Tim Benz: Pirates’ inability to finish a sweep is something to behold
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I have 15 windows open on my browser as I write this post about the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The first one is the Google Doc I’m using to write my initial draft.
The next 13 are box scores of the 13 losses from the Pirates this year as they have unsuccessfully tried to complete a series sweep.
The 15th is a page of search engine results detailing a list of mental health professionals in my area who might be able to help me with the post-traumatic fallout of reliving all of those losses.
Yes, after Sunday’s 6-2 loss to the Washington Nationals at PNC Park, the Pirates are now 0-13 in their attempts to complete a series sweep in 2021. They are the only team in Major League Baseball who have been unable to turn that trick this season.
I’m not sure what’s more stunning. That the Pirates have failed 13 times in a row to complete a sweep. Or that a team as inept as the 2021 Pirates has actually been in position to sweep an opponent 13 times in a season.
I figured that, following an off-day, this would be a good time to go back over the Pirates failures and see if I can find any trends, threads, consistencies or tendencies that may indicate why the Pirates can’t seem to get over the hump.
Spoiler alert. I didn’t.
The Pirates just aren’t any good. The bottom line is that we should be surprised that they’ve even been in a position to sweep a team more than a dozen times this year.
But since I did the homework, the numbers are still worth kicking around. So here you go.
• The 13 failed sweeps have come against 13 different opponents.
Apr. 28 vs. Kansas City Royals
May 30 vs. Colorado Rockies
June 6 vs. Miami Marlins
June 20 vs. Cleveland Indians
June 23 vs. Chicago White Sox
July 7 vs. Atlanta Braves
July 18 vs. New York Mets
July 25 vs. San Francisco Giants
Aug. 1 vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Aug. 22 vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Aug. 25 vs. Arizona Diamondbacks
Sept. 8 vs. Detroit Tigers
Sept. 12 vs. Washington Nationals
• The series sweeps the Pirates have been on the verge of closing out have been one four-gamer (versus the Marlins in early June), two two-game series (against the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox) and 10 three-game series.
• In these 13 losses, the Pirates have been outscored on average 6.4 runs per game to 2.5 runs per game. The Pirates have scored two runs or less in seven of the 13 games. They gave up nine runs or more three times.
• The Pirates suffered four one-run defeats along the way.
• Some of the Pirates’ most notable losses this year have occurred in these games. A 15-4 loss to the Phillies. A 14-3 blowout at the hands of Atlanta. And that 7-6 loss to the New York Mets when the Pirates blew a 6-0 first inning lead.
Remember? Mets pitcher Taijuan Walker flubbed the (not quite) foul ball, and three Pirates scored on a ball that Kevin Newman hit about 18 inches.
In play, run(s) pic.twitter.com/bdTzc0SU9r
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 18, 2021
Yeah. New York still ended up winning that game.
Also, there was that Adam Wainwright two-hit, eight-inning, nine-strikeout masterpiece for the Cardinals on Aug. 22 that prevented a sweep in St. Louis.
Manager Derek Shelton’s highly criticized decision to pull J.T. Brubaker in the seventh inning (after just 76 pitches) tied 1-1 with nine strikeouts and no walks also took place in a near-sweep loss to Cleveland on June 20. The Indians ended up winning 2-1.
• Only two of the failed sweeps occurred on the road. The other eleven took place at PNC Park. That’s not a surprise given that the Pirates’ 20-51 road record — the second worst in the National League — hasn’t put them in a position to sweep too many teams on the road.
OK. Their 32-40 home record isn’t much better. But you get the point.
• Brubaker and Mitch Keller have three starts each in these games. Keller’s three losses are the most on the staff in such situations.
But fret not, Pirates fans. The Buccos still have six series left. Three of them are against the Cincinnati Reds. Another is against the Chicago Cubs.
And they’ll get one more crack each at the Marlins and Phillies. However, those two series are on the road. And they still are the Pirates. So don’t get your hopes up.
Time to close out my browser. My computer is very unhappy with me right now. And my therapy is about to start.