Doubleheader sweep, being nearly no-hit, nine-game slide ... yikes

ST. LOUIS -- Cal Mitchell pondered the question for a moment, then gave the advice he had heard before.

“You’re not going to have a great season tonight.”

“Just try to take it one day at a time,” the rookie outfielder explained, “and over the course of the year, you put enough good ones together and show what you did.”

Tuesday was a bad day for the Pirates. In fact, when the season is in the books, this could go down as one of the worst. After a 3-1 loss to the Cardinals in the first half of Busch Stadium doubleheader, they came just one pitch away from being no-hit by Miles Mikolas in game two, spared by a Mitchell book rule double at the last moment of the 9-1 defeat.

Those were the Pirates eighth and ninth consecutive losses, their longest streak of the year. They were arguably their worst played games of that streak.

In the matinee, they made four errors. JT Brubaker balked. They went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position

In game two, Bryse Wilson was clobbered early, giving Mikolas more security than he needed to spin his 129-pitch gem, falling one pitch short of history.

Two of the worst losses in the worst losing streak of the season thus far. That has to be in the running for a low point in the season.

Which brings things back to the question proposed to Mitchell: What can be done to right the ship?

“We just have to play better,” Derek Shelton said in response to the same question. “... We didn't play well tonight. Obviously we didn't pitch well. We didn't swing the bats. On this trip, we've been in every game. We've just gotta get that big hit, we've gotta execute a pitch to get us over the hump and get us a victory."

MORE FROM THE GAMES

• Mikolas was one pitch away from history. The Pirates were one pitch away from being no-hit for the second time this season and the third time within 259 games.

Mitchell, who entered the game in the seventh as a replacement for Bryan Reynolds since the game was out of reach, fell behind in the count, but was able to put good wood on a breaking ball low and away and hit it just over the head of the gold glove center fielder Harrison Bader:

"Maybe tried to overthrow it a little bit," Mikolas said about the pitch. "Left it a little bit up. Guy put a good swing on it."

"Just tried to take some deep breaths," Mitchell said about his approach. "Crowd was loud. They’re all rooting for their guy. I’m happy that I was able to settle myself down enough to have a composed at-bat and come through."

"I think every ball that's hit in the outfield Harrison Bader's going to catch," Shelton said.

In the dugout during the late innings, the chatter in the dugout is what you would expect: Words of encouragement and reinforcement that someone can get a hit.

"Those things help, especially for me being a younger cat as a rookie now," Mitchell said. "I appreciate those things."

• Wilson, on the other hand, was hit early and often, namely by Paul Goldschmidt. After Tommy Edman pounced on Wilson's first pitch back in the majors and pulled it for a homer, Goldschmidt followed with a two-run shot later in the first and a three-run shot in the second. He later added a base hit against Wilson in the fourth to boot:

Talking to Wilson Monday, he said he thought he was doing a better job staying in the zone since his demotion to Class AAA Indianapolis last month. He was in the zone, but it was hit hard Tuesday. 

"I thought I did a pretty good job of throwing strikes, getting ahead and commanding counts," Wilson said. "They’re good hitters. They just hit some really good pitches."

"Middle of the plate and the breaking ball, it looked like it was flat and up in the middle," Shelton said when assessing Wilson's night. "You cannot do that to this lineup, and you definitely cannot do it to Goldschmidt."

• Game one could probably be summed up in this whacky play. With the bases loaded and two outs, Goldschmidt hit a ball up the middle that shortstop Diego Castillo could get to, but only had a play at second. Rather than slide into second base and make it a bang-bang play, runner Nolan Gorman ran through the bag, essentially guaranteeing a rundown, an out and a run to score:

"The front side of that play is probably one of the most heads up baseball plays you’ll ever see," Shelton said. "Gorman ran straight through the other bag. It’s something that everyone talks about in the minor leagues. You very rarely see it. He did it at the right time. He ran through it. He made the turn so Diego couldn’t tag him. It was just a smart baseball play on a tough play that Diego made. Ultimately we were able to get the out. The run would have scored either way, but I actually thought we handled the rundown pretty well."

