Bucs Keep Tumbling In 2-1 Loss To Arizona

The roof went up at Chase Field and the Bucs went down 1-2-3 in the first to Zack Greinke, who was helped by a nice grab of Cutch’s liner by RF’er Dave Peralta (opposite field, tho, so yay!). Cole Train was a little up in the zone but survived a one-out double to end the frame with zeroes. Greinke whiffed a couple in a clean second. Not so for Cole Train. A ripped double by Chris Owings became a tally after a single, and that was followed by a walk. The bleeding was stopped by an around-the-horn DP and a bouncer. Jordy opened the third with a walk and was quickly erased stealing thx to a hit-and-run minus the hit. Gift K’ed swinging; he never saw a strike. Gerrit whiffed too, and so it goes on. Peralta doubled on a dink punched against the shift followed by an infield knock; Gift’s grab saved a run. But not for long; a hustle double plated a second point. Cole came back with a couple of whiffs in an inning where the Bucs committed no errors but still left a couple of plays undone on the field.

There were a couple of more K’s in the fourth for the Bucs (that’s seven more whiffs than hits if you’re counting) while Gerrit tucked away the bottom of the order. Add two more Pirate whiffs in the fifth and a clean frame against the D-Backs. Eight pitches, three outs, K #10 for Greinke in the sixth. Cole Train has settled in, too; he’s mowed down 11 in-a-row. The seventh was another perfecto frame for Zach, with Cutch at least hitting a loud out to center. Gerrit’s out streak ended at a dozen with a bloop rap, but it caused no damage. Gregory smashed a drive just foul that made the crowd hold its breath, then repeated but this time inside the lines for his first homer to make it 2-1. It was no cheapie, sailing 417′ over the wall. For the other Bucco batters, it was back to regular programming. Juan Nicasio climbed the bump and served a quiet frame. Fernando Rodney took the ball after Zack tossed 107 pitches. He came in with a 10.80 ERA (four of his 13 outings were disatrous; he also has eight saves). Rodney had no trouble with Max Moroff and Alen Hanson. J-Hay kept the heartbeat going with a walk, then unplugged life support with a caught stealing. It was bang-bang – the TV replay didn’t give a clean decision – and the Pirates challenged, but it stood on the original call. Good thought, bad luck.

Grienke had his slider going tonight; he would have been a challenge for the regular lineup. But Gerrit’s complete lack of support continues. He’s given up nine earned runs (11 overall) in his past six starts and is 1-3 over that span; the last five games he’s started have been one-run contests with the Pirates losing four. The Pirates have lost half their lineup, so the struggle is real, but you’d hope one or two of the guys would step up. Oh well, back to the grind tomorrow night with Tyler Glasnow.

Notes:

• The Pirates stranded no runners tonight; a homer and two caught stealings after walks kept the bases clear.
• Pittsburgh has scored seven runs, gotten 15 hits (15-for-123, .122 BA) and K’ed 44 times in the first four games of their western swing.

• Daniel Hudson was welcomed back to Chase Field with a video clip much like the Bucs did for Jared Hughes. Huddy was a D-Back from 2010-16 and acknowledged the fans with a tip o’ the cap from the pen.
• Altoona SS Kevin Newman will play tomorrow. He was beaned in the head yesterday and spent three hours in the hospital, but only suffered a contusion and is thankfully good to go after a day of gulping Advils.
• Nick Kingham spun five innings of one-hit ball in his 2017 debut for Bradenton, with no runs, walks or whiffs.