The Pirates haven’t lost a game that conclusively in about three weeks.
While watching the 7-2 loss to the Nationals on Sunday, I had plenty of time to think about how rare these types of games have been this year.
The Pirates lost 7-0 to Houston on April 12th, although a lot of those runs were scored late. They haven’t had a loss like today’s since April 10th, when Houston went up 7-2 after four innings, before adding one more run in their win.
Today, Washington put up seven runs against Johan Oviedo on nine hits in 2.1 innings. Oviedo allowed multiple hits and runs in each of the three innings he pitched, and was pulled for Dauri Moreta in the third.
Credit to the bullpen today. After getting a bit of a break yesterday, they backed up Oviedo with 5.2 shutout innings today.
Moreta pitched 1.2, and he was followed by Rule 5 lefty Jose Hernandez, who threw two shutout innings, lowering his season ERA to 0.77. Yohan Ramirez and Duane Underwood Jr. both added shutout innings.
The offense couldn’t get going today, after scoring 22 runs in two games yesterday. The Pirates had six hits today, in a game that was delayed for two hours and 26 minutes by rain. Bryan Reynolds and Tucupita Marcano had two hits each, while having the lone RBIs.
The Pirates are now 20-9 on the season, still a game and a half ahead of the Brewers in first place in the NL Central.
I’ll be covering the next three games against the Rays from St. Pete. What a treat it will be to get an early preview of the 2023 World Series.
