Only the Pirates could turn what should have been a sweep into a series loss.
Well, ok, let’s be fair. It isn’t all of the Pirates.
Yesterday, Pittsburgh leaped out a 5-0 lead, sparked mostly by a grand slam from Bryan Reynolds in the bottom of the fourth.
It was an electric moment at PNC Park, and even though Jared Jones got into some trouble later on, the Pirates went into the late stages of the game with a two run lead in hand.
Hunter Stratton pitched a scoreless seventh, but in the eighth inning Aroldis Chapman came on and walked three straight batters to load the bases before recording a single out. He was lifted, officially pitching 0.0 innings and Colin Holderman was forced to come in and mitigate.
Having inherited a nightmare situation, Holderman impressed and only allowed one run, leaving the Pirates with a 5-4 lead.
That lead couldn’t hold when the Pirates sent him back out for the ninth, however, and San Francisco tied the game at 5-5 heading into extras.
Carmen Mlodzinski, who came on for the final out in the ninth, then proceeded to allow 4 earned runs in the top of the tenth inning, and the Pirates absolutely whiffed at any kind of comeback, dropping the game 9-5. An embarrassing loss, but ok, you can still pick up the series win.
History has a funny way of repeating itself. After an Andrew McCutchen solo shot kicked things off in the first inning, a Joey Bart grand slam put the Pirates up 5-1 in the bottom of the fourth.
The first grand slam of Bart’s major league career should have put the Pirates in a comfortable position, but then again, Reynolds’ should have yesterday as well.
Paul Skenes put together a beautiful day of work yet again. He pitched six innings and even though his strikeout numbers were way down, he allowed just a single run and the Pirates had a four run leading into the seventh.
The recently called up Jose Hernandez came on for the seventh inning, and allowed a solo home run that cut the lead to 5-2. After getting two outs, Hunter Stratton came on to get a quick third.
Even if you are of the mind that the Pirates needed to add some more run support late in the game yesterday, the same excuse could not be made today. Bryan Reynolds homered for the second time in as many games to restore the four run lead heading into the eighth.
Straton remained out there for the eighth, and a 6-2 lead was gone in the blink of an eye. Stratton allowed back to back singles to start the inning, and then gave up a three run homer to Matt Chapman to make it a one run game.
The Pirates were clinging to Reynolds’ homer, but Stratton had already fallen off the side of the cliff. He then allowed a double, followed by a groundball single to tie the game at 6.
All of this, meanwhile, took place with no outs. Stratton got one before he was lifted for Aroldis Chapman, who was looking for a rebound from a hellish night less than 24 hours ago.
Chapman inherited a runner from first, and on a wild pitch allowed pinch runner Marco Luciano to stroll to second base. In the same at bat, Chapman threw a fastball right down the middle, which was dropped by Bart and allowed Luciano to make it to third.
Chapman would strike out the batter at the plate, but on an 0-2 pitch against Brett Wisely, the noted genius hit a single to take the lead for the Giants.
David Bednar would pitch a scoreless ninth, but the rally effort fell short again, and the Pirates lost 7-6.
Per Elias Sports, official stats keepers of Major League Baseball, the Pirates became just the fourth team in history to hit a grand slam in back to back games and lose them both.
Their bullpen is solely to blame for a series that should have been a sweep and put the team just one game under .500. Per Jason Mackey, the Pirates’ bullpen has a collective 5.75 ERA in the month of May. That’s the worst figure in the National League and third worst in Major League Baseball.
Colin Holderman is the only reliever with a sub-3.00 ERA on the season (0.60). After that, the lowest bullpen arm is Luis Ortiz at 3.08.
Just an absolutely unacceptable collapse suffered in back to back games. Nearly everyone on that bullpen staff has blame in what transpired these last two games, and in this month overall.
Derek Shelton can express “concern” all he wants, but the roles of this team have completely flipped. The starters were supposed to struggle, and the bullpen was supposed to save them.
Now, the starters are excelling, and its the bullpen that cannot pitch whatsoever. The unfortunate part? It’s the bullpen that pitches when there are leads to be lost.
(Featured photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
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