loss on Monday night, the Pirates suffered yet another series loss.

With the loss, the Pittsburgh Pirates are now just 10-22 on the season. This includes being just 2-8-1 in series played this season. However, they will finish the 2020 season with a 5-5 record against the Brew Crew.

In the series loss there was both some good and bad for the Pirates. But, as you would expect in a series that ended in a series loss, the bad outweighed the good for the Bucs. Now, let’s get into recapping all of that.

As we have been doing throughout the season, it is now time to hand out grades for the series the Pittsburgh Pirates played in Milwaukee. As always, we will grade the performance of the Pirates’ starting pitchers, relievers and offense in the series. Now, let’s dive into it starting with the team’s starting pitchers.

The Bullpen

It was a rough weekend for the Pirate bullpen.

While Sam Howard retired the lone batter he faced and Dovydas Neverauskas pitched a scoreless 8th inning, Nick Mears allowed a solo home run in 1.2 innings of work Friday night.

Saturday night, three of the four Pirate relievers who pitched allowed a run. This included Richard Rodriguez allowing a walk-off two-run home run while blowing a save in the bottom of the 9th inning.

Sunday was the lone good day for the Pirate bullpen. Led by 2.2 scoreless innings from Nick Tropeano, Bucco relievers logged 6 scoreless innings.

Monday night the struggled continued as Nik Turley allowed a lead off doubled in the 8th inning of a tie game, and then Chris Stratton failed to strand this runner. This proved to be the winning run for the Brewers.

Overall, the Pirate bullpen allowed 7 earned runs on 11 hits, eight hits, three home runs, and 15 strike outs in 16+ innings of work. That comes out to a 4.86 ERA. Not horrible, but not good, either. Worst of all, in two of the three losses in the series the bullpen inherited either a lead or a tie game and blew it.

The Verdict

So far this season, the bullpen has caught a lot of flack for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Some of it has been warranted, some of it has not. That said, it was not a good weekend for the Bucco relievers in Milwaukee. If not for 6 scoreless innings in Sunday’s victory, this grade would be even worse.

Grade: C-

The Pirate Offense

Kicking off the series the Pittsburgh Pirates scored just 1 run on Friday night. The rest of the series, Bucco batters would come ready to hit the ball.

The Pittsburgh Pirates scored 6 runs in a loss on Saturday night, 5 wins in a victory on Sunday afternoon and 5 wins again in a loss on Monday night. In the series, the Pirates hit five home runs, four doubles and a triple.

Furthermore, in the series Josh Bell appeared to be getting it going at the plate. Also, Erik Gonzalez had a big series to get back on track after struggling in recent weeks. It was also good to see Colin Moran draw a pair of walks in his return from the concussion IL on Monday night, and Cole Tucker keeps hitting, too.

The Verdict

All in all, it was a good series for the Pirate offense. Three good games outweigh one bad one. Due to this, it is a positive grade for the offense of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the series.

Grade: B