Bucs Fall Short, Lose Series-Deciding Game 4-2 To San Diego

Today’s Game: Yu Darvish started off with a 1-2-3 frame of decently smote balls, with Bryan Reynolds’ drive to the track an exceptionally loud out. The Padres opened with a gift runner when Colin Moran couldn’t field Eric Gonzalez’s short hop toss. The runner helped his cause by being inside the baseline, bringing Shelty out, but that’s a call only rung up on the Bucs. A bunt and grounder put the runner on third, but JT Brubaker left him there. Ka’ai Tom worked a two-out walk in the second and moved up on a wild pitch in an otherwise quiet frame. A rare Bru walk was erased on a caught stealing and the next two outs were routine. Adam Frazier singled with two away in the third for all the Pirates noise. Victor Catarini opened the scoring with a leadoff long fly. Back-to-back singles (one a dribbler thrown away by Brubaker) and a walk with two gone put JT in a self-made jam, but a full-count bouncer saved the day. With one away in the fourth, Redbeard and Jake Stallings singled, then never moved. A SD knock and one-out fumble by E-Gon were rectified by a pair of whiffs. Darvish struck out the side in the fifth. The Padres put together a walk and consecutive knocks to make it 2-0.

The Bucs lit up the board when B-Rey spanked a leadoff homer in the sixth. E-Gon followed with an infield knock and Redbeard singled him to third, later stealing second (not a misprint!). Ka’ai lifted a sac fly an out later to knot the score. Hunter Owen was bopped painfully in the wrist on Yu’s 98th toss (he was replaced by Phil Evans in the bottom half) and Craig Stammen was waved in to slam the door. Duane Underwood got the call; Gonzalez made the Bucs fourth error to allow the first hitter aboard. A double put Friars at second and third and Jake Cronenworth’s rap chased them both home an out later. Tim Hill climbed the hill in the seventh and retired the Bucs in order. Chris Stratton spun a clean outing. Emilio Pagan didn’t have a ball leave the infield in the eighth. Clay Holmes gave up a walk and knock with two down with no harm done. Mark Melancon answered the ninth-inning bell. Kevin Newman beat out an infield single in the hole with two outs, but the fourth grounder the Shark served this frame was enough to tuck it away after a review rightly flipped the original safe call.

Geez, this offense…Chicago is throwing three guys with ERA’s of 8.22 (Zach Davies), 6.00 (Trevor Williams) and 6.07 (Kyle Hendricks) over the weekend. If that trio and Wrigley aren’t a cure, ho boy… 

Notes:

• Colin Moran had two hits, the only Buc to reach base more than once. Fraze kept alive his hitting streak, now at six games.
• E-Gon had played errorless ball through 26 games; he committed three errors tonight. He also handled 12 chances at the hot corner, the most for a Pirates 3B since 1939.
• Redbeard’s swiped sack was the first of his MLB career; it was on his fourth attempt.
• Prob not a surprise, but going into tonight, the Pirates were last in the MLB for hard hit balls (28.6%) and fly ball/HR ratio (8.7%, the only team not in double figures %-wise) per Fangraphs.
• Altoona RHP Cody Bolton, the Pirates’ #10 prospect per MLB Pipeline, was placed on the minor league IL with a knee injury that could be long-term. He’ll get it thoroughly checked out early next week.

Tomorrow’s Game: Pittsburgh is off tomorrow and will pick it up again Friday against the Cubbies at Wrigley Field. The Bucs will start RHP Trevor Cahill (1-3/7.40) v RHP Zach Davies (1-2/8.22) in the opener.