The Pirates started their long, Noneil stretch in less-than-stellar fashion. A poor start from Roansy Contreras and some even poorer managing from Derek Shelton left them in an early hole and they dropped an 8-2 decision to Houston. Their record now stands at 6-5.
There’s less to be said about Contreras’ outing than there is about Shelton’s handling of the situation. Contreras had no command from the start, falling behind nearly every hitter. In the end, it took him 83 pitches to labor through three and a third innings, only 44 of them for strikes.
There was no stretch in which Contreras got things under control. He allowed seven runs on nine hits, four walks, a hit batsman and a wild pitch. On top of all that, his velocity was way down by the time Shelton, at long last, took him out. We can only hope Shelton’s gross negligence doesn’t cost the Pirates another starter.
The Pirates’ offense couldn’t do much with Framber Valdez. They managed five walks off him, but none of those produced a run. They went 1-for-7 with RISP and hit into three double plays (one a line drive). The top of the order — Ke’Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds and Andrew McCutchen — combined to go 0-for-11 with one walk.
The two runs came from the three hits the Bucs had off Valdez. Ji-Man Choi connected for his first Pirate home run in the second. Carlos Santana doubled and scored on a single by Rodolfo Castro in the fourth.
Once Valdez was out after seven, the Pirates went down meekly in the last two innings. Castro reached base all three times up on the single, a walk and a hit batsman. Mark Mathias made his Pirate debut by going 0-for-3 and stranding five runners.
The bullpen had a mostly good game. Wil Crowe went two and two-thirds scoreless innings despite three walks. Jose Hernandez had a very rough inning but survived with one run allowed due to a one-out, bases-loaded line-drive double play. He did come back for a scoreless second inning, although there were a couple more line outs. Rob Zastryzny threw a 1-2-3 ninth.
