CINCINNATI -- The Pirates may have another starting pitcher to monitor, as fatigue may have caught up to Bailey Falter Monday night.
There wasn't a blemish on his line through the first three innings before Falter began to leave pitch after pitch over the plate in a five-run fourth that ultimately led to the Pirates suffering an 11-5 setback at the hands of the Reds at Great American Ball Park.
"Just got a little tired and wasn't executing a lot of pitches," said Falter, who retired nine straight batters prior to giving up five runs (four earned) on five hits and a walk in the fourth. "A lot of first-pitch balls compared to the first three innings. They just capitalized on it."
The outing was up to par with how Falter has performed this month after carrying a 3.22 ERA into June. He's now lasted just four innings in three of his four starts and surrendered three or more runs in each of those outings, including a five-run start against the Dodgers to open the month.
There's a drastic difference when comparing Falter to the version of himself that was constantly going deep into games through the first two months of the season. Still, while he hasn't had those consistent quality outings this month, Falter has now pitched 83 1/3 innings after matching his shortest outing of the season. That puts him on pace to easily surpass the career high of 131 2/3 innings he threw between the minor leagues and majors, including the postseason, in 2022. Last year, he finished at 130 2/3 innings.
"Wasn't the best," Falter said in regards to his fastball execution Monday. "Probably just got exhausted. Maybe a little tired, I don't know."
Falter, who's still sporting a not-so-terrible 4.00 ERA through 15 starts this season, continuously struggled to execute with his fastball in the fourth. It was a pitch he turned to for 43 of his 79 pitches, but he continuously left it over the plate at 93 mph or less on back-to-back singles by Jonathan India and Elly De La Cruz that got things started. He saw a curveball -- another pitche he relied on heavily -- sit right down the middle on a two-run double by Spencer Steer and then another fastball at 92 was ripe for the picking, as Stuart Fairchild drove in two more runs with a double of his own.
"I think the first time through he did a really good job executing the fastball at the top of the zone, inner-half of the plate," Derek Shelton said. "It looked like in the fourth inning the ball just leaked back towards the middle, and because of that, we saw the hard contact."
This wasn't the first time a big inning has come back to hurt Falter. He allowed four runs in the first inning against the Dodgers on June 6 and was battered in the early stages of his start against the Cardinals six days later. His only other four-inning start was his infamous season debut against the Marlins when he surrendered five first-inning runs.
"The first three innings were good," Falter said regarding this outing. "Just got to find ways to limit damage with the big innings. That's it."
Falter's short stay on the mound led to four pitchers having to cover the final four innings. Three of them were either designated for assignment or released at one point this season. Justin Bruihl, who spent spring training with the Reds and suited up for Class AAA Louisville before being released and signing with the Pirates earlier this month, didn't exactly show Cincinnati what they were missing out on. He lasted just 1/3 of an inning in which he coughed up back-to-back doubles to India and De La Cruz. Dennis Santana entered and allowed the inning's second run prior to Daulton Jefferies giving up four runs on four straight hits -- three for extra bases -- over two innings. Josh Fleming got the three outs he needed to toss a clean eighth, but the damage was done.
"I think with David being down, everybody's gonna slide into different spots. We have to cover innings. Those guys are going to have to step up into different roles. Everybody's gonna have to step up into different roles, and today we just had a ton of hard contact," Shelton said. "When you're going to the bullpen in the fifth and you're going to have to cover multiple innings, it's a little challenging. And then Santana gets hit (by a line drive), which takes him out of covering. He could have covered another inning, maybe two, depending on how efficient he was. That was a situation where we had to go even deeper into the 'pen."
Falter's latest discouraging performance in addition to the stated exhaustion he felt in the early going could perhaps raise some question marks regarding his workload moving forward. But on this night, whether the latter had anything to do with it or not, Falter simply wasn't at his best.
"We left some balls over the middle of the plate today," Shelton said. "When you leave balls over the middle of the plate, they're going to get hit, and I think the Reds showed us that tonight."