Kuhl pummeled for eight in Pirates' 9-3 loss

Chad Kuhl lowered his head as soon as Alex Avila made contact. The pitch, a four-seam fastball down the middle, left Avila's bat at 105 mph and struck an empty blue seat in right-center field. Kuhl hunched over and started shaking his head as Avila trotted around second base at PNC Park.

It was the final pitch of the worst start by a Pirates pitcher this season. Kuhl, the club's most consistent starting pitcher over the past seven weeks, was promptly pulled by Clint Hurdle with no outs in the third inning.

The damage: eight runs on eight hits, two of which were two-run homers, with two walks. The implosion resulted in a 9-3 loss against the first-place Diamondbacks on Thursday night. The Pirates, now 36-38 and eight games back in the Central Division, had only four hits against starter Zack Godley and have scored only six runs in their last three games.

Still, Kuhl's start was more troubling than the offense's ineptitude. Neither he nor Hurdle could provide a definitive reason for the Diamondbacks pummeling almost every pitch in the strike zone.

"It just felt like everything got hit," Kuhl said.

Kuhl had a 2.89 ERA over his previous eight starts, and he pitched through the sixth inning in four of his last five. Pitch efficiency was no longer an issue. Neither was fastball command. With the help of Ray Searage, Kuhl cleaned up his delivery, and the result was a 25 percent strikeout rate since May 4.

It took only 50 minutes for it to all unravel.

"I just think being human and making mistakes," Kuhl continued. So much so that Justin Meccage, the Pirates' assistant pitching coach, began rewatching the two-plus innings as soon as Kuhl was removed from the game. After all, the Diamondbacks, 41-33, seemed to be ready for each pitch, and there may be a reason for that. 

They stacked their lineup with six left-handed hitters, beginning with former Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay, a career .331 hitter against the Pirates. Although lefties slashed .178/.280/.311 against Kuhl in his previous eight starts, they batted .285 with a .893 OPS against him last season.

Hurdle credited Kuhl's improved command for the turnaround. He didn't have it Thursday night. Jay led off the game with a double to left, and Kuhl walked Paul Goldschmidt. Two batters later, Daniel Descalso, another lefty, drove in Jay with a sacrifice fly. Four pitches after that, Kuhl threw a curveball low and inside that Ketel Marte — another lefty — hit over the Clemente Wall for a two-run homer:

"Ya know what, we’ll sit down and take a look at some things," Hurdle said. "Tonight Meccage was looking at some things during the game. We’ll round back up tomorrow and look at some things. I don’t have anywhere to go other than what I saw was behind in counts, elevated and the execution and location was a little more middle and up than anything else. The left-handers put the barrel on it."

Kuhl's attempt at throwing a sinker on the hands to Nick Ahmed turned into a leadoff double in the second. A sinker high and out of the zone to Jarrod Dyson, another lefty, resulted in another single. Two batters later, Jay drove in two runs with a double to right, and Goldschmidt followed with an RBI single to make it 6-0 after two innings.

Kuhl needed 49 pitches to get through those two innings, and he threw only 29 strikes. Hurdle prepared to remove him for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the second; however, Jordy Mercer recorded the final out of the inning. After Marte led off the third with a single, Kuhl threw a 96-mph four-seam fastball that Avila, a left-hander with two hits in his previous 49 plate appearances, hit over the wall for a two-run homer and 8-0 lead:

"I just don’t think the ball was coming out as well as it has for whatever reason, whatever that reason may be," Kuhl said. "They hammered balls over the plate and you just try your best to move on."

Lefties batted a combined 6 for 10 with two home runs and seven RBIs against Kuhl. Ten of the 15 batters he faced reached safely. It was his worst start since April 24 last season, when he allowed nine earned runs in 1 2/3 innings against the Reds. He had evolved from unpredictable to reliable over the past seven weeks, yet one small tell may have been at the root of some of his struggles against the Diamondbacks.

When Kuhl was tagged for two runs on three hits in the first inning at Wrigley Field on June 8, he noticed the Cubs were ready for each of his pitches. After they added another run in the second, Searage told Kuhl he was tipping his pitches. The 26-year-old right-hander was puffing out his cheeks every time he threw a fastball and was not doing so when throwing his off-speed pitches.

"We cleaned it up, and it hasn't been a problem," Kuhl said. "I'm not sure if it happened tonight. I'll have to take a look to make sure. I don't want to use it as an excuse at all, but some of those hits made me wonder." Marte's home run made Kuhl wonder since the second baseman seemed to be sitting on an off-speed pitch.

On the other hand, Kuhl also threw fastballs over the middle of the plate, and the final one to Avila ended his start in the third. His offense didn't have much success, either. The Pirates had only two singles through five innings. They scored one run in the fourth on an RBI single by Francisco Cervelli, but they didn't make hard contact against Godley until the sixth.

