PITTSBURGH — The Pirates’ Wednesday afternoon began with a hopeful talk from general manager Ben Cherington and then a homer from Jacob Stallings.
It ended with an hour-and-18-minute rain delay, 12 runs allowed by their bullpen and a sad, strange 14-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves.
The Pirates’ downfall really started before the rain delay when, with a 3-2 lead, right-hander Kyle Crick entered the game. He walked the first two batters he faced, then allowed two singles later on to be chased.
It is the 10th time in the last 12 appearances for Crick that he’s allowed a walk and the 13th straight appearance that he’s allowed at least one baserunner. In that time, his ERA has ballooned from 1.35 to 4.63. Left-hander Chasen Shreve didn’t help Crick’s cause, walking one batter to load the bases, another to score a run and then giving up a two-run single to blow the game wide open.
When right-hander Kyle Keller entered for the seventh inning, there were lightning strikes all around PNC Park. His inning was cut off part way through by a rain delay, he then entered again with two outs after the 78-minute delay, and got the Braves’ Freddie Freeman to ground out to end the inning.
The worst outing of the game goes to right-hander Duane Underwood Jr., got shelled worse than anyone. Pitching in the eighth, after a 78 minute rain delay, he allowed eight hits and seven runs, including a two-run homer from Abraham Almonte.
First baseman John Nogowski came in to pitch the ninth, and became the only Pirates pitcher all game to face the minimum number of batters, inducing an inning-ending ground ball to end the top of the ninth.
For Crick this was just the most recent instance of a stretch of struggles. With Wednesday’s struggles, he has now walked at least one batter in 10 of his last 12 appearances. He has allowed a baserunner of some kind in each of his last 13 appearances in total. The struggles were far less normal for Shreve. The 30-year-old had struggled in his previous outing against the Milwaukee Brewers, but before that he hadn’t allowed a run since June 1. Now he’s done it twice in a row.
That wasted what looked like a fairly promising game for the Pirates, especially early on. Right-hander Wil Crowe started the game and allowed a run on an RBI single from Braves third baseman Austin Riley in the first, but the Pirates blitzed Braves starter Drew Smyly in response.
Second baseman Adam Frazier singled to left to lead it off, then third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes stroked a double to right center to advance him to third. Center fielder Bryan Reynolds couldn’t score the run, grounding out to third and getting Frazier thrown out at home, but it turned out not to matter.
Catcher Jacob Stallings, who hadn’t homered since June 13, took a first pitch fastball on the outside corner and launched it 400 feet to right center for a three-run homer.
Crowe did well enough for that home run to matter. His only real slip-up the rest of the game was a solo home run allowed to Acuña. He could have been more economical with pitches, to be sure. In 4 1/3 innings he threw 97 pitches. That can be improved upon.
But it wasn’t his fault that this one got out of hand. The bullpen let the Pirates down Wednesday. By the time the end of the game came, it felt merciful.
