WASHINGTON -- For the first time in this four-game series, the Pirates did a nice job handling the one-two punch of Bryce Harper and Matt Adams that helped carry the Washington Nationals to wins in the first three games.
What they couldn't figure out is how to keep Wilmer Difo off the base paths. And the usually light-hitting middle infielder-turned-third baseman will haunt the Pirates all the way on their flight to Milwaukee for their next series, which starts Friday.
Trevor Williams cruised through five innings in Thursday afternoon's matinee, allowing just two baserunners, Matt Wieters and Difo, to reach base.
But in the sixth, Difo, who batted in the ninth spot in the order the past three games, rapped a leadoff single through the second base hole to start an inning that would end Williams' day and the Pirates' hopes of salvaging at least one game in this four-game series.
Two batters later, Trea Turner laced a home run into the stands in left and cleanup batter Ryan Zimmerman hit a solo shot with two outs to score the only runs the Nationals would need to beat the Pirates, 3-1.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEOI asked Clint Hurdle if he's seen a player have the kind of series Difo had while batting in the eighth and ninth spots.
"I don't know if I have," Hurdle told me. "We talked about it every game. We talked about resetting the button on him. We didn't find a way to get it done. No, he made a difference there. He set up a lot of things for them, drove in some runs, as well."
Difo — subbing for injured Anthony Rendon — had a pair of hits and an RBI Monday night in the eighth spot in the order, then went 5-for-7 with three walks batting ninth the past three games in manager Dave Martinez' retooled lineup that put the pitcher in the eighth spot and Harper in the leadoff role.
He set the table for the Nationals in the third, following a single by Wieters with a one-out walk to put runners at first and second. But Williams (2-2) struck out Harper, then got Turner to ground out to end a 10-pitch at bat to get out of the inning.
But while Williams was throwing up scoreless innings for the Pirates (17-15), his counterpart, Jeremy Hellickson, was doing the same, allowing two hits in 5 2/3 innings before being lifted after giving up his third hit, a two-out single to Adam Frazier.
Lefty reliever Sammy Solis got Gregory Polanco, who had doubled in the first inning, to fly out to the warning track in right field to send the game into the fateful bottom of the sixth.
The inning was set up much the same as the third, this time with Difo hitting this leadoff single, a replay of this week the Pirates' pitchers will be seeing in their sleep.
Williams got Harper to line out to Polanco before Turner, who had seen every pitch in Williams' arsenal in his previous at bat, lined an 0-1 pitch into the stands for a 2-0 lead.
Williams then got Adams, who had homered three times in the previous two games and driven in runs in five consecutive games, to ground out to second before he hung a slider to Zimmerman, who hit it out for his fifth home run of the season.
"It was supposed to be low and away. It was middle in," Williams said of the pitch to Turner. "He saw a lot of good pitches the at-bat before. The sequence that we had, if we make that pitch, we might be able to get a ground out. It's a pitch he can hit."
Hurdle wasn't unhappy with the start from Williams, other than those two pitches:
The Pirates got 2 1/3 shutout innings from Edgar Santana, Michael Feliz and George Kontos out of the bullpen to give them a chance to win the game.
But when the opportunity presented itself in the eighth inning, the Pirates failed to capitalize.
Colin Moran led off the inning by reaching first when he was hit by a pitch from Ryan Madson and he moved to second on a one-out single to left by pinch-hitter Josh Bell. Frazier hit a ball to second-baseman Howie Kendrick that looked like it could be an inning-ending double play, but Kendrick booted it, loading the bases.
Martinez didn't flinch. He instead brought in lefty closer Sean Doolittle to pitch to Polanco. Doolittle got a two-strike pitch in on Polanco's hands, getting a ground ball to second.
Polanco beat out the relay throw to first to avoid the double play and end the shutout, but Doolittle then got Starling Marte to hit a lazy fly ball to right to end the threat before closing the game out with a perfect ninth for his sixth save.
"Against teams like that, you'd better take advantage of the opportunities and hit the gaps," Polanco told DKPittsburghSports.com. "They've got very good pitchers. When the opportunity comes, we've got to take care of that."
The Pirates had just five hits in the game and didn't draw a walk. It finished off a silent series in Washington that saw them score just 10 runs in the four games after posting 26 in their previous five games, all victories.
"We didn't get on base very often. We only had a handful of times where we had two runners on base in the four games," Hurdle said. "And then when the opportunities presented themselves, we weren't able to shoot the ball in that gap, able to get that big swing. That team over there got some big swings. We haven't been able to roll in that elusive big hit in this series, for sure."
1. ON TO MILWAUKEE
The sweep by the Nationals dropped the Pirates to 2-9 in games against the National League East this season. They're 8-2 against teams from their own division, but this will be their first look at the Brewers, who lead the NL Central at 19-13.
Despite being somewhat streaky in the past couple of weeks — they followed up a five-game losing streak with a five-game winning streak and have now lost four in a row — the Pirates remain steadfast they can continue to compete for the division title.
"It's part of the course of the year. We're going to win some games. We're going to keep going at it. We're going to show up every day. If the starting pitchers give us a chance to win, we'll go from there," Williams said. "It was just bad bounces for us this series."
Consistency will be the key. Right now, the only regulars swinging the bat well on a regular basis are Marte, Corey Dickerson, Moran and Francisco Cervelli. Without a Harper or Adams in the order — a guy who can change a game with one swing of the bat — the Pirates find themselves needing to string together two or more hits to score runs.
Though they rank second in the NL in runs scored (behind Atlanta), the Pirates are prone to fits and spurts because Polanco hasn't been consistent at the plate and Bell has just one home run in the first month-plus of this season.
Polanco, who had three hits in the final two games of the series, feels he's close to breaking out of his slump. He's moved closer to the plate the past two games and is able to turn on the ball better.
"Yeah. Today was the same as yesterday," Polanco told me of moving a little tighter to the plate. "It doesn't matter how far I am off the plate. It's my swing. I'm missing by a little bit on the barrel. I'm making it shorter every day. I feel a lot better the last two weeks."
2. LINEUP ADJUSTMENTS
While Martinez shifted Harper to the leadoff spot and Difo to ninth after the Pirates intentionally walked Harper twice in the opening game of the series, Hurdle stuck with the same batting order, even when he gave starters a day off.
That meant Max Moroff batting leadoff Wednesday when he started in place of Frazier, Sean Rodriguez in the third spot in the series opener in place of Marte and David Freese batting fourth Thursday with Bell getting a day off.
Allowing hitters to settle into their regular spots in the batting order is one thing. But making adjustments, as Martinez did, to put your best batters in good spots to hit is also critical.
"It's not like it's something that just got invented," Hurdle said of Martinez batting his pitcher eighth and hitting Harper leadoff. "They have the personnel that falls right into place. Give the manager credit for setting them up that way and give the players credit for performing to their skill sets."
3. BULLPEN SHINES AGAIN
Other than a horrid outing by Tyler Glasnow in the second game of this series, Pittsburgh's bullpen did solid work throughout the series, throwing 7 2/3 innings and allowing just one run outside of that second game.
And that was without closer Felipe Vasquez throwing a pitch in the series.
That bodes well for a team that should get Joe Musgrove back in the next two weeks and has A.J. Schugel rounding into form in Indianapolis now.
As Hurdle said Wednesday, Musgrove will go back into the rotation when he's ready to go. That will push another starter into the pen, likely making it even more deep.