Pirates waste another good start, lose second in a row

Now it’s been noted that the Pirates have the toughest first month schedule in baseball. It has also been noted, by myself and others, the quality of pitching the Pirates have faced in their first five games. Three elite pitchers and two upper echelon ones.  Does that excuse the Pirates for scoring nine runs in five games?  Once again, the Pirates were unable to provide support for starter Erik Bedard as they lost their second game in a row to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-1.

The Pirates were only able to muster six hits in the game against the Dodgers, with starter Chad Billingsley keeping them off balance throughout.  Billingsley allowed just one run and five hits over six innings, while striking out four.  He pushed his record to 2-0 on the year.  Bedard allowed two runs on eight hits over five innings, striking out three and walking one.  I mentioned on Twitter during the game, that even though it is two starts in, Bedard is reminding me of last year’s Paul Maholm, in the sense of a pitcher whose record doesn’t represent the job he’s done on the mound. The Pirates have scored just two runs in Bedard’s 12 innings pitched thus far on the season.

On a positive note for the Pirates, Garrett Jones was able to collect his first two hits of the season, a double and a single.  Off-season acquisition Clint Barmes was also able to collect his first knock of the season and his first as a Pirate.  In the top of the third, Barmes was able to take the Billingsley delivery deep to left field and over the fence for the solo home run.

The Pirates will attempt to bounce back and salvage one game of the series tomorrow night.  The probable pitchers for the game are Jeff Karstens (0-0, 1.50 ERA) for the Pirates and Chris Capuano (0-0, 7.71 ERA) for the Dodgers.  First pitch is scheduled for 10:10 p.m. ET

Pirates:

Presley – 1-4

McLouth- 1-4

McCutchen – 1-4

Walker – 0-4

Jones – 2-4

Barajas – 0-3

Alvarez – 0-3

Barmes – 1-3

Bedard – 0-2

Navarro (PH) – 0-1

Dodgers:

Gordon – 1-5

Ellis – 1-4

Kemp – 3-4

Rivera – 3-4

Ethier – 2-4

Hairston – 1-3

Uribe – 0-3

Ellis – 0-3

Billingsley –  0-2

Loney (PH) – 0-2

Sellers (PH) – 0-1

Photo credits: Getty Images