Pirates’ offense again stymied as Rockies finish off sweep

Less than a minute after Wednesday’s early-afternoon first pitch in Denver, the Pittsburgh Pirates had as many hits as they managed the entire game an evening earlier.

Three pitches later, they had more runs than they had scored over the prior two games of the series at Coors Field. By the time 10 pitches were thrown in the game, the Pirates had staked Chad Kuhl to a two-run lead.

Over the next 26 outs, though, the Pirates scored no more, and Kuhl developed a blister that cut his outing short. The result was another loss, 6-2, and a sweep at the hands of the Colorado Rockies.

“It’s not like we were talking about it in the locker room or anything, but everybody knows Coors Field and how it plays,” Bryan Reynolds said via postgame video conference. “I don’t necessarily think that played a part in a tough offensive series.

“But usually you look to get your hits in here, and we just didn’t this series.”

Two Pirates who hope to return to Denver in two weeks for the All-Star Game — Adam Frazer and Reynolds — tripled and homered, respectively, sandwiched around a Ke’Bryan Hayes sacrifice fly in the first inning. They were the first two extra-base hits of the three-game series in Colorado, providing hope the Pirates’ near-historic slumbering offense finally was going to awaken in the thin air.

But after becoming only the third team to be shut out in consecutive games over the 27-season history of Coors Field, the Pirates would get shut out over the final eight innings of Wednesday’s series finale.

“The fact that, you know, the previous nine games we swung the bats really well and executed,” manager Derek Shelton said, “and then we got here and — not to take anything away from their pitchers because they executed well, especially (Tuesday) — but we looked like we got a little passive. And we can’t do that if we expect to score runs.”

The Pirates’ only hits after Reynolds’ 454-foot home run (his 14th of the season) were a singles by Frazier and Reynolds in the seventh and eighth innings and a Ka’ai Tom one-out double in the ninth.

The Pirates — 29th among 30 MLB teams in runs heading into the game — were limited to two runs and 12 hits over three games in Colorado. The Rockies matched or exceeded those totals during the each of the past two games. Colorado’s German Marquez took a no-hitter into the ninth Tuesday.

Kuhl (2-5) struck out the side and allowed only a weak single in the first and did not allow a run until C.J. Cron led off the fourth by homering.

The wheels came off, though, as fast as the skin chaffed off one of Kuhl’s fingers in the fifth.

“I started noticing I had a pretty good callous built up,” Kuhl said, “but it started bothering me in the fourth, and then in the fifth, it broke off. So I just have like a raw chunk of skin.

“It was just tough to command the fastball with just nothing there. It just kind of burned. Just unfortunate timing.”

Kuhl, who came in allowing only one run in each of his previous two starts, similarly was affected by a blister during a start in Kansas City during September of last year.

Shelton said Wednesday’s blister was right at a pressure point of Kuhl’s finger. Shelton and training staff made a visit to the mound but let Kuhl stay in to face Charlie Blackmon, whom he hit with a pitch. Then, Shelton lifted Kuhl.

“He was having some trouble gripping the ball,” Shelton said. “I think that’s why we saw the command kind of go away because for the first three innings he was really good.”

While medical personnel attended to Kuhl to stop the bleeding from his finger, reliever Chris Stratton could not stop it from the Rockies’ offense. Colorado took a lead it wouldn’t relinquish, especially after tacking on three more runs while Sam Howard and David Bednar were pitching.

It was a disappointing end to a road trip that began so promisingly with three wins in four games against the Cardinals.

“Yeah, it’s tough,” Reynolds said. “We came off a really good series in St. Louis. We wanted to build on it here, and we didn’t.”

Love baseball? Stay up-to-date with the latest Pittsburgh Pirates news.