Pittsburgh Pirates Drop Game One of Three in Kansas City

Friday night in Kansas City the Pittsburgh Pirates kicked off a three-game weekend series against the Royals with a hard fought loss

On Friday, we saw the Pittsburgh Pirates kicked off a three-game tilt against the Kansas City Royals. The Buccos faced the 23-year-old lefty Kris Bubic. Bubic came into this game struggling at 0-5 with a high ERA. The Pirates sent out fellow lefty Steven Brault, someone who too was struggling as of late.

The battle of the lefties ultimately went to the Royals by a score of 4-3. With the loss, the Pittsburgh Pirates fell to 14-28 on the season. Now, let’s dive into Friday night’s action from Kansas City.

The 1st inning for Brault did him no favors. The second batter of the game, Adalberto Modesi, hit a solo home run to gieve the Royals a quick lead. What really hurt Brault tonight was that dreaded pitch count. This seems to be a recurring theme in this starting rotation. When you can’t get past the 5th inning, or, in Braults’s case, the 4th inning, you will run into some issues.

In 4 innings of work, Brault allowed 3 runs on five hits, three walks, the Modesi home run, and four strikeouts. This outing, like many of the outings this season from the starting rotation of the Pittsburgh Pirates, was not a bright spot in this weird and uncertain year. I will keep harping on this till the cows come home, you can’t throw close to 100 pitches before you get to the 5th inning. It will come back to haunt you and, more importantly, your bullpen.

Speaking of the bullpen, they had an overall solid night on Firday. Between Dovydas Neverauskas, Chris Stratton, Nik Turley, and Geoff Hartlieb, they pitched 6 innings giving up just two hits and a run. The bullpen this year, after a very shaky start, is starting to become a bright spot on a rather dismal year for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The offense showed a little bit of promise Friday night. They collected seven hits with youngster Ke’Bryan Hayes and first baseman Josh Bell accounting for five of the seven hits. Bell launched a 2-run home run in the loss. This home run was his 5th of the season.

In such a tough year for the Pirates it has been a lot of fun to watch Hayes do his thing at the plate and in the field. I’m not saying he’s a superstar or anything like that just yet, but he damn sure is showing he belongs right now. In addition to his two hits, he also made a terrific running bare handed play at third base.

Unfortunately, the Pirates lost their 28th game of the year tonight 4-3 against the Royals. I will say this for such a bad outing from Brault; it could have been 10 times worse. I’m reminded by a phrase my father told me often, “Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.” Well, today, the bear got Brault and these Buccos. Although, Brault did a nice job of not letting things unravel further.

Saturday night, we will see if the Pirates can force a rubber match. Trevor Williams (5.80 ERA, 5.85 DRA) will make the start for the Bucs, while Carlos Hernandez will make his first career start for the Royals in just his third career outing. First pitch from Kauffman Stadium is scheduled for 7:05.