Pittsburgh Pirates: Takeaways From Frustrating Series Split in St. Louis

Wasted opportunities sink the Bucs

The two games the Pirates lost in this series were two games they easily could have won. Each game had a common theme - wasted opportunities by the Pirate offense.

Friday night's 3-0 loss saw the Pirates go 1-for-7 at the plate with runners in scoring position. The one hit they had was a base hit to right field by Mark Mathias, a base hit that ended with Canaan Smith-Njigba being thrown out at the plate. They ledt 8 runners on base in the loss.

Sunday afternoon was much of the same. Pittsburgh batters went a woeful 1-for-10 at the plate with RISP. This included a gold opportunity in the 7th inning with the game tied at 3 and bases load with just one out where they failed to score. 9 men were left on base in that loss.

Facing a team like the Cardinals you need to pounce when scoring chances present themselves. The Pirates failed to do this in both losses in this series, and that was a major factor in the team having to settle for a series split in a series they should have won.