Pittsburgh Pirates: More Bullpen Struggles, Other Takeaways From Third Straight Sweep

The bullpen continues to struggle, putrid offense, and more takeaways from the Pittsburgh Pirates being swept in a third straight series

Following a strong start to the season. Not just a strong start, a start that saw the Pittsburgh Pirates own the best record in the National League at the end of April, it apears that the clock has struck midnight.

Although, this version of the clock striking midnight is a bit different. After all, general manager Ben Cherington has done almost nothing to prevent that. Yes, he promoted former no. 1 overall pick Henry Davis, but, even though the team was in dire need of an offensive boost for weeks, Cherington waited until they were below .500 2.5 games out of first in the NL Central to promote him.

The latest woes of the Pirates continued in their brief three-game homestand as they were swept by the Chicago Cubs. This marked the second time in a week the Pirates were swept by the Cubs, falling to 0-6 on the season against their divison rivals.

With the loss, the Pirates have now been swept in three straight series suffering nine straight losses. All of these losses have come against NL Central opponent. Pittsburgh is now 34-39 on the season, a season-high five games below .500, 10-11-1 in series played, and they have plummeted to fourth place in the NL Central.

Before we begin to look ahead to what will be a challenging series in Miami against a surging Marling club, let's take one more look back at the team's latest poor series. Here are series takeaways from the Pirates being swept by the Cubs.

An awful series for the offense

While the Pirates were shutout in game one of the series, the offense had opportunities to score. They laoded the bases in both the 3rd and 5th innings but failed to score each time. Had they managed to score in these innings the game could have gone much differently.

Pittsburgh batters finished game one of the series 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base.

Game two saw almost no offense from the Pirates. Ke'Bryan Hayes and Connor Joe each had two hits. Tucupita Marcano doubled, and that was it for Pirate hits. Ji Hwan Bae drew a walk, and the team went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position while leaving six runners on base.

To make matters worse for a struggling Pirate offense Bryan Reynolds is dealing with some sort of lower back issue. This kept him out of the lineup in games two and three of the series. While Derek Shelton is adament Reynolds will not go on the injured list, the fact a reliever was optioned in the middle of a 13 games in 13 days stretch for another outfielder certainly indicates worry that Reynolds will land on the IL.

Wednesday afternoon the Pirate offense exploded for 3 runs on two hits.

Josh Palacios doubled Connor Joe home with no one out in the 2nd inning, but the next three Pirate batters were retired. Their second hit of the game, Henry Davis being hit by a pitch, and a walk loaded the bases with just one out in the 7th inning. Had it not been for an error by Trey Mancini, the Pirates would not have scored.

Overall, the Pirate offense went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position in Wednesday's loss and left six men on base. For the series, they were 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position and left 22 men on base. Not a recipe for success.

Young starting pitchers pitch well

One positive to come out of the series was the way the young starters for the Pirates threw the ball. Regardless of where the rest of this season goes you want to see young arms pitch well, and that's what the Pirates saw from their starting rotation.

Osvaldo Bido made his second career start, and second against the Cubs, in the series opener. Other than struggling in the 2nd inning when he had to pitch during a driving rainstorm, Bido turned in a strong start.

The righty pitched 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on five hits, two walks, and no home runs. He flashed good stuff with the ability to generate swing-and-miss while striking out seven. Bido now owns a 3.60 ERA, 2.48 FIP, 11.1% walk rate, and a 28.9% strikeout rate in his two starts this season. With the Pirates in desperate need of starting pitching help, Bido has provided that through his two starts.

25-year-old righty Johan Oviedo started game two and turned in another strong start. In 6 innings pitched he allowed just 2 runs. Oviedo allowed five hits, a solo home run, did not walk a batter, and struck out three. He made big pitched when he needed to and was able to pitch out of the two jams he found himself in.

Halfway through his first full MLB season, Oviedo has pitched 81.2 innings in 15 starts. Oviedo owns a 4.30 ERA, 3.89 FIP, 0.66 HR/9, 9.5% walk rate, and a 20.2% strikeout rate. Those numbers are somewhat inflated as 33% of the earned runs he's allowed this season (13 of 39) came in back-to-back starts in late April/early May. Oviedo's ERA in his other 13 starts is 3.16. The development and growth of Oviedo has been one of the biggest positives for the Pirates this season.

A noncompetitive series

Arguably the worst takeaway from this series for the Pirates was that the team was not even competitive. They weren't just swept, they got swept without even competing with the Cubs in this series.

Pittsburgh was outscored 20-3 in the series and outhit 25-12. The Cubs had three home runs and 11 extra base hits to the Pirates zero home runs and four extra base hits. A disheartening, noncompetitive series.

What may have been most disheartening is that this was a series in which the Pirates should have come out swinging with their backs against the wall. Instead, they laid down and died without even a fight or a whimper. That does not reflect well on the culture built from Ben Cherington on down.