
The Pirate Bullpen
Despite suffering a loss, the bullpen gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a chance to come back on Friday night. Dovydas Neverauskas, Chris Stratton, Nik Turley, and Geoff Hartlieb combined to pitched 5 innings in relief of Brault. Those four allowed just 1 run on two hits, two walks and four strikeouts.
Saturday night, for the most part, things went well for the bullpen again.
Austin Davis was first up and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in his debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sam Howard retired the lone batter he faced, and Derek Holland pitched a scoreless 8th inning. However, Kyle Crick allowed two hits, walked a pair, was charged with a run, and failed to finish his inning of work.
Sunday afternoon the bullpen had a tall task in front them, and, for the most part, pitched well. Nick Tropeano pitched 2.2 innings, he allowed a run and struck out six. Neverauskas allowed a run in 2 innings of work, Richard Rodriguez struck out two of the three batters he faced and Davis retired the only batter he faced.
The Verdict
Against the Royals the Pirate bullpen was asked to log a lot of innings. In 12.2 innings of work, Pirate relievers allowed 4 runs. Any time you ask your bullpen to cover 12.2 innings in a series, you’ll settle for allowing just 4 runs.
Grade: B