Welcome to the most depressing edition of Pirates Breakdowns’ Stock Report so far this season, although with the way the season is unraveling, there is still time to surpass this one.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were able to win just one of their six game this week, a 7-5 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 1st, which seems like ages ago. The last week saw the sputtering Pirates lose not one, but two games when their opponent scored 17 runs. Since the Pirates were only able to score 22 runs last week while allowing their opponents to cross home plate 56 times, there will be no shining stars this week. Since the opposition was able to go to town on the Pittsburgh pitchers this past week, this edition will look at four of the worst performances from the guys that toe the rubber.
Whose Stock is Falling
After throwing four scoreless innings last week, Tyler Glasnow appeared to have turned a corner and was set to put together a strong string of outings from the bullpen. That all came in two appearances that saw Glasnow get banged around by opposing hitters. He failed to record an out on July 4th when he allowed two runs on one hit and two walks. Glasnow was also unfortunately one of the pitchers that the Philadelphia Phillies teed off on during the 17-5 hammering on July 6th. He pitched the eighth and ninth innings and allowed three runs on five hits and a walk. If there is any silver lining in Glasnow’s performance last week, it’s that he struck out six hitters in the two innings he worked on Friday, and he also has now gone five appearances without allowing a home run.
Much like Glasnow in the bullpen, Ivan Nova continues put together a run of decent starts only to have one when the opposition gets to him in a big way. Nova had a streak of three quality starts come to an end when the Dodgers got to him in the five innings he pitched on July 3rd. The Dodgers tagged him for seven runs on nine hits and two walks in those five innings. Most impressively, Nova served up a now franchise record five home runs in that game. It seems patronizing to say, but it really can only go up from here for Nova after that horrendous start.
Even though he has since been optioned to Indianapolis, Dovydas Neverauskas stock cannot be much lower than it is right now. Neverauskas has struggled each time he has been with the parent club this season and that trend continued last week. Neverauskas appeared in two of the team’s losses last week, two thirds of an inning on July 3rd and two innings on July 6th. He allowed five runs on five hits and two walks but did strike out seven in his two appearances. With the season slipping farther and farther away with each loss, it makes little sense to have Neverauskas receive a promotion again this year.
Trevor Williams was saddled with the loss in Friday’s 17-5 thumping by the Phillies and also saw him record his shortest start of the season. Williams was pulled after recording one out in the third and was responsible for the first five runs Philadelphia put up in the game that would tie the record for longest ever in the National League. This was also the first start of the season for Williams in which he was unable to record a strikeout, and since June 1st he has only recorded two quality starts.
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