DENVER — For one inning Wednesday afternoon, it seemed that whatever ailed the Pirates the previous night — when Colorado’s German Marquez nearly no-hit them — was cured.
It turned out to be nothing more than a mirage.
Because while the Pirates opened their series finale against the Rockies at Coors Field with a splash of offense, they wound up finishing with another drought. Pittsburgh lost, 6-2, and mustered just those two runs over the course of a three-game series. They had three hits over the final eight innings Wednesday.
It was the worst offensive output for a Pirates team at Coors Field since they scored the same number of runs during a three-game set here April 30-May 2, 2002. Ironically, that one finished with a 7-2 Pirates loss — close enough.
Pittsburgh’s seven-game road trip started with so much promise after the Pirates (29-50) took three of four in St. Louis and looked excellent doing it, especially the offense. They had won six of nine at that point. But after arriving in Denver, things just sort of fell apart.
The defense, the steadiest in baseball from May 9 through the start of this series, sprung a leak, with errors in all three games and several less-than-stellar plays. Offense will always be a challenge for these Pirates, but they at least enjoyed some shred of success against St. Louis. Not so against the Rockies, who are 15-4 at home since May 21.
Unable to muster a run or an extra-base hit in the first two games of this series, the Pirates crossed both items off their list during a productive first inning, one that saw them grab a 2-0 lead.
Adam Frazier led off with a triple to right-center field, the Pirates second baseman going down to get a 2-1 fastball from Rockies starter Jon Gray for the first of his two hits. Frazier scored on Ke’Bryan Hayes’ sacrifice fly.
Bryan Reynolds had a similar at-bat, getting ahead in the count and sitting on a fastball. Gray made a mistake and left a fastball middle-middle, as Reynolds cranked it 454 feet to the back of the bullpens in right-center.
Chad Kuhl appeared in control early and used his slider to notch three strikeouts in the first inning. In the third, Kuhl erased a one-out single from center fielder Garrett Hampson when he gloved a comebacker from right fielder Charlie Blackmon and started a 1-6-3 double play.
That good fortune disappeared in the fourth, however, as third baseman C.J. Cron jumped all over a hanging slider. Cron took a big hack and cranked one into the left-field bleachers, the first homer Kuhl has allowed in four starts making it a 2-1 game.
While the Pirates offense vanished after that early outburst, failing to register another hit until the Frazier’s single in the seventh inning, the Rockies continued to chip away and eventually overtook the Pirates.
The Rockies tied it when Hampson doubled with one out in the fifth. That scored left fielder Raimel Tapia, who reached on a walk and advanced to second when Kuhl’s pickoff throw went through Phillip Evans’ glove at first base.
A wild pitch and a fastball that hit Blackmon ended Kuhl’s afternoon before Chris Stratton entered and gave up a sacrifice fly to Cron. That allowed Colorado to take a 3-2 lead.
After allowing a total of two runs over his past two starts (12 innings), Kuhl’s line Wednesday was considerably less pretty: 4 1/3 innings, five hits, three earned runs, three walks and six strikeouts.
Tapia and Hampson each drove in runs with singles in the bottom of the sixth, giving the Rockies a 5-2 lead, but the bigger story might’ve been Sam Howard, who was reinstated from the 10-day injured list on Tuesday.
Howard has been extremely reliable out of the bullpen for the Pirates this season, especially against left-handed hitters and with runners on base. Neither of those trends held when he took the ball from Stratton, whose run of eight consecutive scoreless appearances came to a close.
Tapia’s single snapped Howard’s streak of 15 straight inherited runners stranded. It was also just fifth hit Howard has allowed in 47 at-bats against lefties (.106). After Hampson’s single eluded a diving Hayes, Blackmon added a sixth hit by a lefty against Howard this season.
Entering Wednesday’s game, Howard had allowed just six hits in 39 at-bats (.154), including 3 in 26 (.115) when they were in scoring position.
