Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading Series Victory Over the Chicago Cubs

In their penultimate series of the 2020 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates have *finally* won their second series of the season. Now, let’s hand out some grades for their series victory over the Chicago Cubs

The 2020 season is almost over for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Depending on how you view things, you may say this is a good thing or a bad thing. While no one ever wants to see their favorite baseabll team’s season end, the Pirates currently have the worst record in baseball. So, some fans may not be sad to see the season end.

All of that said, the Pittsburgh Pirates are currently playing some of the best baseball they have all season. In their final home series of the season, the Bucs took three of four games from the Chicago Cubs. This gives the team just their second series victory of the season, making the team just 2-12-1 in series played this season.

While, overall, the 2020 season has been a disaster for the Pirates, there were some positives. We saw a lot of those positives shine through in their series victory over the Cubs. Now, as we have done all season, let’s hand out some grades for this series. We will start by grading the performance of the Pirate starting rotation.

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+

Grading Out The Pirate Bullpen

Things started poorly for the Pittsburgh Pirates and their bullpen against the Cubs. In game one, Austin Davis allowed a run in his inning of work. This, however, came after he got the final out of the 7th inning and stranded the runner he inheirted from Brubaker.

Blake Cederlind then entered the game for his second MLB outing and failed to retire a batter. In the process, Cederlind allowed three hits, walked a pair and surrendered 2 runs. Additionally, the run Daivs was charged with was an inherited runner Cederlind failed to strand.

Nick Tropeano would retire the final four Cub batters of the night. This included a strikeout.

The struggles continued for the bullpen in the second game of the series. Chris Stratton allowed a two-out single in the 8th inning and was lifted for Sam Howard. With the Pittsburgh Pirates leading 2-0, Howard allowed a 2-run home run to Anthony Rizzo. Richard Rodriguez then pitched a scoreless 9th inning before the Pirates walked it off with a Jacob Stallings in the bottom half of the inning.

The rest of the series, the Pirate bullpen was terrific. In 5.1 innings pitched in the rest of the series, Pirate relievers allowed just two hits, they issued two walks, struck out eight, and did not allow a run. This included 3.1 scoreless innings of work in a close knit 2-1 victory in game three.

The Verdict

Outside of Cederlind in game one and Howard in game two, the Pirate bullpen had a strong series. However, Cederlind’s meltdown let game one get out of hand and Howard’s struggles nearly cost the team game two. This is why the grade for the series isn’t a bit higher.

Grade: B