Pirates blow 4-run lead, fail to deliver clutch hits in loss to Dodgers
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After a wild ride the previous night and some shaky starting pitching over the past week, there was nothing the Pittsburgh Pirates needed more Wednesday at Dodger Stadium than a solid performance from their starter.
Osvaldo Bido failed to provide it, and the Dodgers (48-38) went on to record a 6-4 victory against the Pirates (40-46).
Staked to a 4-0 lead, Bido walked four batters and hit another while allowing two runs and lasting only four innings. The situation was distressing for Pirates manager Derek Shelton, who had watched his starters compile a 9.91 ERA over the previous six games.
“He kind of lost his command. He lost his arm slot a little bit,” Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show.
The Dodgers, who scored in only two of eight innings, cut the Pirates’ lead in half in the fourth, but it could have been worse. To start, Bido loaded the bases with two walks and a hit batter. One run scored on Jason Heyward’s sacrifice fly and another on Miguel Rojas’ single.
The Pirates escaped with a 4-2 lead, thanks to third baseman Jared Triolo’s glove. Triolo, a Gold Glove fielder in the minor leagues, made a backhanded stab of Mookie Betts’ groundball along the line, his momentum carrying him into foul territory before he threw across the diamond for the out.
“Unbelievable play,” Shelton said, noting Betts’ speed running down the line.
Roansy Contreras relieved Bido, but he walked two of the first three batters he faced before J.D. Martinez and David Peralta hit back-to-back homers. The 6-4 lead held up for the rest of the game.
Contreras, whose velocity on the fastball has dipped into the low 90s, has allowed seven earned runs and three homers in his past two outings (3⅓ innings).
“It’s too much in the middle of the plate. Just inconsistency of the fastball is what’s really standing out,” Shelton said. “We have to make sure we’re trying to figure out (how) to get back not only the (velocity), but the execution.”
Contreras said he is working on control as much as velocity.
“Trying to find myself on the mound,” he said through translator Stephen Morales. “Instead of just throwing really hard, the main focus right now is controlling my fastball in the strike zone. I have to continue to feel confident with my mechanics and trust my pitches.”
After falling behind, the Pirates couldn’t get a clutch hit in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings, stranding a total of eight runners — five of them in scoring position.
With Jack Suwinski and Nick Gonzales on first and second and two out in the sixth, Tucupita Marcano flied out to right field.
The Pirates had the bases loaded with nobody out in the seventh and ninth. A rally similar to what happened Tuesday in the Pirates’ 9-7 victory looked to be on the way.
But Bryan Reynolds, Henry Davis and Carlos Santana couldn’t get the ball out of the infield in the seventh. Reynolds’ line drive left the bat at 98.5 mph, but the ball landed in the glove of shortstop Miguel Rojas.
“Reynolds hits a bullet right at Rojas. Bad aim,” Shelton said.
In the ninth, Davis (strikeout), Santana (fly ball to left field) and Suwinski (strikeout) couldn’t solve Dodgers’ 36-year-old reliever Daniel Hudson. Actually, before drawing a walk, Reynolds almost homered with two runners on base, but his line drive into the right field seats sailed a few feet foul.
“That last little bit, it just went right,” said Andrew McCutchen, who was on second base after walking. “It was close, though. We had other opportunities to keep going.”
Hudson, a former Pirates pitcher, needed 29 pitches in the final inning to record his first save of the season.
After Contreras came out of the game, Pirates relief pitchers Dauri Moreta, Ryan Borucki and Yohan Ramirez held the Dodgers scoreless, but the damage already was done.
Before the fifth inning, the Pirates were ahead almost from the first pitch when Reynolds, the No. 2 hitter, belted his ninth home run of the season. Reynolds drove a 101-mph fastball from Dodgers starter Bobby Miller 411 feet into the right field seats. The ball left Reynolds’ bat at 107 mph. It was only the third time since 2015 that a Pirates player hit a home run off a 100-plus mph pitch.
In the fourth, Davis might have used his familiarity with Miller – they were battery mates at the University of Louisville in 2019 and 2020 – to rip a double off the left field wall. After Santana’s single, Suwinski homered to right field for the 4-0 lead, giving him 19 and matching his total in 106 games last season. He also leads the Pirates this season with 46 RBIs in 76 games.
The Pirates received a scare in the seventh inning when McCutchen landed on his sore elbow while trying to avoid ball four from Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford. After waiting for the pain to subside, McCutchen stayed in the game to the end.
“I’ve been kind of dealing with the elbow pretty much all year,” he said. “Sometimes you take falls and it doesn’t feel too good. Something I just have to deal with.”
Source: TribLIVE
