PITTSBURGH - The Pirates came into Wednesday with a chance to make the math a little cleaner. Instead, they left with a 3-0 loss to Arizona, a split of the head-to-head series at 3-3, and a Wild Card picture that got messier.
That was the kind of night where every inning seemed to carry a little extra weight. A win would have tied Pittsburgh for the final NL Wild Card spot and given the Pirates the head-to-head tiebreaker. A loss, as it turned out, pushed them two games back and sent the tiebreaker to divisional record.
Brandon Lowe had put the broader reality in plain terms after Tuesday’s game: “I don't think I've ever seen anybody clinch in July,” veteran Brandon Lowe said after Tuesday’s game.
The Pirates never found the kind of offense they needed against Arizona starter Eduardo Rodriguez. Pittsburgh managed only five hits through eight innings, and the Diamondbacks controlled the game from the moment they broke through in the fourth.
Jared Jones was sharp early, needing just 29 pitches to get through the first three innings while carrying a perfect game into the fourth. Then Corbin Carroll doubled and Gabriel Moreno followed with a two-run homer, turning a clean start into a 2-0 Arizona lead.
Jones gave up another run in the sixth before reaching his pitch limit and handing the ball over to Carmen Mlodzinski, who kept the game from getting away with three scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
But the Pirates’ bats never gave the pitching staff any real support. Pittsburgh has now dropped five straight games against left-handed starters, and this one fit the pattern. Rodriguez kept rolling, and the Pirates never put together the kind of sustained pressure that could have changed the shape of the night.
Manager Don Kelly didn’t sugarcoat what the homestand looked like after Pittsburgh finished 2-4 against the Cubs and Diamondbacks, two clubs currently in postseason spots.
“I think that it's always tough after a loss because losing sucks, and when you sit here and try to talk positively, it's hard,” Don Kelly said. “And looking at the home stand, 2-4 isn't good enough.
“And two of those losses were extra-inning games that we were right there, and I think that the fight that this team has shown, not just in this homestand and specifically in this series, coming back the first night, finding a way last night to come back. Today was frustrating.
The fight is there, and we're right there. We just need to continue to do the little things that we need to do to get over the hump and win those close games, win the games against these teams.”
Kelly also pointed to the ongoing issue against left-handed pitching.
“We’ve got to be better and try to find different ways to do that,” Kelly said of struggles against left-handed starters. “I know the hitting group is working with the guys on different approaches and trying to figure it out.”
Pittsburgh now heads out for eight straight games against NL Central rivals, carrying the frustration of a homestand where the offense averaged 3.3 runs per game against the Cubs and Diamondbacks. The Pirates can’t say Wednesday cost them everything, but it did leave them with more ground to make up in a race that’s getting tighter by the day.
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