Pirates Waste Jake Woodford's Career Night in San Diego
Another game, another wasted opportunity for the Pittsburgh Pirates to eat away at the ground they've lost in the Wild Card race over the last two weeks. Tuesday night, the Bucs dropped the opening game of the series to the San Diego Padres, 2-1, marking their eighth consecutive loss.
Coming into the night, both clubs would have been thrilled to get several scoreless innings of work from their starting pitcher and that's exactly what happened.
San Diego's Joe Musgrove made his first start since May 26th (elbow inflammation) and gave up two base hits in 4.1 innings of shutout ball. Jake Woodford took the mound for his second start with the Bucs and did a terrific job navigating through one of the most challenging lineups in baseball, surrendering just three hits in six innings - the longest outing of his big league career.
The Pirates had a golden opportunity to plate the game's run in the top of the sixth with Oneil Cruz sitting at third base after a single, stolen base, and a wild pitch. With one out and Cruz just 90 feet away, Bryan Hoeing was able to wobble out of trouble thanks to an infield pop fly from Rowdy Tellez and Isiah Kiner-Falefa bouncing out to third. Bryan Reynolds struck out with runners on first and second in the seventh, stranding the go-ahead run once again.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton turned to the bullpen after Jurrickson Profar ripped a lead off double to right field, summoning Kyle Nicolas into action. Nicolas picked up a big punch out of Jake Cronenworth, but a wild pitch and a base knock through the right side of the infield from Xander Bogaerts gave the Friars a 1-0 lead through seven.
For the third consecutive frame, the Pirates left a man in scoring position to end the inning. Oneil Cruz lead off the eighth with a double to shallow left and never moved after reaching second. Joey Bart and Connor Joe (pinch hitting for Tellez) went down on strikes with Kiner-Falefa flying out to center.
The Padres picked up an insurance run in the bottom half of the eight on a deep sac fly to left from Kyle Higashioka, a ball that was just a few feet shy of being a three-run homer.
Bryan De La Cruz reached base on a single in the top of the ninth and then a couple of batters later, Andrew McCutchen came through with a two out RBI knock to cut the deficit in half. Reynolds hit a shot to right center but Jackson Merrill made a terrific diving play to seal the deal for San Diego.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES STATS
1. DH Andrew McCutchen 1-3, RBI
2. LF Bryan Reynolds 0-5
3. SS Oneil Cruz 2-3, BB
4. C Joey Bart 0-3, BB
5. 1B Rowdy Tellez 1-3
-PH Connor Joe 0-1
6. 2B Isiah Kiner-Falefa 1-4
7. 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes 0-4
8. RF Bryan De La Cruz 2-4
9. CF Michael A. Taylor 0-4
SAN DIEGO PADRES STATS
1. DH Luis Arraez 0-4
2. LF Jurrickson Profar 1-3
3. 1B Jake Cronenworth 1-3
4. 2B Xander Bogaerts 1-3, RBI
5. 3B Donovan Solano 0-3
6. CF Jackson Merrill 0-3
7. RF David Peralta 0-2
8. SS Ha-Seong Kim 2-3
9. C Kyle Higashioka 0-2, RBI
Tomorrow's probable starters: Luis Ortiz (PIT) vs. Michael King (SD); 9:40 p.m. EST.
SCHUYLER CALLIHAN