Pirates Walk Their Way To A Loss

In the first game of a three game set versus the Brewers, the Pirates put out a what resembled a full Sunday lineup against one of the top pitchers in baseball currently in Brandon Woodruff; and for almost seven innings the strategy to sit Stallings, Reynolds and Moran-whose hand obviously couldn’t have been feeling too great just yet-seemed to be paying off as homers from Ben Gamel and Gregory Polanco had the game knotted at two a piece.

However, this feeling of a game that could last to extras or that Pittsburgh could squeak out didn’t last much longer as Clay Holmes and Trevor Cahill combined to give up five runs on two hits and six walks; three of them with the bases loaded. For Holmes this was his worst outing of the season by far, and not what had come to be expected from him after over a month of dominance. However, for Cahill it’s actually hard to expect much different, as his ERA now sits at 6.57 on the year; making him one of the more peculiar pickups in Ben Cherington’s time with the Pirates.

In the top of the 8th, the Pirates would get a couple right back thanks to a two run home run from Ke’Bryan Hayes, but in the end it simply wasn’t enough as Pittsburgh fell to Milwaukee 7-4.

News and Notes

• Pirates starter Chase De Jong didn’t do bad, but he didn’t do great as he allowed two earned runs on four hits with four walks and two strikeouts.
• Adam Frazier’s most recent hitting streak has ended at 13 games.
• This Hayes kid is pretty good. Ridiculous small sample size, but after 123 at bats his OPS is still over a thousand at 1.098.
• The Pirates didn’t draw a single walk in the game. I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure I saw some ridiculous stat that Pittsburgh was only the only team in MLB that had walked at least once in every game this season; so I guess that’s over.
• Ka’ai Tom has one hit and one walk in his last 18 at bats, is now batting .143 with a .512 OPS. Pretty sure we have seen enough from him.

The Pirates and the Brewers are back at against 4:10 PM EST from Milwaukee, as Chad Kuhl (0-3, 5.61 ERA) toes the rubber against Corbin Burnes (3-4, 1.97 ERA).