The Pittsburgh Pirates hit the road Thursday night to begin an eight-game road trip. The first four would come against the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves. Pittsburgh was coming off a two-game sweep by the Detroit Tigers, and that series didn’t feature much offense for the Pirates. That trend would continue tonight in a 3-1 defeat.
JT Brubaker fell to 0-6 on the year, but had one of his better games of the season. He would work seven innings allowing three runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and two walks. Atlanta got on the board in the second when Adam Duvall hit an RBI single to center. They would add two more runs in the third. Dansby Swanson got it started with an RBI single to right. He then came around to score when Travis d’Arnaud doubled to left. Chase De Jong worked a scoreless eighth, striking out two batters.
Max Fried started for the Braves and was a big part of keeping the Pittsburgh offense quiet. Fried pitched six innings allowing one run on eight hits with eight strikeouts. That lone run was a Jack Suwinski solo home run in the fourth. That homer was Suwinski’s eighth of the season, leading all rookies. Atlanta used three relief pitchers to cover the final three innings. They kept the Pirates hitless and collected five strikeouts.
With the loss tonight, Pittsburgh has now dropped three straight games. There was a lot of hype from parts of the fans base after taking five of six from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. Young teams go through growing pains and the lack of offense is definitely a sign of that. It was nice to see the “veterans” of the team, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds, collect five of the teams eight hits tonight. Game two of this four game series will take place Friday night with first pitch scheduled for 7:20pm.
Record vs. Braves: 0-1
Record vs. N.L. East: 3-2
Record on the Road: 11-14
Overall Record: 24-32
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
