Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading the Series Loss in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - SEPTEMBER 11: Adalberto Mondesi #27 of the Kansas City Royals rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run during the 1st inning of the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Kauffman Stadium on September 11, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - SEPTEMBER 11: Adalberto Mondesi #27 of the Kansas City Royals rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run during the 1st inning of the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Kauffman Stadium on September 11, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – SEPTEMBER 12: Adam Frazier #26 of the Pittsburgh Pirates celebrates his home run in the third inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on September 12, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – SEPTEMBER 12: Adam Frazier #26 of the Pittsburgh Pirates celebrates his home run in the third inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on September 12, 2020 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) /

Grading Bucco Bats

The first two games of the series the Pittsburgh Pirates did ok offensively. Friday night the team scored 3 runs while collecting seven hits, two of them for extra bases. This included a 2-run home run by Josh Bell.

Saturday night, the Pirates scored 4 runs. This time, the team collected eight hits and clubbed three home runs. They were solo home runs by Bell, Bryan Reynolds and Adam Frazier. Erik Gonzalez added a double.

Sunday afternoon, however, the offense vanished. In the 11-0 blowout loss, the Pittsburgh Pirates collected just five hits. Of their fives hits, four were singles. In the loss, the team only had two runners reach scoring position.

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The Verdict

Sunday afternoon the offense was awful. Flat out awful. While the team did score a combined 7 runs in the first two games of the series, they also went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base. When you lose a pair of close games, failures to come through in the cluth with RISP can be a killer. That combined with a woeful performance on Sunday gives the offense a poor overall grade for the weekend.

Grade: C