Pirates made the worst kind of history with back-to-back ninth inning disasters in Colorado

Losing back-to-back games to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field is bad enough. Losing them the way the Pittsburgh Pirates did is the kind of thing that lingers.

The Pirates dropped the first two games of their series in Colorado by one run apiece, falling 4-3 on Friday and 2-1 on Saturday. In both games, they had the tying run on third base with nobody out in the ninth inning. In both games, they failed to bring that run home.

According to OptaSTATS, Pittsburgh became the first MLB team in more than 50 years to have the tying run on third with no outs in the ninth inning in consecutive games and lose both. That's the worst kind of history.

The frustrating part is that the Pirates had enough pitching to win both games. Bubba Chandler gave them six innings of two-run ball in the series opener, and Paul Skenes followed with six innings and two earned runs of his own in Game 2. At Coors Field, that should be more than enough to at least give a team a real chance.

But the offense simply couldn't finish the job.

Pirates keep finding new, more painful ways to lose Paul Skenes starts

In the opener, the Pirates actually looked like they had stolen one. After trailing 2-0, they scored three runs in the eighth behind back-to-back doubles from Esmerlyn Valdez and Jared Triolo, a pinch-hit RBI single from Bryan Reynolds and an RBI triple from Nick Gonzales. But Mason Montgomery gave the lead right back in the bottom half, allowing two runs as Colorado went back ahead, 4-3.

The Pirates still loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth. Then Tyler Callihan struck out, and Triolo grounded into a game-ending double play.

One night later, they somehow found an even more painful way to lose. Brandon Lowe opened the ninth with a double, and Reynolds followed with a single to put runners on the corners with no outs. Ryan O’Hearn struck out, Gonzales was hit by a pitch and the bases were loaded.

Callihan struck out again. Then Jake Mangum’s grounder looked like it might tie the game when Kyle Karros struggled to get the ball out of his glove. Instead, Billy Cook was called for interference after replay showed his cleat clipped Karros’ glove. Game over.

The Pirates narrowly avoided a sweep with an 8-6 win on Sunday. But for a team trying to prove it deserves real investment and serious belief, these are brutal losses. Good teams punish bad teams when they leave the door open. The Pirates walked through it twice, then tripped over themselves before reaching home.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow