Put the brooms away.
Again.
One day after overcoming a 6-0 deficit to beat the Mets, the Pirates returned the favor by blowing a 6-0 lead and losing the series finale against the Mets Sunday at PNC Park, 7-6.
With the loss, the Pirates remain the only team in the league to not complete a sweep this season.
They’ve had opportunities. Against the Royals in April. The Rockies in May. The Marlins in June. The Braves earlier this month, and now the Mets. In each instance, they came up short.
“It is frustrating,” Derek Shelton said. “I'm happy that we put ourselves in a position to do that playing as well as we did against the team that’s leading the National League East. But to not finish it, especially after being up, it's frustrating.”
The Mets certainly did their part to help put the Pirates in the driver’s seat early, allowing six runs in the first, three of them self-inflicted when Mets starter Taijuan Walker flipped a Kevin Newman slow roller up the third base line rather than simply pick it up. He and his teammates’ reaction as to argue with home plate umpire Jeremy Riggs rather than field the loose ball, and the Pirates scored three runs as a result.
It was only fitting that this series that had a benches clearing incident in game one Friday and a walkoff grand slam Saturday would have its own bizarre play.
“There were a lot of things that you don't see very often happen,” Shelton said about the series. “We played good baseball.”
But then it slowly started to slip away.
A three-run pinch-hit home run from Travis Blackenhorn in the fourth.
A throwing error by Gregory Polanco in the sixth, allowing Jeff McNeil, who had stopped at third, to move up another base.
Failing to take advantage of a bases loaded, nobody out situation in the sixth, where the top of the order -- Adam Frazier, Wilmer Difo and Bryan Reynolds -- all struck out.
It all led to the ninth, where Richard Rodríguez finally delivered the deciding blow to Michael Confroto, who put one in the bushes in the ninth to take the lead.
“We had opportunities today to win the game and take the series,” Shelton said. “We did not take advantage of those opportunities.”
Even if the Pirates had won, now 36-57, a third straight last-place finish in the National League Central seems inevitable. And they have 22 more series to try to break out the brooms.
For now, it’s about trying to take some of the momentum that comes from the series on the road to Arizona.
“It's a series win. That's how I look at it,” Newman said. “It's what we take into the next series and what we build on is what really matters."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Rodríguez's blown save, his third of the year, came in a game where the bullpen did more than its part to try to keep the Pirates in front. Chris Stratton gave two innings with only the unearned run on Polanco's error against him. Austin Davis got out of a jam in the sixth, and Clay Holmes and David Bednar threw quick and effective frames in the seventh and eighth.
They were tasked with those extra frames after another poor start from Brubaker, who allowed a big three-run home to Blackenhorn in the fourth and was pulled after 3 2/3 innings. He allowed four runs on six hits and three walks.
"I was struggling to find the zone," Brubaker said. "I walked [Brandon] Nimmo three times. That's not me, and then pitches in general, it felt like one pitch I had my stuff and then the next one I didn't. So it was a battle of trying to find the consistency of my good stuff and trying to keep the okay and poor pitches out of there."
In three starts this July, Brubaker has allowed 15 earned runs and six home runs over 14 2/3 innings.
• Your daily John Nogowski update: He plated a pair of runs on a first inning double, but was held in check the rest of the way, going 1-for-5. He is now batting .429 (18-for-42) since joining the Pirates.
• After recording three hits in their first three at-bats with a runner in scoring position Sunday, the Pirates finished the day 3-for-12 in those situations.
• Before the game, the Pirates formally announced that they had signed their top draft pick, catcher Henry Davis. I wrote about that here.
Additionally, right-hander Duane Underwood Jr. was activated off the injured list. Right-handed reliever Nick Mears was optioned to Indianapolis to open a spot.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Adam Frazier, 2B
2. Wilmer Difo, 3B
3. Bryan Reynolds, CF
4. Ben Gamel, LF
5. John Nogowski, 1B
6. Gregory Polanco, RF
7. Michael Pérez, C
8. Kevin Newman, SS
9. JT Brubaker, RHP
And for Luis Rojas's Mets:
1. Brandon Nimmo, CF
2. Pete Alonso, 1B
3. Jeff McNeil, 2B
4. J. D. Davis, 3B
5. Dominic Smith, LF
6. Michael Conforto, RF
7. Jonathan Villar, SS
8. Tomás Nido, C
9. Taijuan Walker, RHP
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates are heading out west for a weeklong road trip. The first leg will be in Arizona, where Chase De Jong (1-3, 5.59) will take on Caleb Smith (2-6, 4.54) and the Diamondbacks. I've got you covered for that series.
IN THE SYSTEM
• Indianapolis
• Altoona
• Greensboro
• Bradenton
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
