The Pittsburgh Pirates looked to bounce back after a tough extra innings loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. All signs pointed to them doing that, until a rough outing by David Bednar in the ninth led to an Isaac Paredes RBI single with the bases loaded, to walk it off for Tampa by the final of 6-5.
The Rays struck first in the bottom of the first on a Vidal Brujan two RBI single to center. Pittsburgh tied the game in the third when Diego Castillo hit a solo home run to left and Bryan Reynolds drove in Michael Perez on a single to center. That lead would last until the fifth when Randy Arozarena hit an RBI double to left center.
JT Brubaker started for the Pirates and looked good over six innings of work. He allowed three runs on nine hits with six strikeouts. His counterpart Corey Kluber would pitch 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on five hits with six walks. Surprisingly neither starter would walk a batter.
In the sixth, Jack Suwinski crushed a three-run home run to right field to give the Pirates a two-run lead. That homer came off of Tampa Bay relief pitcher Jalen Beeks. Suwinski then made a great catch in left field during the bottom half of the inning. That catch would have him land on top of a fan in foul territory. Thankfully both came away unscathed.
After Wil Crowe pitched a scoreless seventh, striking out two and allowing one hit, the eighth would belong to Chase De Jong. De Jong gave up a solo home run to Paredes to put the Rays back within one. Pittsburgh maintained that one run lead into the ninth. That is when with two outs and the bases loaded Paredes would drive a single to right, scoring two runs off of Bednar, and grab the win for Tampa Bay.
This was a tough loss to swallow. Starting pitching did their job, the offense stepped up when needed, and the defense was solid. The biggest issue for the Pirates as of late has been the bullpen. They may be overworked, and Bednar hasn’t looked the same since his outing of 2 2/3 innings a little over a week ago. Pittsburgh will now try to avoid being swept tomorrow afternoon in the series finale.
Record vs. Rays: 0-2
Record vs. American League: 1-5
Record on the Road: 12-22
Overall Record: 29-42
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
