Pittsburgh Pirates Swept by Los Angeles Dodgers as Slide Continues

Two late rallies fall short

While the Pittsburgh Pirates were swept in this series they came close to a series victory. Monday night the Pirates saw a 9th inning rally that was sparked by a Yoshi Tsutsugo come just short in a 2-1 loss. Then on Tuesday night, another Tsutsugo double sparked a 9th inning rally once again. While the Pirates did manage to score in the 9th inning on Tuesday night, their rally still fell short as they once again left the tying run in scoring position in a 1 run loss.

Tuesday night’s loss also feature some tough luck for the Pirates. The first 2 runs the Dodgers scored came on a softly hit bloop hit into shallow center field. They then took the lead on a Matt Beaty double that just snuck between Tsutsugo’s glove and the first base plane, just barely staying fair.

But as they say close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. The Pittsburgh Pirates were playing with neither of those things in this series. So hanging close to the Dodgers in the first two games of the series did nothing for them.

Hitting with runners in scoring position has been a problem for the Pirates all season. This continued as they were swept by the Dodgers. These problems were especially true in the first two games of the series when they suffered tough 1 run losses.