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Pittsburgh Pirates: Grading Series Loss Against the Indians in 2020 Finale
By Marty Leap
Pirate Starting Pitchers
Mitch Keller started for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night and turned in one of the strangest outings you will ever see from a starting pitcher. In 5 innings pitched, Keller did not allow a hit. This made it back-to-back starts in which Keller did not allow a hit after pitching 6 no-hit innings in his previous outing.
Despite not allowing a hit, Keller did allow a run. This is because he walked eight batters and struck out just three. While not allowing a hit was great, you want to see much better control from Keller and for him to go deeper into games.
Saturday night Joe Musgrove took the ball for the Pirates and turned in arguably the best start of his MLB career. In 7 shutout innings, Musgrove allowed just three hits, walked one and struck out 10. After this dominant performance, Musgrove finished the 2020 season with a career-best ERA (3.86), FIP (3.42) and strikeout rate (33.1%). Look for Big Joe to be a hot commodity on the trade market this off-season.
JT Brubaker made the final start of what has been a successful rookie campaign on Sunday afternoon. Through the first 5 innings of his outing, he had allowed just a 2-run home run and he appeared to be one his way to another strong start.
Well, in the 6th inning Brubaker ran into trouble. After putting the first two runners of the inning on base, Brubaker surrendered a 3-run home run to Franmil Reyes. This cut the Pirate lead from 6-2 to 6-5 and ended Brubaker’s day.
When the dust settled, Brubaker had allowed 5 runs on seven hits, two walks, two home runs, and three strikeouts in 5+ innings of work. Outside of one poor start against the White Sox and the 6th inning on Sunday, Brubaker had a strong debut season for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He will likely enter spring training competing for a spot in the team’s starting rotation.
The Verdict
It was a weird weekend for Pirate starting pitchers. Keller did not allow a hit on Friday night, but due to control issues only went 5 innings and gave up a run. Musgrove was dominant, and Brubaker was sunk by one poor inning. All in all, each starting pitcher gave the team an opportunity to win and that’s what matters. But Keller’s short outing and Brubaker’s poor 6th inning cost the starters an ‘A’ for the weekend.
Grade: B