• Pirates fall to Nationals, 8-1, for 9th loss in a row,
Pirates losing grip with 9th loss in row
WASHINGTON — His start coming only about seven hours after Major League Baseball announced the timing and breadth of its impending crackdown on foreign substances, Tyler Anderson’s night Tuesday against the Nationals was defined, appropriately, by grip.
But while Anderson did not hide how he felt about Rob Manfred’s latest maneuver, accusing the MLB commissioner of manipulating baseballs and forcing pitchers to seek legal and illegal ways to grip their pitches, the Pirates left- handed starter also let a few of his own slip out of his fingers.
The most noticeable came to Yan Gomes, the Nationals catcher pounding a fastball from Anderson that caught too much of the plate for a first-inning grand slam, as Washington rode a strong offensive start and a stellar performance from Patrick Corbin to an 8-1 victory over the Pirates at Nationals Park. It was the Pirates’ ninth loss in a row.
“I think I could have gotten it over maybe another inch or two to make it a little safer,” Anderson said of the fastball that Gomes hit. “But it looked like he was looking for a heater there.”
Gomes crushed the ball over the left-field wall. Given
how well Corbin pitched, it was more than enough. It was also the 13th home run Anderson has allowed this season. Only eight MLB pitchers have allowed more.
But with the news that came out earlier in the day Tuesday, it’s hard to avoid the issue of sticky stuff and what sort of impact it will have once the crackdown officially starts June 21.
The same as JT Brubaker on Monday, Anderson saw his spin rates drop, although that would also track with some of the grip adjustments he said he has been making with his pitches, like messing with his changeup to get a little more fading action.
Changing grips has been a frustrating thing for Anderson because of what he described — the inconsistency of the baseball from year-to-year and parkto-park. The fact that, in some places, you can get a good grip on them. In others, it’s like trying to spin a cue ball.
“I feel like this is just a problem that was created by Manfred, by changing the ball every year,” Anderson said. “The only people who have to make any adjustments when the ball changes every year are the pitchers. When your pitches aren’t doing something the same, I think guys probably out of desperation kind of look for other ways to try and get their pitches to go back to what they were.”
Anderson certainly isn’t against any sort of enforcement. In fact, he said he’s glad MLB is cracking down and would welcome some uniformity, especially when it comes to baseballs.
Anything to get a better grip on the situation.
Team-wise, the Pirates need to get a grip on their season and soon. The loss dropped them to 23-43 on the year and 6-13-3 in series play.
“I know we’re not winning right now, but we’re playing pretty good baseball for the most part,” Anderson said. “Some things aren’t going our way. Pretty much one inning in a game. If you look at the last week, every game it’s been one inning that’s hurt us. If you avoid and limit damage in that one big inning, I think we’ll be OK.”
The Pirates will have to do more than limit the damage if they’re going to beat someone who was as good as Corbin was Tuesday.
He and Anderson enjoyed divergent starts to the season, as Washington’s lone remaining member of its Big Three ( Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer are hurt) gave up 15 runs in his first two starts. Anderson didn’t give up that many through his first seven.
But Corbin had what was easily his best outing of the season Tuesday, working 8⅓ innings and allowing one run on eight hits while walking one and striking out seven. Throwing mostly sliders and fastballs, Corbin picked up 14 whiffs, 11 with his slider.
“I thought the fastball really had some downhill plane to it,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “And when you’re working off a big breaking ball like that, it causes problems.”
The Pirates scratched out their only run in the seventh. Gregory Polanco led off the inning with an infield single and scored when Phillip Evans drove a low- and- outside fastball from Corbin the other way.
Around the horn
Ke’Bryan Hayes’ 11game hitting streak (19 dating to last year) came to a close with his 0-for-3 night. … Former Pirate Jordy Mercer started at third, had three hits and made a terrific diving play to rob Jacob Stallings of a possible run-scoring double.