• That was one of three runs game one starter JT Brubaker allowed over his 5 1/3 innings, though it was unearned because of a pair of Castillo errors. Castillo would make three errors behind Brubaker Tuesday. Poor defense is pretty par for the course for Brubaker this season, as I wrote in Mound Visit.

After the second, Brubaker put his hand on Castillo's shoulder during a mound visit. 

"We're all family in here," Brubaker said. "Family picks up family. Just making sure that we support each other and everybody knows that we all support each other."

The only earned runs Brubaker allowed came on, what else, a Goldschmidt homer.

• Brubaker also made his own mistake, balking after starting his motion out of the windup rather than the stretch.

"I got a ball change, asked for a new ball, stepped off the back of the rubber and was just focused on that one pitch," Brubaker said. "I just blacked out that there was runners on first and second."

The balk call took some time to get confirmed, though, as it originally went down as a caught stealing against Yadier Molina. Molina pleaded his case to the umpiring crew, who convened and called it a balk.

Shelton made a passionate case to the umpires, but could not get the call reversed.

"My argument was you can’t argue a balk call," Shelton said. "You can ask about a balk call if it’s not a step-off call. The fact that all four of them had to get together, I was just making sure they got it right. Ultimately they got it."

• A pair of rookies made their major-league debuts.

After having his contract selected Monday because Duane Underwood Jr. hit the COVID-19 injured list, catcher Jason Delay made his debut in game one, drawing a nine-pitch walk in his first plate appearance.

"It was insane," Delay said. "When I saw my family as I was walking into the bullpen, I started tearing up. Once I got out on the field, you realize it’s the same game. There’s certainly some changes."

Getting his family over was actually not a given, as he told me his sister's due date was Tuesday as well, but his family still went out to see him achieve his dream.

And by getting on base, Delay got congratulated by a couple of future Hall of Famers, Molina and Albert Pujols.

"That’s something I’ll never forget," Delay said. "Those are guys I’ve looked up to my whole life."

The other debut was by Canaan Smith-Njigba, who pinch-hit with two outs in the ninth but still roped a gap shot double:

"All the hard work that I put in and people in my corner who supported me this whole way," Smith-Njigba said. "This isn’t just for me, but it’s for them as well."

Smith-Njigba started game two, where he reached base once after being hit by a pitch.

• Delay was around only for game one, as he was optioned to Class AAA Indianapolis to make room for reliever Heath Hembree, who was activated off the 15-day injured list. He tossed a scoreless inning in game two, walking one.

Wilson was the 27th player for the doubleheader.

• Oneil Cruz is still in Indianapolis.

That's it. That's the note.

• Factoid(s) of the game: The nine pitch at-bat for Delay was the most by a Pirate in his first career plate appearance since pitch data started being tracked in 1988, according to STATS LLC. Smith-Njigba is the first Pirate to record an extra-base hit in their first at-bat since Tony Sanchez on June 23, 2003.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 10-day injured list: OF Ben Gamel (hamstring), RHP Heath Hembree (calf), OF Jake Marisnick (thumb), 1B Yoshi Tsutsugo (lumbar muscle strain), Josh VanMeter (finger)

• 60-day injured list: Kevin Newman (groin), OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery), Roberto Pérez (hamstring, out for season)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card for game two:

1. Tucupita Marcano, 2B
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Jack Suwinski, RF
4. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
5. Canaan Smith-Njigba, LF
6. Diego Castillo, SS
7. Hoy Park, 3B
8. Yu Chang, 1B
9. Michael Perez, C

And for Oliver Marmol's Cardinals:

1. Tommy Edman, SS
2. Brenan Donovan, 3B
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. 2. Nolan Gorman, 2B
5. Juan Yepez, LF
6. Dylan Carlson, RF
7. Albert Pujols, DH
8. Harrison Bader, CF
9. Andrew Knizner, C

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates will get one more chance to salvage a game on this road trip Thursday. Roansy Contreras (1-1, 2.57) will take on Andrew Pallante (2-0, 1.04), with first pitch coming at 7:45 p.m. Eastern.

THE CONTENT

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