PITTSBURGH — All good things must come to an end.
After the Pirates swept the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this week, the Pirates’ vibes couldn’t have been more positive. General manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton each fielded questions about the things winning — even in small sample sizes — can do for a young team.
Cherington, to his credit, was pragmatic.
“I think the impact is for the guys who were on the field, the guys doing it on the field,” Cherington said. “Sure, obviously, players that were on that road trip that haven’t played in those environments before and contributing to winning against good teams in an environment they haven’t played before, I think that’s where the impact is, that experience. Beyond that, no. We just know we need to keep getting better at everything. We’re playing the Diamondbacks tonight. They’re a team that’s playing well and their pitching’s improved. Turn the page and get ready for this game against the Diamondbacks.”
Part one of that answer is a positive for the Pirates. They still need to work on part two. The Pirates were defeated by the Diamondbacks, 8-6, allowing five home runs in the process. They trailed by five heading into the bottom of the ninth and nearly mounted a comeback on the back of a three-run homer from third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, but the rally stopped there, sending the Pirates home disappointed.
On a larger scale, it’s a reminder of exactly what Cherington said. This is a scrappy young team who will fight on any given night, but there is still progress to be made. Even after that Dodgers series, inarguably their best of the season, they were still tied for the worst run-differential in baseball, implying it won’t be an easy ascent to better days.
Just as one good series against the Dodgers can’t save a season, one loss to the Diamondbacks can’t necessarily ruin it, but Friday’s started ugly.
Right-hander JT Brubaker was first victim to some bad luck, allowing two runs in the second. One came on a solo home run, but the other was unearned, given away by a fielding error from second baseman Rodolfo Castro. After that, though, Brubaker unraveled.
He allowed a solo shot in the fourth, a two-run bomb in the fifth, then a single and a double before exiting the game. In total, he allowed six runs in four innings of work. Most notably for Brubaker, a pitcher who thrives on ground balls, is that he only forced two groundouts from the 23 batters he faced. He should have had a third on Castro’s error, but the point remains that Brubaker’s usual plan of attack wasn’t working.
“Just wasn't getting [the slider] really down in the zone,” Brubaker said. “Just kind of a little more side-to-side movement than up-and-down movement.”
The long balls continued against right-hander Yerry De Los Santos in the seventh. He allowed a pair of solo shots, back-to-back, to extend the Diamondbacks’ lead to 8-3 and build a hill too high for the Pirates to climb.
Shelton admitted after the game that the Pirates are trying to balance De Los Santos’ usage. They have played a lot of close games recently, and he didn’t feel comfortable deploying the rookie. That meant Friday was his first appearance since his debut May 25.
Still, Hayes certainly tried to lift his team over the top. He scored the first run of the game in the first inning, doubling to left-center, advancing to third on a fielders’ choice, then scoring on a wild pitch. The Pirates added a run each in the second and third innings on an RBI groundout from catcher Tyler Heineman and an RBI single from outfielder Jack Suwinski, who went 3 for 4 with three singles on the night.
Hayes then pulled out his heroics in the ninth. He muscled a full-count pitch into the visiting bullpen, his second homer of the season, both coming in the last week.
“Yeah, it feels good,” Hayes said. “I was able to work the count. I was able to get a pitch up in the zone and I was on time and was able to drive it.”
It just wasn’t enough this time around, as the Pirates were reminded that baseball is a tough game, and good times don’t last.
