Pittsburgh Pirates: Pitching, Newcomers Struggle & More Takeaways From Series Loss Against Cleveland

Pitching struggles

To say Pirate pitching struggled in this series would be a huge understatement. Facing a struggling Guardian team, Pirate pitching proceeded to make Tito Franco's group look like the 1927 New York Yankees.

Rich Hill had, by far, the best start of the series, but still allowed 4 runs on eight hits, a walk, and a strikeout in 5.2 innings pitched. Outside of Hill, the team's starting pitching was absolutely atrocious in this series.

Game two saw Mitch Keller turn in his worst start of the season allowing 8 runs in 6 innings pitched, including Keller putting the Pirates in a 5-0 1st inning hole. The opening game of the series saw Quinn Priester make his first career start, and allow 7 earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched.

The Pirate bullpen struggled as well.

Yohan Ramirez allowed a run in 1.2 innings pitched in game one, Dauri Moreta allowed a run in the 8th inning, and Yerry De Los Santos allowed a run in the 9th. Ramirez allowed 2 more runs in game two, this time via a home run.

After being handed a 7-4 lead, Ryan Borucki immediately allowed a home run to Josh Bell to lead off the top of the 8th inning in game three. Thankfully, Colin Holderman and David Bednar were then able to close the door on a Pirate victory.

An all-around bad series for Pirate pitching.