On Tuesday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates fell to the St.Louis Cardinals 9-6 in 10 innings. That was the ninth extra inning game of the season for the Pirates, which is second in the league right behind the New York Mets, who have 10.
The Bucs now have a record of 3-6 in extra inning games. Those six losses are the most extra inning losses by any team in the Majors. In the last four games, the Pirates have had two extra inning games. In both games, Pittsburgh blew a late-game lead.
One of the main reasons
for the Buccos extra inning struggles is their bullpen. Tuesday night’s game we saw Mason Montgomery blow the game allowing a three-run, 410-foot home run by Ivan Herrera.
The bullpen has been an overarching issue for Pittsburgh early in this season. The Pirates don’t have a single guy that is dependable and reliable in late game situations. A lot of people thought that Dennis Santana could be that guy, but Santana blew the game in the Pirates 11-9 loss to the Phillies in 10 innings on May 15.
Gregory Soto was also supposed to be a dependable reliever for the Bucs, but in that same game, Soto allowed three runs in the ninth inning to give up the lead.
In the last couple of games, the starting pitching is also starting to struggle, which is just awful news for Pirate fans. Now that both the starting and relief pitching is struggling, that puts a lot of pressure on the offense to step up and produce.
The Pirates are now on a four-game losing streak and are now last place in the NL Central. The Bucs have a record of 24-24 and are just 3-7 in their last 10 games.
The extra inning struggles is a big deal because it shows that this is a team that cannot finish. If the Pirates want to get back to winning ways and be a playoff team, they have to start finding ways to finish out close games and they need to find their guy they can rely on in the bullpen. If they can’t do those things, it will be a long next couple of months for the Pirates.
