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.

Starting Pitchers

Friday night Derek Holland made what appeared to be his final start for the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, after struggling, the trade deadline has come and gone and he is still in Pittsburgh. While Holland struck out a season-high eight batters on Friday night, he walked four, allowed three home runs, gave up six hits, and was charged with 8 runs in 5 innings pitched.

Saturday night, JT Brubaker allowed just 2 runs on three hits, three walks, a home run, and six strikeouts. However, he lasted just 5 innings. You want to see a deeper start than that from your starter.

Speaking of starts that are not deep, despite not allowing an earned run, Steven Brault went just 3 innings on Sunday afternoon. Brault walked just one and struck out five, but pitch count got him into trouble.

Just 3 of the 5 runs that Trevor Williams allowed on Monday night were earned, but, overall, he pitched poorly. Williams surrendered seven hits, a home run and issued two walks in 4+ innings of work. After allowing a home run to start the 5th inning, his night came to an end.

The Verdict 

A horrendous start sunk the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night, and a poor one put them behind the eight-ball on Monday. Sandwiched in between, the team got two strong starts in terms of runs allowed. However, these two starts were too short. This hurts the overall grade for the rotation in the series.

Grade: C-

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-