I don’t really know what to make of this game, other than that it was a sloppy mess for the Pirates. For most of Gerrit Cole’s uneven start, I simultaneously felt like he wasn’t pitching well and that he didn’t deserve the fate that the Pirates’ defense had left him to. In the second inning, two runs scored when Josh Harrison got a really bad break on a soft line drive out of a no doubles positioning. I don’t know if a better right fielder would’ve made the play, given where Harrison started, but I would have liked to see one try. In the sixth, the Brewers scored their third run off of a soft infield hit. Cole clearly had trouble locating his pitches tonight, but his fastball was topping out at over 100 and he had the Brewers swinging and missing at pretty much everything. Like I said; I don’t really know how to assign blame here. Cole put way too many runners on base, but the defense didn’t do much at all to bail him out. Things got worse when the bullpen came in, as Jared Hughes gave up one run by allowing a string of hits and a second run by allowing the ball to ricochet off of him like crazy in the second half of the seventh inning.
On the flip side of things, the Pirates only had one hit all night with a runner in scoring position (1-for-9), which came after the game was decided. The second, third, fourth, seventh, and eighth innings ended with at least one Pirate in scoring position, and the Pirates only scored in one of those innings. It was frustrating to watch runners end every inning on base while the Brewers slowly pulled away with the game.
I said before this game started that I wanted to see the Pirates somehow take two of three against the Brewers in this series. I forgot Wandy Rodriguez was starting on Thursday. Now I’m hoping against all hope that they find a way to not get swept.
