PIRATES

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Ivan Herrera celebrates after his three-run walkoff home run in the 10th inning Tuesday in St. Louis.

Mitch Keller had just collected the second out of the sixth inning and threw his 83rd pitch of the night when Don Kelly came walking out from the dugout to take the ball from his veteran starting pitcher. 

The decision ended Keller's night at 5 2/3 innings and turned things over to Evan Sisk, a left-handed reliever tasked with a left-on-left matchup against Nolan Gorman, a power hitter with three career homers against Keller. Sisk on the other hand has been known to dominate left-handed hitters. In fact, he entered this particular matchup having not allowed a single extra-base hit in 76 previous at-bats against lefties. 

Until now: 

That's Gorman sending a 1-1 sinker into the seats in right-center field to spoil the move made by Kelly, one of a few that didn't go the Pirates' way in their 9-6 extra-inning loss to the Cardinals here tonight at Busch Stadium. 

"Gorman has had some success against Mitch and Sisk has been so good for us," said Kelly, whose team has now dropped four straight games to fall to 24-24 on the season. "Coming in, hadn’t given up a home run to a lefty. Liked the matchup with Sisk in that moment."

The reasoning behind the decision was reasonable given the matchup and previous history between Gorman and Keller. But it's also fair to raise questions surrounding a decision that didn't end up working in the Pirates' favor. Especially considering the fact that Keller had already recorded two outs in the inning, held Gorman to an 0-for-2 showing on the night up to that point and was only sitting at 83 pitches. He ultimately allowed four runs on four hits with a walk and three strikeouts. So why not roll with your veteran starter in that spot and give him one last chance to finish out a clean inning? 

Kelly said that, at times, consideration has been given toward letting starting pitchers have some more runway, especially given the recent struggles of the bullpen. In this situation, though, it had more to do with Sisk's success against lefties than anything else. 

"Fully trust him in that moment there," Kelly said, "and going forward, too." 

This wasn't the only questionable move of the night, though. How about the decision to once again send Jared Triolo out to right field in the ninth inning before eventually pinch hitting for him with Jake Mangum in the 10th? It probably would have made more sense to just send Mangum out to right in the ninth to begin with, right? 

Then there was the decision to let Marcell Ozuna, owner of a .179 average and .580 OPS, hit with the bases loaded and nobody out in the ninth inning of a game in which the Pirates were trailing 6-4. Spencer Horwitz, who continues to provide consistent professional at-bats, was sitting on the bench just waiting for an opportunity to come through late in this game. Instead, Ozuna got his chance and rolled into a 6-4-3 double play. A run did score there, and Horwitz eventually came on to pinch hit and tie the game with an RBI single, but imagine what Horwitz could have done in a bases-loaded situation rather than one where less runners were populating the basepaths. Perhaps the Pirates take the lead there in the ninth and Gregory Soto is on in the bottom half to close out a win. 

A conversation was had and the decision to hit Horwitz for Jhostynxon Garcia was made. And, just like the one that turned into a go-ahead homer earlier in the game, this decision proved costly. 

"Probably the worst thing that could have happened was the double play," Kelly said. "It happened. But Ozuna is a professional hitter. He’s had some good at-bats recently. I know the recent stretch hasn’t been as good. We need to get him going."