Austin Meadows, who went 3 for 4, led off the inning with a single and Starling Marte followed with a double off the wall in left-center to score Meadows. Marte scored on a sacrifice fly by Colin Moran to cut the deficit to five runs. The Pirates threatened in the ninth with back-to-back two-out walks, but Elias Diaz struck out to clinch their third loss in four games.

Kuhl had allowed three or fewer runs in nine of his previous 11 starts, but his ERA rose from 3.76 to 4.56 following the meltdown. He learned last season the importance of not dwelling on an ugly start, yet the Diamondbacks' hard contact — including five hits with an exit velocity of at least 101 mph — had him searching for answers.

"I’ll go through and we’ll look at it," Kuhl said. "We’ll see what the tape says."

1. Not enough offense, but ...

The Pirates didn't make enough hard contact on Godley. Godley, 28, ranks seventh among all pitchers with a 2.42 ground ball to fly ball ratio since 2016. His 52 percent ground-ball percentage ranks seventh in the majors this season. And the Pirates made it easy on him at times.

With Meadows on first and one out in the first, Marte hit a weak ground ball in front of home plate on a first-pitch sinker. Moran followed with another grounder to the left of Godley, who retired the side in order in the second and third innings. Cervelli's one-out RBI single in the fourth gave the Pirates momentum. However, Josh Bell and Gregory Polanco both struck out to end the inning.

The breakthrough came their third time through the order, and Hurdle didn't have an explanation as to why Godley gave the Pirates so much trouble. They finished with eight hits and went 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position, leaving five on base.

"We hadn’t seen him this year," he said. "Maybe just the recognition. ... He made pitches early. We got aggressive in some counts. Tapped some balls on some swings in front of the plate. Just stayed after it. Tried to stretch his pitch count up and put us in a position to make a run."

Meadows and Marte almost made that possible. With Corey Dickerson away for a family medical emergency, Meadows started in left and batted second in the order. This revealed what could be a potent combination near the top of the order. Marte went 1 for 3 with a walk. His double in the sixth gave him 800 career hits and 300 career RBIs:

The Pirates need Marte to play to his potential and for Meadows to continue to progress in the major leagues. After all, they're receiving little production from Bell and Cervelli hasn't done much in the past month. It wasn't enough Thursday night, though.

"We started doing a little bit better job with [Godley] late, but there wasn’t enough there," Hurdle said. "At the end of the day, the number of hits, we needed a couple swings with some men on base like they got early. We didn’t get them."

2. Bullpen trending up ... again.

The Pirates' bullpen allowed two hits over seven innings, stretching their scoreless innings streak to 13. Their only run allowed was unearned since it happened after Sean Rodriguez's throwing error in the ninth inning. Steven Brault walked four batters, but he didn't allow a run over three innings. Richard Rodriguez pitched two scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 2.19 and Michael Feliz allowed only one hit over two innings.

The bullpen has shown signs of progress over the past six days. The group has a combined 1.62 ERA — the second-lowest mark in the National League — during that span, and young relievers seem to be trending in the right direction.

Although there are tangible signs of progress, this bullpen will likely encounter turbulence throughout the season, much like the rotation did in 2017. Young pitchers are being used in new roles, and it's a surprisingly young group, with Rodriguez, 28, being the elder statesman. Huntington even blamed himself for the Pirates not having a setup man or even a traditional seventh-inning reliever.

"We have got young and very talented arms but we don’t have Mark Melancon in front of Jason Grilli or Tony Watson in front of Mark Melancon or Nefatli Feliz in front of Tony Watson in front of Mark Melancon," Huntington said on Sunday. "We don’t have that – we have guys we believe can develop into that, that can grow into that. But rather than lock guys into specific roles, we like to have Clint have the ability to go use who he feels most strongly about in the most important situation – and that situation might be in the sixth inning. ... Because the GM didn’t get the manager guys who are conventional seventh inning and eighth inning guys."

3. Where's the power?

This team needs more power. Again. The Pirates ranked 29th in the majors in home runs last season, and they lost their leading home run hitter, Andrew McCutchen, in January. Both Hurdle and Neal Huntington were asked repeatedly about where the power would come from. Their response: Polanco, Marte, Cervelli and Moran.

Well, it hasn't gone as planned. The Pirates ranked 15th in the majors in home runs from the season opener through May 17, however, they've hit the third-fewest since May 18. Dickerson has only five home runs and hasn't hit one since May 4 after he hit 27 last season.

Cervelli is mired in a month-long slump. Polanco, who is tied for the team lead with nine, is batting .215. Bell hit 25 home runs last season, but he has only four in 74 games this season. The switch-hitter hasn't hit one this month. Moran is producing, but the power hasn't been there.

Sure, there's more to baseball than home runs. But it doesn't bode well since the team's other peripherals are trending in the wrong direction. Maybe the first six weeks were an anomaly after all.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY