In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.
After dropping the first three games of their four-game set to the Washington Nationals, the Pittsburgh Pirates faced a golden opportunity to salvage a win in the series when they faced off against Jeremy Hellickson Thursday afternoon.
Needless to say they didn’t take advantage.
Hellickson and four relievers combined on a five-hitter for Washington as they completed the four-game sweep of the Pirates with a 3-1 win.
Washington had only four hits on the day, but two of them left the yard against Pirates starter Trevor Williams.
Trea Turner and Ryan Zimmerman homered in the sixth inning and that was all the offense the Nats needed.
The bad part there is Williams is the toughest pitcher in the majors to homer off in the past calendar year.
The Bucs loaded the bases in the eighth and Nats’ manager Dave Martinez summoned closer Sean Doolittle to face Gregory Polanco.
Even though Doolittle rarely gives up a hit to a left-hand batter, Pirates’ manager Clint Hurdle elected to let Polanco bat instead of possibly using the hot Francisco Cervelli in that situation.
Polanco grounded out which brought in a run and Doolittle got Starling Marte to fly out ending the Pirates lone threat.
Hurdle said after the game the thought to pinch hit for Polanco there never entered his head.
Have to Wake Up Bats
It was a rough series for the Pirates offense who hit a combined .212/.252/.341 in the series.
The Bucs were outscored 27-10 by the Nats in the four games.
A big issue is that they only drew seven walks in the four games compared to striking out 32 times.
Up Next
The Pirates will look to get back in the winning column tonight, but it won’t be easy as they head to Milwaukee.
Nick Kingham (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will look to build off his wonderful MLB debut as he makes his second career start.
He will be opposed by the Brewers’ Junior Guerra (2-1, 0.82)
#Bucsin280
After each Pittsburgh Pirates game, we take to our twitter to recap the game in 280 characters. Think of it as a snapshot need-to-know from the game. Here now is the #Bucsin280 from last night. Follow us on Twitter to see these in real time!
#Pirates lose 3-1 to the #Nats. They have now been swept in back to back road 4 game series’. That’s impressively bad. Williams was decent, but not decent enough. The Pirates couldn’t touch Jeremy Hellickson. 8 straight road loses. Jekyll and Hyde team. Milwaukee next. #BUCSin280
— Pirates Breakdown (@piratebreakdown) May 3, 2018
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Baseball talk on the web
- Locked on Pirates looks at how the Bucs bullpen is paving the way
- Ichiro moving to a front office role with Mariners
- Albert Puljos now one hit away from 3,000
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