Late solo homers sink Pirates, 2-1
McKinney, Muncy hit shots in 7th, 8th in Dodgers rally
LOS ANGELES — Max Muncy turned and stared into the Dodgers dugout, tossed his bat out of celebration and screamed. Two innings earlier, Muncy was furious, as he absorbed a pitch from Steven Brault. With the Dodgers looking to continue their dominance over the Pirates, Muncy got his revenge.
His home run off Chasen Shreve in the bottom of the eighth inning soared into the thick, evening air, the four-seam fastball Pittsburgh’s pitcher left up and in landing halfway up the bleachers in right-center field. It gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish, as the home team sent the mass of Dodgers Stadium fans home happy.
It’s also a familiar refrain for the Pirates. They now have lost 11 in a row here, their most recent victory coming Aug. 14, 2016. Overall, the Pirates have dropped 21 of 23 against the Dodgers since 2017, including 14 in a row.
That’s the longest winning streak for either team in the history of this series, and it comes as the Pirates keep finding new ways
to lose games.
Monday happened because the Pirates couldn’t do much of anything against the Dodgers bullpen — the baseball equivalent of finding extra bills in your pocket considering the look of Los Angeles’ ridiculous rotation.
The Pirates could not convert key opportunities. Worse, they made just enough mistakes to leave Dodger Stadium feeling like, yeah, they probably could have done more. And all of this came after a pretty solid start for Steven Brault.
Muncy’s outburst comes after he hit two home runs Sunday in a victory — and series sweep — in New York. He entered the game fourth in the National League in home runs with 25 and with 107 since the start of 2018, better than all but two National League hitters.
The Pirates, who now have dropped 20 of 26, were right there with the Dodgers through six and actually broke through in the seventh, when they used some small ball and a little luck to take the lead.
Brusdar Graterol led off the inning by hitting Gregory Polanco before Rodolfo Castro enjoyed an outstanding, 11-pitch at-bat, finishing it with an infield single to give the Pirates runners on first and second and no outs.
Wilmer Difo stepped to the plate as a pinch-hitter and put down a solid sacrifice bunt. First baseman Cody Bellinger fielded it but threw the ball away, allowing Polanco to score.
The Pirates actually should have had another run, but Castro made a baserunning mistake at third, when he failed to tag up and score on a deep fly ball off the bat of Hoy Park. Castro got caught a couple of steps off the bag and couldn’t get back in time.
Continuing another trend that we’ve seen from the Pirates this season, Colin Moran bounced out to first with the bases loaded after the Dodgers intentionally walked Bryan Reynolds. The Pirates are hitting just .172 with the bases loaded, worst in the majors and the lowest mark in MLB since the Astros hit a measly .130 in that situation back in 2012.
The Dodgers tied the score on a pitch that Anthony Banda will surely want back. Facing right fielder Billy McKinney in the seventh, Banda left a four-seam fastball up in the zone, and McKinney smashed it into the rightfield seats.
Making his third start since coming off the injured list, Brault had his best outing of 2021, consistently commanding his fastball and snapping off plenty of sharp sliders. The left- hander didn’t allow a Dodgers runner to touch second base until the sixth and allowed no runs on three hits — all singles — over 5⅔ innings, walking one, hitting one and striking out four.
There was a diversity to Brault’s pitch mix that we haven’t always seen. At times, he’s been very reliant on fastballs. The fourseamer compromised just 49% of Brault’s pitches, while he threw his changeup 21% and his slider 16%.
It was evident the Dodgers had a tough time recognizing what Brault was doing by their 15 whiffs, seven of those coming on his heater, which can be tough to track.
The Pirates, meanwhile, had a task that was equally as difficult in facing a pitcher who was actually making his MLB debut. Andre Jackson entered the game after Justin Bruihl opened and hardly looked like someone light on experience.
Jackson showcased a nasty changeup, a pitch that almost behaved at times like a curveball, and he struck out five Pirates hitters in four scoreless innings of work.
Brault lasted until the second out in the sixth, when he got Albert Pujols to pop up to first with two on. It was a curious time to pull Brault, unless he had reached some sort of pitch count at 76 (and 50 strikes).
Manager Derek Shelton turned to Nick Mears, who walked the next hitter, Justin Turner, before getting left fielder AJ Pollock to bounce out to shortstop.