Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading Series Victory Over the Chicago Cubs

Pirate Starting Pitchers

This was the best series of the season for the starting pitchers of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pirate starting pitchers logged 26.1 innings. In these 26.1 innings pitched, they allowed just 3 runs on 11 hits, one home run, 10 walks, and 24 strikeouts.

JT Brubaker set the tone in Monday’s opener by allowed just 2 runs while stirking out nine in 6.2 innings pitched. While this was the lone loss of the series for the Pirates, it was not due to Brubaker who turned in arguably the best start of his young MLB career.

Tuesday night, Steven Brualt put a bow on his career season. He did not allow a hit until the 5th inning, and went on to pitch 7 innings scoreless innings. Brault finished his 2020 campaing on a 17 innings scoreless streak, this includes a complete shutout and then Tuesday night’s masterpiece in his final two starts.

Trevor Williams was next up. Although his 2020 season was a brutal one and he is very much a non-tender candidate, he held the Cubs to just 1 run, a solo home run, in 5.2 innings pitched in game three.

The home finale on Thursday afternoon saw Chad Kuhl take the mound and turn in a dominant start. Kuhl took a no hitter into the 6th inning, and allowed just two hits in 7 scoreless innings of work. Kuhl finish the season with a 4.27 ERA and a 23% strikeout rate in 46.1 innings pitched. Considering Kuhl had not pitched in over two full calendar years, that is a roaring success.

The Verdict

As was said above, this was the best series of the season for Pirate starters. In two of the four games they did not allow a run, they did allowed 2 runs and 1 in the other two games, three of the four games saw the starter go at least 6.2 innings of work, and Williams made it into the 6th inning in the other game. When a team gets starting pitching that strong, you’re almost assuredly going to win the series.

Grade: A+