Pirates lose composure, Rays take advantage to clinch series win
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Whether it was manager Derek Shelton getting ejected or middle infielders Rodolfo Castro and Ji Hwan Bae committing costly errors, the Pittsburgh Pirates repeatedly lost their composure.
The Tampa Bay Rays took full advantage.
The Rays scored four unearned runs early and got a pair of solo home runs late to roll to an 8-1 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., to clinch a win in the three-game series between the two teams with the best records in baseball.
It marked the second consecutive game the Pirates (20-11) were haunted by mishaps in the field. They did no favors for Mitch Keller, who had eight strikeouts but threw 100 pitches in five innings.
“We gave too many opportunities away,” Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “Mitch threw the ball well. He had good stuff. But you cannot give a team like that extra outs, and we gave them extra outs, which cost Mitch extra pitches. We just didn’t catch the ball. We played sloppy. We have to play better than that.”
The Pirates had scoring chances but stranded Bryan Reynolds at second base in the first inning, Bae at third in the fourth and seventh innings and Connor Joe at third after a one-out triple in the sixth as they went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and left eight on base. Through the first two games of the series, they have an 0-for-17 RISP.
Lefty Shane McClanahan improved to 6-0, allowing one run on five hits and two walks while striking out nine as the Rays (25-6) showed why they have the best record in baseball.
After going 20-9 in the first month of the season, Shelton couldn’t put his finger on what has been troubling the Pirates. They have lost three consecutive games and have had difficulty adjusting to the dome and the turf field at the Trop.
“We just haven’t played well,” Shelton said. “I don’t know if there’s anything specific to it, if it’s the fact that it’s the series, if it’s the fact that the ball on turf. There’s a lot of factors to it. We just haven’t played well, and they’ve played well. They’re really good. If you give them extra outs, they will capitalize on it. With the way their pitching is, you cannot give them extra outs.”
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead with two outs in the third when Andrew McCutchen drilled McClanahan’s 2-1 fastball 357 feet to left field for his sixth home run.
The Rays responded with a three-run third, though none was earned.
Yandy Diaz’s two-out single to center was followed by Wander Franco’s single that bounced past Bae at second base. Keller got Harold Ramirez to hit a grounder to short, but Castro’s fielding error allowed Diaz to score and tie the game at 1-1. Brandon Lowe drove in two runs with a double that bounced over Reynolds in center to give the Rays a 3-0 edge.
Bae reached on a bunt single, then Shelton was tossed after a heated argument with home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott and third base umpire Adrian Johnson, who signaled that the pitch clock wasn’t working. Johnson then warned bench coach Don Kelly that he was watching him, pointing his fingers at his eyes and then toward the visitors’ dugout.
Shelton described it as a “disagreement with how the clock was being run,” saying he had talked with MLB earlier in the day after taking issue with how the umpires handled the pitch clock and missed a balk call in Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Rays.
The Pirates blew a prime scoring chance when Bae stole second and advanced to third on McClanahan’s wild pitch, but Hedges went down swinging at a 1-2 changeup. Hedges stranded a runner at third base for the third time in two games against the Rays.
After Francisco Mejia’s leadoff double down the right-field line in the fifth, Bae made a diving stop behind second base to get Diaz out. But Bae bobbled Franco’s dribbler, then threw it past Carlos Santana at first to allow Mejia to score for a 4-1 lead and Franco to reach third on the two-base error.
Ramirez followed with a chopper for an RBI single to left to give the Rays a 5-1 lead.
“I haven’t had much experience playing on the turf. One thing I realized is that the bounce on the turf is a little bigger than the actual grass field,” Bae said through translator Daniel Park. “The biggest mistake I made was I shouldn’t have thrown to first base. But I did. That was my biggest mistake.”
Rookie left-hander Jose Hernandez replaced Keller in the sixth, but Josh Lowe sent his second pitch 455 feet to right field for his sixth homer and a 6-1 Rays lead. Rookie righty Cody Bolton came in for the seventh, and Franco crushed his third pitch, going 425 feet to right for his sixth homer to make it 7-1.
The Rays added another run in the eighth when Jose Siri reached on an infield single — the Pirates lost a challenge — and scored on Luke Raley’s double off the left-field wall for an 8-1 lead.
Chase Anderson, a 35-year-old righty acquired from the Cincinnati Reds earlier in the day, pitched three scoreless innings to earn his first save.
The Pirates hope to put the game behind them, knowing they face a difficult challenge to avoid a series sweep when they play the Rays at 1:10 p.m. Thursday.
“Their pitching is unreal, their defense is really good and they can definitely swing it,” Keller said of the Rays. “You’ve got to be pumping on all cylinders out there and play a clean game. I think this is only a learning experience for a lot of guys. We wanted to come in here and win the series. Obviously we can’t do that, but we’ve got a chance (Thursday) to win one and start a new streak.”
Source: TribLIVE
