WASHINGTON — Clay Holmes stared toward the right-field stands in frustration in the seventh inning on a muggy Monday night. The curveball he threw to Nationals left fielder Kyle Schwarber was a little high but still had plenty of bite. Evidently expecting some spin from Holmes, the longtime Pirates nemesis waited patiently, then uncorked a violent swing that would ultimately net an eighth consecutive loss.
It was another frustrating outing for Holmes, who Friday in Milwaukee struggled mightily with his control, walking four and coughing up five runs. The Pirates’ 3-2 loss to the Nationals at Nationals Park was also bigger than Schwarber’s 13th career home run against them.
It was another instance where it’s probably easy to question manager Derek Shelton’s handling of his pitching staff.
Shelton pulled JT Brubaker after five innings and 71 pitches, electing to turn things over to his bullpen early. It was again surprising after Brubaker did not allow over his final two innings, similar to the 15 in a row Wil Crowe sat down Sunday before a 10-pitch walk spelled the end of his day.
On one hand, it’s easy to see why Shelton seems eager to go to his bullpen. That group has been good. Brubaker was also due to face the Nos. 4-6 hitters in Washington’s lineup — Josh Bell, Josh Harrison and Yan Gomes — for a third time in the sixth.
But as the Pirates bullpen has sputtered some of late — producing a 4.56 ERA over the previous seven games, all losses — how long Shelton has allowed his starters to pitch has been interesting to watch.
Considering how well the bullpen has performed, with that group’s 3.04 ERA that month bettered by just four teams, it almost feels like Shelton has become a little overly reliant and not as willing to trust his starting pitchers.
The loss dropped the Pirates to 23-42. They’ve lost 31 of 41 after they were last above .500 — 12-11 on April 27 — while their winning percentage is creeping closer and closer to last season’s worst-in-baseball mark of .317 (19-41).
Although he came into Monday’s game hitting just .172 with no extra-base hits this month, Kevin Newman gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead with his second home run of the season in the top of the second inning. Facing Jon Lester, Newman got a cutter that was low-and-inside, turned on it and drove it down the left-field line.
It was the type of swing — nothing crazy, but short and compact — that has been missing from Newman since spring training ended. And also the type the Pirates would assuredly like to see out of him.
The defense Newman has played has been outstanding. He’s the only major league shortstop without an error this season and has gone 55 games in a row with a clean fielding ledger. But he also came into Monday’s game hitting .204, getting on base at a .246 clip and sporting the lowest average exit velocity (85 mph) among National league qualifiers.
The Nationals pulled ahead, 2-1, in the third inning while picking up four hits off of Brubaker. Center fielder Victor Robles got things started with a leadoff double to center. He scored when left fielder Kyle Schwarber pulled a changeup at the bottom of the zone into right.
Washington scored again when right fielder Juan Soto capitalized on a hanging slider from Brubaker and lined it up the middle.
To Brubaker’s credit, those were the only runs he allowed. Despite being a little below his normal velocity, Brubaker navigated five innings, walked two, struck out one and recorded nine of his 15 outs in the ground. He did so by using a little bit more of a five-pitch mix than usual, with his changeup (11%) being the one of his five pitches that he threw the least.
While Ke’Bryan Hayes was charged with his first error of the season in the first inning, the Pirates got a couple of solid defensive plays, one coming in the third. That was Bryan Reynolds’ throw to second to get Schwarber after his single. Adam Frazier, shifted into shallow right field, jumped to snare a Schwarber liner in the first.
Chasing a 2-1 deficit in the sixth, Jacob Stallings led off with a double, moved to second on Newman’s single and scored on a sacrifice fly to right from Erik Gonzalez. For someone who clearly doesn’t make a living because of his speed, Stallings sure seems to find plenty of adventure on the bases.
He scored easily when Soto’s throw was wide. Stallings’ double was made possible when Robles took a poor route to the ball and couldn’t quite recover.
Around the horn
Hayes extended his hitting streak to 11 games, 19 dating back to last season. That ties Hayes with Newman (2019) for the longest hitting streak by a rookie since 1900. … The rookie third baseman’s error was rare for him, obviously, but also for the team. Pittsburgh came into Monday’s game having committed just nine errors since May 20. That was tied for the third-fewest in Major League Baseball during that time. … Monday marked just the third time in his past 28 games that Frazier didn’t have a hit (42 for 112, .375).
