Tyler Anderson, making his 100th big league start, gave the Pirates six innings of three-run ball. Despite getting barely any run support this season — his average of 2.87 runs per game as the second-lowest in the National League — the offense aided Anderson with two-run homers from Gregory Polanco and John Nogowski, the latter's first as a Pirate.
But in what has become an alarming trend, the Pirates bullpen experienced issues during an eight-run seventh inning for Arizona, one that ultimately saddled Pittsburgh with an 11-6 loss at Chase Field.
In cementing a series loss to the worst team in baseball, the Pirates turned a 5-1 lead into an 11-5 deficit thanks to four walks and six hits allowed by Austin Davis and Clay Holmes.
Once the consistent strength of this team, the bullpen has slipped over the past 30 days, its 5.31 ERA the second-highest in the National League during that stretch. Pirates relievers are walking 4.54 per nine innings during that time, which is also next to last in the NL.
How manager Derek Shelton handled Tuesday's game was surprising considering that Shelton has mentioned a couple of times that his bullpen was stressed and it was "all hands on deck."
Anderson had thrown only 77 pitches when Shelton lifted him for Davis, another left-hander, to start the seventh. Davis also isn't one of the relievers to whom Shelton typically turns when the Pirates have a lead.
Nevertheless, the Diamondbacks took advantage. Josh VanMeter tripled in one run before Nick Ahmed's single scored another, tying the game at 5.
With Holmes in, Josh Reddick lined a single to left, scoring two to push the Diamondbacks in front, and David Peralta drove in a run to make it 8-5 on a hard-hit ball to short that was deflected by Wilmer Difo.
Difo got a tough, in-between hop on a ball hit by Daulton Varsho, which helped the Diamondbacks establish a 9-5 lead, and VanMeter drove in the final two runs of the inning by cracking a double to deep center field.
The implosion was reminiscent of what happened against the Braves on July 7 before the all-star break. Pittsburgh took a 3-0 lead in the first thanks to Jacob Stallings' three-run homer, then Atlanta wound up with an avalanche of runs between the sixth and the eighth, scoring 12 times to turn the game into a route.
Life hasn't been easy for the Pirates bullpen, either. Sam Howard is out with a right oblique strain. Pittsburgh designated Kyle Crick for assignment after the right-hander had struggled with his control. Richard Rodriguez had some sort of stomach bug Monday and likely wasn't at full strength.
Meanwhile, Nick Mears has seemingly been relegated to spectator duty up here, while Kyle Keller and Davis began the season at Class AAA. Duane Underwood Jr. also hasn't been the same pitcher he was earlier in the season.
At some point, the Pirates will clearly need the trend to reverse, otherwise, they will fritter away more quality starts like the one they got from Anderson, who had three perfect innings to start and wound up walking one and striking out six.
Polanco got a belt-high fastball on the inner edge of the plate and absolutely crushed it into the right-field seats for his 10th home run of the season. It scored John Nogowski and gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead in the fourth.
After jogging around the bases for Polanco’s homer, Nogowski gave himself an easy trip with his first homer as a Pirate an inning later. Diamondbacks starter Taylor Widener hung a slider, and Nogowski deposited it into the left-field seats.
Although he entered Tuesday’s game hitting .422 in 11 games as a Pirate and .317 overall this season, Nogowski had been relying on singles and doubles to left and left-center field. This was the first ball he was really able to elevate.
Pittsburgh actually scored a run before Nogowski’s homer, meaning the two-run shot put them ahead 5-1. Adam Frazier and Ke’Bryan Hayes led off with singles, Frazier moved to third on Bryan Reynolds’ flyout, and Frazier scored on Ben Gamel’s grounder to second.
Anderson was especially sharp early and retired the first 10 men he faced before Rojas’ bouncing single up the middle with one out in the second. The lefty had his fastball, cutter and change-up working and used them to strike out five the first time through the order.
Those outs were impressive, especially the back-to-back change-ups Anderson threw Christian Walker and Andrew Young in the second. But they paled in comparison to what Bryan Reynolds did for the third out of that inning.
Reddick, who hits left-handed, sliced one toward the gap in left-center. Reynolds got a terrific jump, covered 78 feet and made the catch with a full-extension, snaring it as he tumbled to the ground.
Reynolds’ teammates waited for him outside of the Pirates dugout, clapping and cheering the tremendous catch. There appeared to be nobody happier for Reynolds than Anderson, who’s normally pretty stoic on the mound but let out a yell when he realized Reynolds had made the play.
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