The way that the Pittsburgh Pirates lost on Sunday is going to leave a sour taste in people’s mouths. And understandably so.
The Pirates dug themselves a massive hole early on, came back from down multiple runs, and wound up blowing a lead themselves to lose the game late.
After a disastrous inning that saw Bailey Falter start out ice cold and Oneil Cruz launch a ball into the seats at a relay throw to home, the Pirates were down 3-0 by the time the bottom of the first came around.
Cruz made up for that throwing error in the third, when he smoked a ball deep to right field to cut Milwaukee’s lead to 3-1. The 11th Cruz Missile of the year racked up an exit velocity of 122.9 miles per. It was the hardest hit ball in the Statcast era (since 2015).
In the sixth, the Pirates rocked former Bucco reliever Nick Mears for a trio of hits, including a triple by Alexander Canario. That surge of offense helped the Pirates tie the game, and in the seventh, Adam Frazier scored a pair off a double to give Pittsburgh a 5-3 lead.
But as has been the case in recent games, an unlucky member of the Pirates’ bullpen blew up. On Sunday, that was Ryan Borucki. In the eighth inning, Borucki allowed three extra-base hits and a walk to surrender the lead back to the Brewers.
The Pirates had six outs to work with to reclaim the lead, but just couldn’t get it done, and fell to Milwaukee 6-5. That loss made the four-game series a split, with back-to-back Pirate wins sandwiched by losses.
After that game, and the fact that Pittsburgh only won two of four against a divisional rival, it might be hard to find a ton to be happy about right now for the Pirates. But I have actually found a decent amount of positives for this team recently.
Allow me to explain.
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