PIRATES

Bubba Chandler was dominant for much of the Pirates' 3-2 loss to the Braves on Sunday here at Truist Park, showing what Don Kelly later said was "the best he’s thrown the ball."

Chandler's work was undone after he "spiraled" in the seventh inning, though, allowing the home team to get in position to score three runs and erase the Pirates' two-run lead.

Chandler entered the game in the second inning after the Pirates used Mason Montgomery as an opener, the first time this season that Chandler's entered the game after an opener. He called the experience coming out of the bullpen "a lot different," particularly with the different level of adrenaline, but he handled himself well regardless.

Chandler quickly retired four batters before allowing a single. From the third through the sixth innings, he struck out six batters while allowing no hits. He retired 13 in a row, and threw 13 first-pitch strikes on 20 hitters.

"Efficient," was how Kelly summed up Chandler's game. "Threw strikes right up until that last inning with multiple pitches. Fastball command was much better. He had the strikeouts against Toronto, but I thought being in the zone and attacking the zone, I thought he threw the ball really well."

That last inning, the seventh, was when things went haywire. First, Dominic Smith reached on a throwing error by Tyler Callihan. Chandler struck out Austin Riley next, then walked Mike Yastrzemski, the first walk he allowed all day. He walked Jorge Mateo next, and the bases were loaded.

"My best pitches beat those two hitters that I walked," Chandler said. "So I'm not happy about that. But you move on."

That's when Kelly ended Chandler's outing and brought in left-handed Evan Sisk, with the Braves' left-handed Michael Harris II at bat, a move Kelly said was aimed at "trying to go left on left."

Sisk got a strike to start, and then Harris hit to deep right field for a bases-clearing double to put the Braves in the lead. The initial error from Callihan opened the door for the Braves, the back-to-back walks by Chandler put the Pirates in an even tougher spot, and then it didn't take much for Harris to capitalize.

"I just kind of let a couple things affect me in the last inning," Chandler said. "There's no reason to let that stuff affect you. It's a weird game. You feel terrible and go out there and dominate, and feel great and go out there and get rocked. Stuff happens."

What affected Chandler was largely getting into his own head and dwelling on past pitches.

"As the game goes on you get more tired," he said. "Rain doesn't help. There's some pitches that I wish I had back, and it's like, 'Man, why did I do that?' Thinking about the 1-0 pitch I threw to a guy when it's 2-0, instead of focusing on getting it back to 2-1, or letting him put in play, getting himself out, now it's 3-0. Just kind of stuff like that. That's probably why it spiraled. Instead of thinking about this pitch, I'm thinking about the last pitch, or the last batter, or who's coming up after this guy. I think the whole day I was in the moment, focusing on the pitch I was going to throw, I dominated during that time. When I started thinking about stuff I couldn't control, it kind of just spiraled."

The Pirates, at that point, were still only down a run. They had opportunities to get back into the game, none closer than in the ninth when they had runners on second and third. They just weren't able to find that tying run.

"They're a good team," Chandler said. "Sucks that we got swept. But we'll see them again."