The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 10-1 on Sunday afternoon to the Toronto Blue Jays in front of a crowd of 21,655 fans, who waited through a long rain delay to see the team’s seventh straight loss.
The 1:35 PM start time turned into a 3:10 PM game. The Blue Jays were just waiting to get things started, putting up an early run in the first, though it could have been worse.
Starter Roansy Contreras got Danny Jansen to strike out swinging with the bases loaded to end the inning. Toronto loaded the bases on a Bo Bichette single, Daulton Varsho double and a Brandon Belt walk. They scored their one run on an infield single by Whit Merrifield.
Ke’Bryan Hayes had a walk and a stolen base in the bottom of the first, but nothing else happened for the Pirates.
After a scoreless second inning, Contreras gave up a pair of one-out singles, followed by a three-run homer by Merrifield.
The game was basically done at this point, as the Pirates came into the day with eight runs total over their previous six losses. However, there was a moment later where the game got interesting.
The Blue Jays added a run in the fifth on a Matt Chapman walk, Belt double, and an RBI ground out by Jansen.
Mark Mathias doubled in the fifth for the Pirates, but that threat turned into nothing.
Dauri Moreta took over for Contreras in the sixth, after he went five innings on nine hits, five runs, three walks and four strikeouts. Moreta threw a scoreless sixth, followed by a shutout frame from rookie Jose Hernandez, who has a 1.84 ERA in 14.2 innings over 12 appearances.
The Pirates went into the bottom of the eighth down 5-0. Hayes singled to start the inning. Bryan Reynolds hit a fly ball out to center field for the first out. Connor Joe doubled to put two men in scoring position. Carlos Santana followed with a one-run single.
Andrew McCutchen drew a pinch-hit walk in his first appearance since suffering a minor ankle injury on Friday. That loaded the bases with one out. The Blue Jays went to reliever Jordan Romano to face Jack Suwinski, who represented the tying run.
Suwinski struck out, though that gave Miguel Andujar a chance to tie the game. He popped out to third base to end the frame.
The top of the ninth was ugly, with Chase De Jong giving up five earned runs to put the score out of reach.
The Pirates begin a three-game series at PNC Park against the Colorado Rockies on Monday night. Pittsburgh still holds a half game lead at the top of the National League Central division.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Peggy for eduardo rodriguez + restructure his contract so no opt out
like
Another thing, all the 2bmen they have f*cking blow.
Castro, Marcano, Bae, Mathias, Gonzales, Peguero. Unbelievable they missed on all these guys.
I’m desperate for some hope. I’m clinging to to Peguero having 150 WRC+ and 18/16% BB to K ratio since April 21.
But yeah seriously… hard to believe how many of these guys we seem to have missed on.
Curse of Neil Walker
he would no doubt come down from the booth
Endy knows how to place second base
That would be like signing Willson Contreras to a 5/87.5 million contract and moving him to DH only after one month into the season.
Can we combine them all into one above average regular?
Who replaces dejong as long man out of the pen?
Flowers
I feel really bad for the folks that thought this was real.
The need pitching badly, really sux about JT. Contreras and Oviedo are not the answers. I hope they draft Skenes, they need an ace and drafting 1-1 is the only way to get one.
I just cashed out my Pirates WS bet. Pirates will definitely start winning again tonight now.
Thank you for your service
You just know they’re going to rip off 7 in a row.
Exactly.
The gm and manager need to figure out where they can make in system improvements, an go from there. Second base, outfield and catcher would be where I would start. DeLong can go and bring up a relief arm, Ortiz should be up Tuesday maybe he can stay.
Outfield? Who are you replacing? Reynolds? Suwinski? Joe? Cutch?
2b & SS needs an upgrade but I don’t see anything internally. Catcher needs to be Delay until he proves he can’t do it. He could be the next Stallings.
Shelton thinks there’s a reset button that can be pushed and everything will correct itself. Unfortunately he has no idea where it is or what it looks like.
Now’s the time when good managers step up to lead and motivate but Shelton’s quote after todays game basically said he never thought they were that good anyway. “I think no one expected that pace to keep up, as well as we played,” said manager Derek Shelton. Nice pep talk Derek, that ought to light the fire to get ‘em going.
True, much better to hyperventilate about pulling off an impossible pace to maintain.
need to light a fire under their butts
Somebody needs to be throwing some bats in that clubhouse!
Whos paging SRod to beat up a gatorade cooler