Gregory Polanco makes costly error, bullpen blows lead as Pirates fail to sweep Arizona

The Pittsburgh Pirates television broadcast crew brought their brooms, but the only sweeping being done Wednesday night at PNC Park was another disheartening loss under the proverbial rug.

Bryse Wilson came off the injured list to pitch five scoreless innings, only for Gregory Polanco to make a costly error and the bullpen to blow the lead in a 5-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks before 8,357.

For the 11th time this season, the Pirates (46-80) missed a chance to clinch a series sweep, remaining the only team in baseball to fail to sweep at least one series this season. Losing to the Diamondbacks (42-85), who have the NL’s worst record, only added to the insult.

Afterward, Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said he “was made aware” that AT&T SportsNet broadcasters Greg Brown and Matt Capps started the game telecast holding broomsticks on their shoulders.

“One of my close friends sent me a picture of the broadcasters with the broom in their booth,” Lovullo said. “Look, it’s part of the game, and I know that everybody gets inspired for different things and different reasons. We should have motivation enough to go out there and do our jobs. That’s what sports is. That’s what professional sports has to be about.”

“That’s their space. That’s their territory. I have no problem with that. That’s what fans do. I understand that. But I’m glad it didn’t happen.”

That the Pirates wasted Wilson’s solid start was exacerbated by Polanco’s gaffe in right field, which allowed the tying run to score in the sixth inning and had a handful of fans chanting “D-F-A” at the team’s longest-tenured player. Polanco was placed on waivers Sunday but cleared Tuesday and was back in the starting lineup.

Despite a slow start against Diamondbacks lefty Tyler Gilbert, who tossed a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in his first major-league start Aug. 14, the Pirates rallied to take a 2-0 lead.

Gilbert was perfect through the first three innings, throwing 22 of his first 26 pitches for strikes. Gilbert retired the Pirates on six pitches in the first inning and 10 each in both the second and third.

Gilbert retired the first 10 batters he faced before Ke’Bryan Hayes smacked one off the Clemente Wall in right field with one out in the fourth. Hayes took third on a passed ball and scored on a line-drive sacrifice fly to right field by Jacob Stallings.

Hayes had to return to third base to tag up, then beat Pavin Smith’s throw to the plate, sliding past Diamondbacks catcher Daulton Varsho’s tag for a 1-0 Pirates lead.

The Pirates increased their lead to 2-0 in the fifth, when Polanco (2 for 4) hit a leadoff double down the right-field line and scored on a grounder to left by Michael Chavis.

The Pirates loaded the bases against Gilbert but he got Yoshi Tsutsugo to fly to left for the final out.

After being activated from the 10-day injured list, Wilson allowed two hits and two walks while striking out seven. Wilson credited “a couple of minor mechanical changes” he made while on the IL leading to a career-high 15 swings and misses and tying his career-best in strikeouts.

“I feel like the biggest change was just having a firm landing leg, just striding out, landing and having that stick and be firm so I can be more over the top of the ball instead of coming around,” Wilson said.

“I think that was the biggest thing. We got away from it a little bit there with the two walks, but we were able to get back to it ultimately and have a good outing.”

Pirates manager Derek Shelton warned that Wilson, who dealt with right arm fatigue, would be on a controlled pitch count so he was removed after throwing 74 pitches through five innings.

“We got everything we expected out of him or wanted out of him,” Shelton said. “I thought he did a nice job and really executed pitches well. The big thing for us tonight was after a 10-day layoff was making sure he got to his pitch count and he was healthy.”

Nick Mears replaced Wilson in the sixth and surrendered a 352-foot moonshot home run to Pavin Smith as the Diamondbacks cut it to 2-1. After Mears walked Christian Walker, he was pulled for lefty Anthony Banda. With two outs, David Peralta hit a flare to right field that skipped past Gregory Polanco’s glove and rolled to the wall, an error that allowed Walker to score the tying run to make it 2-2.

“I just told him to keep his head up,” Shelton said. “I think the grass was a little bit wet. I think it snaked on him and got underneath his glove. I just told him to keep his head up and keep playing.”

Banda struck out Varsho to leave Peralta stranded at third to get out of that jam. Soon enough, Banda got in more trouble. Carson Kelly crushed his 1-1 changeup to the left-field bleachers for a solo home run and 3-2 Diamondbacks lead. David Peralta added a two-run double to left off Kyle Keller in the eighth to increase Arizona’s lead to 5-2.

The Pirates got a pair of singles by Wilmer Difo and Kevin Newman in the eighth but the Diamondbacks made a pitching change, bringing in lefty reliever Joe Mantiply with the tying run at the plate in Polanco, who was batting .159 against left-handed pitchers. Polanco had a chance to redeem himself but popped out to first to end the inning.

Anthony Alford led off the ninth with a double off the wall in right-center, and tagged to third on Colin Moran’s fly out to center. But pinch hitter Ben Gamel popped up to second and Hayes went down swinging to end the game as the Pirates put their brooms away.

“It’s frustrating because we had the lead and kind of gave it back a little bit, then didn’t execute late,”Shelton said. “As well as our bullpen has pitched, we got ahead of guys and just didn’t finish ‘em off. And because we didn’t finish ‘em off, we got into counts where there was walks and extra runs.”