The Pirates had no answer for Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez Saturday as he fired a complete game shutout in a 6-0 loss to the Phillies. The Bucs have now dropped two straight to Philly and will need Paul Skenes to be the stopper Sunday afternoon to avoid the sweep. Ryan O’Hearn left this game with right quad discomfort to add to the losses in this game. Jim and Tyler recapped this one on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros which you can watch/listen to here:
Here’s my three takeaways from this shutout…
Bubba May Need to go to Triple-A to Fix His Walks Issue
I wanted to believe that this wasn’t needed and that Bubba Chandler could fix his control problem while at the Major League level, but after another poor start with him giving up five runs in 3.0 innings with three more walks, it may be necessary.
The Pirates are 0-5 in Bubba’s last five starts and he’s walked 30 on the season now which is the most in the NL. His ERA now sits at 5.14 and he’s been your worst starter. All this talk about who goes to the bullpen when Jared Jones returns…it may just be Jones takes Chandler’s spot and he goes down. All the funny trash talk between him and Skenes about who the better pitcher is…well, that’s not real funny anymore. Bubba isn’t even near Skenes level of a pitcher and he needs to figure this out if he’s even going to stick on the MLB roster. He needs to mature as a starting pitcher and fix the control issue and if that needs to happen at Triple-A, so be it.
Ryan O’Hearn Missing Time Could Hurt
Ryan O’Hearn was your splurge pickup in free agency this offseason and he’s been such a find for the middle of this lineup as he has seven home runs, .368 OBP and .827 OPS. Well O’Hearn left the game Saturday after his first at-bat with right quad discomfort. I’m hoping it’s nothing major and maybe a two-day rest will help him and he’ll be fine, because losing this bat from the lineup would be problematic. The Pirates depth on the bench isn’t great and while you have Spencer Horwitz to play first base and Jhostynxon Garcia in Triple-A that could take the OF spot, it won’t replace O’Hearn’s professional bat for the lineup. I’m intrigued by what Garcia can do in the Majors this year, but losing O’Hearn for an extended period of time will definitely hurt this offense.
Friday’s Blown Loss Really Hurts
This game was your worst matchup of the three: Cristopher Sanchez vs Bubba Chandler. A lefty against the Pirates lineup isn’t good to begin with, but then throwing one of the best lefties in the game wasn’t going to be great for the Pirates. You knew this game was likely to be a loss, and it was a game where the Phillies cruised as Sanchez tosses a CGSO. That’s why Friday’s night loss loomed so large. The Pirates had big leads of 6-0 and 8-3 in the opening game of the series and if you close that out, regardless of what happens in game two, you have Paul Skenes to try and win the series on Sunday.
Now, Skenes isn’t trying to win the series but trying to be the stopper once again and salvage one game in this series to avoid the sweep. And they face Zack Wheeler which would be easy either. Being swept at home would be a tough pill to swallow after leading 6-0 in the third inning in game one of the series. It’s baseball though and there’s another game tomorrow, just gotta keep getting up and go to work in the next one.
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