Bullpen struggles again; walks lead to another loss
Pirates blow lead, fall in 9th inning
The Pirates kept the Minnesota Twins’ big boppers at bay, but it didn’t matter.
Walks — as they always do — proved entirely too costly.
Though the Pirates got ahead of the Twins Monday night at Target Field, they couldn’t hold the lead and dropped a 5-4 decision when Nelson Cruz lofted a deep fly ball to center, completing Minnesota’s comeback.
The loss drops the Pirates to 2-8 on the year, while the Twins are 8-2. Minnesota came into the game with 16 home runs, second-most in the majors. They managed just two extra-base hits against the Pirates, and the ball stayed in the yard.
Minnesota mounted a rally in the bottom of the ninth when pinch-hitter Jorge Polanco led off with a single, and moved to second on a passed ball. Cole Tucker and Guillermo Heredia nearly collided on a play, with Heredia recording the out but allowing the runners to move up 90 feet.
Cruz followed with his deep drive, the 10th walkoff hit of his career and yet another frustrating night for the Pirates in the books.
The compelling story of the game Monday should’ve been Derek Holland, the lefthanded starter the Pirates signed to a minor-league deal this offseason, inserting him into the rotation after strong spring and summer camps.
Holland was flat-out unhittable for five innings, commanding his sinker and keeping his off-speed stuff down. The southpaw allowed just two singles through five while also striking out five, four of those coming on sinkers.
It had all the makings of the Pirates’ longest start of the year — they have not yet had a pitcher work into the sixth inning — but things went awry in the sixth.
After retiring the No. 9 hitter, shortstop Ehire Adrianza, Holland walked Twins catcher Mitch Garver. Holland got another out before Cruz singled to right, and Heredia airmailed a throw home, allowing Cruz to take second.
First baseman Miguel Sano walked before right fielder Max Kepler found himself in a hitter’s count at 2-1. Holland had to come with something and left a fastball up in the zone. Kepler crushed it to center, and something the Pirates have been experimenting with during the early part of this season burned them.
Tucker started in on the ball, a no-no as your first couple steps in the outfield should always be back; the thinking is that it’s easier to run forward than chase a ball that’s behind you.
But Tucker only has a couple weeks of experience playing the outfield and simply made a rookie mistake. The ball sailed over his head, scoring two and trimming the Pirates’ lead to 4-3. If that wasn’t painful enough, there will be plenty of frustration over what came next — and justifiably so.
Into the game came Miguel Del Pozo, who was appearing for the fourth time in the past seven days, an outlier when you compare how the Pirates have handled their other relievers thus far.
Del Pozo also has been ineffective and wild, allowing four earned runs and walking five (striking out none) in 1⅔ innings of work thus far.
His outing went about as you would expect: three consecutive walks, including a wild pitch that made it a 4-4 game, before manager Derek Shelton mercifully turned things over to Chris Stratton, who escaped the basesloaded jam thanks to a terrific diving catch from Bryan Reynolds in left.
Del Pozo, used in a onerun game with the Pirates ahead, has now thrown 72 pitches across four appearances this season, just 34 of them strikes. He has walked eight of the 14 batters he has faced. It’s a shame, too, because the Pirates actually had their offense clicking for once.
Scoring runs early has been a difficult task for the Pirates through their first nine games, as only six of their 30 had come before the seventh inning. But a drastically different lineup spurred some change.
For the first time this season, Shelton went with Tucker atop the lineup, and the converted outfielder whacked the first pitch he saw over the fence.