The Pirates starting pitching failed them for a second straight game as Braxton Ashcraft was hit around for six runs in five innings in a 6-3 loss to the Braves. The Braves jumped on Ashcraft early in this one scoring two in the 1st inning and then adding on a third run in the 3rd inning to make it 3-0, but the Pirates offense battled back and tied it at 3-3. Ashcraft went out for the 5th inning and gave up another three runs to sink the Pirates. The Pirates couldn’t just lose and call it a day either…Brandon Lowe left the game in the 9th inning after fouling a pitch off his knee and needed help getting off the field. Jim and Tyler broke this one down on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros. You can watch or listen here:

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Again it doesn’t look promising, but we don’t know how severe it is and might not know till Sunday. But losing Lowe for a significant period would obviously hurt. Ryan O’Hearn missed a couple weeks, but came back strong but losing Lowe for longer could be a game changer for this team. Someone will need to step up, or maybe the pitching could all step up and help settled things down.

Pirates Aren’t There Yet with the Top Teams

The Braves look like a lock for the postseason. They’re now 44-21, 9.5 games up on the Phillies in the NL East and there doesn’t appear to be many weaknesses on this team. Losing to the Braves isn’t the end of the world for the Pirates, but it’s showing that they’re just not quite there yet. That is no more evident than when looking at each team’s bullpen. The Pirates bullpen we know is a mess. Meanwhile the Braves are firing a bunch of dudes sporting sub-2 ERA’s. Both games so far this series the Pirates scored their three runs off Atlanta’s starters, but the Braves bullpen has been nearly lights out. Raisel Iglesias nailed down two saves each of these games and then there’s Dylan Lee and Dylan Dodd and young phenom Didier Fuentes and Robert Suarez…it’s an embarrassment of riches. If the Pirates had this bullpen, they might be 44-21 themselves but they don’t…we have to watch them try and piece together a bullpen and hang on until the deadline.

We’ll see if the Pirates can avoid the sweep Sunday in Atlanta, win the next one and you salvage a game in the series and go .500 for the roadtrip and all is not lost. But after the off day Monday they come home to face the Dodgers so it’s not going to get any easier for them. These two series are big tests for the Pirates and right now, they’re failing them.