Pirates bats can't overcome Nationals as losing streak stretches to 5

On the surface, the play that decided the Washington Nationals’ 3-1 victory Tuesday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates appeared to be Yadiel Hernandez’s two-run double that sailed over the head of inexperienced right fielder Diego Castillo.

But the Nationals (29-48) only scored three runs in the game, and the Pirates were unable to overcome that meager output before a crowd of 22,575 at Nationals Park in Washington D.C.

Digging deeper, there was so much more to the Pirates’ fifth consecutive loss. Perhaps the most important moments were the at-bats of Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters Oneil Cruz, Michael Chavis and Josh VanMeter. They were 0 for 12, with eight strikeouts (four by Chavis, who has recorded 11 whiffs in six games over the past week).

The 0-for-12 was especially hard for manager Derek Shelton to swallow because Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds, the 1-2 hitters, reached base a total of five times.

”We’re one play away,” Shelton said. “Right now, the people we are playing are making that play and we have to create our own breaks. And we’re not doing that right now.”

Each of the defeats in the Pirates’ losing streak has been by margins of one or two runs. It’s been the story of June. Overall, the Pirates (29-45) have 15 such losses this month — their most in a single month in 38 years or by any MLB team since 1991. The Pirates have scored only 13 runs in their past five losses.

Patrick Corbin, the Nationals’ $23.4 million starter, came into the game last in the majors in ERA (6.60 in 16 starts) and hits allowed (104). But he stymied the Pirates through eight innings, striking out 12 batters, including all three in the eighth inning when his pitch total hit 113.

In the ninth inning, the Pirates put runners on first and second with two out against reliever Tanner Rainey. Pinch-hitters Daniel Vogelbach and Bligh Madris walked and singled, but Park struck out to end the game and give Rainey his 11th save.

With the score 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth, Pirates reliever Wil Crowe allowed runs for the third time in his past four outings. Shelton said before the game regular closer David Bednar, who has pitched beyond one inning 10 times this season, was unavailable due to back issues.

The confrontation that ignited the rally was an interesting one between Crowe and Josh Bell, the two key players in the Pirates’ Christmas Eve 2020 trade with the Nationals.

Leading off the inning, Bell legged out an infield single that was timed only at 70.8 mph off the bat. Hoy Park was playing a deep second base and couldn’t get to the ball in time to throw out Bell. The Pirates got a second out on a force at second on a ground ball by pinch-hitter Luis Garcia. But they failed to turn what appeared off the bat to be a potential double play.

After Crowe walked Cesar Hernandez, Yadiel Hernandez ripped a two-run double over the head of Castillo, who was playing only his seventh game in right field this season.

“The ball falls your way sometimes. Sometimes, it doesn’t,” Crowe said. “You get some calls sometimes, sometimes (you don’t). Not where I wanted to put it. I threw 44 pitches. I think I threw one bad one that I want to take back.

“I feel like I did my job.”

Failing to make the catch was enough to make Castillo forget the two sliding catches he made earlier in the game and, perhaps, even his homer in the sixth. He has hit six homers since June 13, the second-highest total in MLB in that span.

“I was having some fun until that just happened, the double,” he said. “Just forget about those (catches). I gave 100% to catch it, but baseball is like that.”

Shelton did not blame his rookie, who has started at three positions this season.

“He got close to it,” the manager said. “The ball was hit over his head. He got a read on it. He just didn’t catch it.”

Pirates starter Jose Quintana, pitching in the nation’s capital for the first time in his 11-year career, was in almost total control through six innings. He surrendered only four hits and two walks and struck out six. The Nationals’ only run against him scored on Nelson Cruz’s RBI ground ball in the first inning. He lowered his ERA to 3.43, fifth-lowest by a National League left-hander.

”He did a nice job of mixing in the changeup and the breaking ball after the first inning,” Shelton said. “He was able to control a little bit of traffic.”