CINCINNATI — JT Brubaker has been one of the Pirates’ more consistent starting pitchers this season, blossoming into someone they could potentially see being part of their future.
It’s also hard to escape the feeling that something needs fixed here, as Brubaker struggled mightily Friday during a 10-0 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park, the Pirates’ fifth game here this season where things got ugly.
The Reds hit three home runs for the second consecutive night in this series and now have 14 in five home games against the Pirates in 2021. Meanwhile, Cincinnati has used those dingers to produce a total of 47 runs over five games, including 17 Thursday and Friday.
Cincinnati has certainly been buoyed by the return of right fielder Nick Castellanos and third baseman Mike Moustakas the past two nights, but it also looks like something may be amiss with Brubaker.
Is he tired? Is he tipping his pitches? Is something wrong mechanically?
There’s plenty to ponder, and it might be smart for the Pirates (41-69) to take the time and do exactly that. Friday’s five-inning debacle brought Brubaker’s season total to 107 1/3 innings, a sizable increase over the 47 1/3 he worked last season.
Before and after some of Brubaker’s recent starts, manager Derek Shelton has talked about potentially limiting Brubaker’s innings the rest of the way, ideally preserving Brubaker’s arm and health and enabling him to have a productive offseason.
It’s doubtful Brubaker would want to end on this clunker; however, the outing wasn’t terribly productive either, as he dropped to 0-7 with a 6.23 ERA in his past 10 starts. Perhaps a rest could be in order, or just packing it in altogether.
For the second consecutive night the Pirates found themselves in a huge hole. Only this time, they couldn’t do much of anything against Reds left-hander Wade Miley to dig themselves out. Miley cruised through seven shutout innings against the Pirates, scattering six singles, walking two and striking out five.
One of the few things that differed from Thursday’s script was the fact that Brubaker retired the first hitter, second baseman Jonathan India, instead of giving up a home run. It mattered little, however, as the Reds loaded the bases on Castellanos’ double, a Ke’Bryan Hayes error and a walk issued to first baseman Joey Votto.
That’s when Moustakas, who had been out since May 18 with a foot injury, laced a double into the right-field corner, jumping on a 2-0 slider from Brubaker and scoring two. The next batter, shortstop Kyle Farmer, doubled the lead with a bloop single into left-center.
The big bang came courtesy of catcher Tucker Barnhart, who hit a three-run homer halfway up the right-field seats. The pitch was classified as a slider, although it looked more like a change-up and simply sat in the middle of the plate.
Limiting home runs has been an issue for Brubaker, and it crept up again on Friday. Before his most recent start, when he allowed just one run over six innings against the Phillies last Saturday, Brubaker had allowed 11 home runs over his previous six starts.
Only 11 pitchers in all of baseball had given up more home runs than Brubaker (21) had before Friday’s start, and what ensured sure didn’t help.
After the seven-run first finally ended, Cincinnati tacked on two more thanks to a solo homer from left fielder Jesse Winker and a run-scoring single from Farmer. Winker got a sinker that was actually decently located, low and outside but still a strike, and drove it hard the other way to left-center.
Farmer drove another elevated sinker from Brubaker to left before India hit the Reds’ third homer of the evening, a shot to left-center off of Kyle Keller in the sixth inning.
Similar to Wil Crowe the night before, Brubaker was able to settle down after the second inning. Amazingly, he retired 10 of the final 11 Reds he faced, with the only blemish in there being a walk to Aquino. But the damage had already been done, thanks to a handful of sliders and fastballs that Brubaker failed to command.
The Pirates’ offense in this one was severely limited. They got two hits apiece from Hayes and Rodolfo Castro but little else. Hoy Park, who replaced Bryan Reynolds, doubled to increase his average with the Pirates to .462 (6 for 13). Park has an extra-base hit in four of those five games.
Another positive sign for the Pirates was a bounce-back outing from Luis Oviedo, who has experienced some turbulence of late. Oviedo pitched the final two innings, allowing a hit and striking out three.
