Almost over before it started
Pittsburgh’s first six batters rough up Musgrove for hits during a 4-run first
PITTSBURGH — Before Joe Musgrove recorded an out Tuesday night, his fourth major league start had unraveled. Each of the first six batters he faced managed hits. Four came around to score.
A wretched first inning doomed Musgrove in the Astros’ 7-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. The righthander lasted only four innings, his shortest outing yet. For the second time in six days, his evening served as a reminder of a rookie’s ongoing development as a pitcher.
The Astros’ bats fared
no better as the team snapped its four-game winning streak. Pirates righthander Ivan Nova, acquired from the New York Yankees on tradedeadline day, dominated in a complete game on 98 pitches, losing his shutout bid in the ninth inning on back-to-back doubles by Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve.
“The starter’s job is to go out there and set the tone of the game, and any time you go out there and have a first inning like that, it kind of sucks the wind out of everything,” said Musgrove, who was
charged with five runs on eight hits.
“I had the right plan going out there. I just didn’t execute.”
For Musgrove, this was the second consecutive start in which he struggled. Five days earlier, he was rocked by Baltimore for eight runs and three homers in 51⁄3 innings.
On Tuesday, uncharacteristically poor location of his fastball didn’t permit Musgrove to get to his slider or curveball to finish at-bats.
Musgrove was asked what he has learned from his last two starts.
“I throw a lot of strikes, and that’s been a strength for me,” he said. “Up here, guys don’t miss pitches as much, so I’m going to have to learn to throw more quality balls in certain counts. I just made bad pitches tonight, and they took advantage of it.”
16 pitches of trouble
Sixteen pitches into his evening, Musgrove faced a four-run deficit. After fellow rookie Adam Frazier led off with a single, Musgrove allowed consecutive run-scoring doubles to Matt Joyce and Andrew McCutchen. Gregory Polanco, David Freese and Josh Bell followed with consecutive singles, the Astros recording the first out only when Bell attempted to stretch his hit into a double.
The six straight hits for the Pirates exceeded their total of five from the entirety of Monday’s series-opening 3-1 loss. They had scored one or two runs in three consecutive games before breaking out Tuesday.
All but two of the Pirates’ opening six hits were driven back up the middle or to left-center field.
“I was mentioning (the six consecutive hits) to the offensive coordinator (hitting coach) Jeff Branson, told him I liked the way he scripted his first 20 plays,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We might want to stick with that. They came out extremely well, striking balls where they were pitched. We were able to take advantage of a sinkerballer not getting the ball down”
Learning curve
Musgrove recovered for a perfect second inning before the lefthandedhitting Polanco sliced an opposite-field home run in the third, the first of two long balls for the Pirates outfielder. Musgrove worked around a one-out Jordy Mercer double in the fourth, but when his place in the batting order came up in the fifth, manager A.J. Hinch summoned Tony Kemp to pinch hit.
“He’s learning,” Hinch said of Musgrove. “That’s part of the nature of having young starters. He’s got to learn to battle himself through his first back-to-back games of adversity. He’s got pitches to do it. He’s got a ton of competitiveness in him. He’ll get the ball in five days.”
In his last two starts, Musgrove’s ERA has risen from 1.47 to 5.20. He looked nearly untouchable in his first three outings, allowing only three runs over 181⁄3 innings. But just like pitchers adjust to young hitters who get off to a hot start, so, too, do hitters to young pitchers.
Now it’s up to Musgrove to adjust back.