Pittsburgh Pirates: José Quintana Struggles in Loss Against the Tigers

A poor 4th inning played a large role in the Pittsburgh Pirates falling to the Detroit Tigers 5-3 on Tuesday night at PNC Park

Entering Tuesday night the Pittsburgh Pirates were winners of 8 of their last 12 games. Welcoming the lowly Detroit Tigers to PNC Park it appeared to be a great opportunity for the Pirates to keep their strong playing go.

Unfortunately, that would not be the case. A combination of a poor 4th inning, as well as a late inning defensive and base runner miscue led to the Pittsburgh Pirates falling to the Detroit Tigers 5-3 on Tuesday night. With the loss, the Pirates are now 24-29 on the season.

Detroit starter Tarik Skubal also deserves a ton of credit for the Detroit victory. It was clear early on that he was locked in on Tuesday night. Skubal pithed 7 innings, striking out 9 Pirate batters and he did not issue a walk.

José Quintana struggles

Early on it looked like José Quintana was locked in and on his way to turning in another strong start. However, with the game tied at 1 in the 4th inning things fell apart for the veteran lefty. This led to Quintana allowing 4 runs on 8 hits in 3.1 innings pitched.

Missed location leading to hard contact proved to be Quintana’s undoing in the 4th inning. The Tigers hit four balls of off Quintana that had an exit velocity of 96.3 MPH or higher in the inning, including three that were over 103 MPH.

The second time through the lineup Tiger hitters made adjustments and were able to get ot Quintana. For that ,they deserve credit as that is something that few teams have been able to do against Quintana this season.

Cal Mitchell continues to impress with the bat

A recent part of the youth movement of the Pittsburgh Pirates has been outfielder Cal Mitchell. In Sunday afternoon’s victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks the left-handed hitting Mitchell slugged his 1st MLB home run.

Facing one of the best young lefties in baseball in Skubal on Tuesday night, Mitchell did not slow down at all.

In his first trip to the plate Mitchell smoked a 106.9 MPH single to center field in the 2nd inning. He then came around to score on a bloop double by Yu Chang. Mitchell’s second trip to the plate saw him launch a Skubal pitch over the Clemente Wall with an effortless swing for his 2nd career home run, cutting the Tiger lead to 4-3 after 4 innings.

Prior to Mitchell’s home run Skubal had faced 182 left-handed batters in his MLB career. Skubal had allowed just 2 home runs to these 182 left-handed hitters. Mitchell and Jack Suwinski, who got on base twice in the game including ahead of Mitchell’s home run, continue to push for consistent playing time in the Pirate outfield.

8th inning miscues hurt the Pirates

After Quintana exited the game the Pirate bullpen did an excellent job. Tyler Beede pitched 2.1 scoreless innings of relief before Anthony Banda recorded the final out of the 6th inning. Duane Underwood Jr. looked good in 2 innings of relief, and Yerry De Los Santos pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning.

However, in the top half of the 8th inning the Pirate defense would let Underwood Jr. down. It was an all around ugly inning as following a Tiger base running blunder they had a runner on first and two outs.

Tucker Barnhart then hit a ball to right field that appeared to be an easy final out, but Mitchell misread the ball in right field. This led to the ball dropping in front of Mitchell before getting past him. While Mitchell recovered and got the ball in quick enough to have an opportunity to throw the runner out at the plate, a terrible throw home by Chang took away that opportunity.

In the bottom half of the inning Ke’Bryan Hayes drew a walk to start the inning. Bryan Reynolds then hit a line drive that was caught by Detroit second baseman Jonathan Schoop. Hayes misread the ball, got too far off the bag and the play resulted in a 4-3 double play.

The finale of this brief two-game series will see Mitch Keller (5.77 ERA, 4.81 FIP) toe the rubber for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Alex Faedo (3.09 ERA, 3.98 FIP) is scheduled to start for Detroit. First pitch from PNC Park is scheduled for 12:35 PM ET.