Pirates finish historically bad offensive series in Seattle

SEATTLE — Similar to the first two games of the series, the Pirates were held scoreless Sunday afternoon, falling by a final of 1-0 to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. George Kirby was the game’s winning pitcher, improving to 3-4, while Carmen Mlodzinski suffered the loss, dropping to 2-6. Andres Munoz recorded the save, his 20th of the season.

Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena tallied the game’s only run in the bottom of the sixth inning, tagging Mlodzinski for a solo homer to left field. The blast came after Pirates starter Paul Skenes was removed despite a dominant showing throughout five innings of work.

A complete recap of the loss can be read here. Below are three of the Post-Gazette’s takeaways from the contest.

Historically bad series

In a year filled with more than a few embarrassing moments, the Pirates offense delivered its worst showing of the season this weekend in Seattle. How bad was it? Allow the following stats to tell the story …

• The Pirates failed to score a run in a series of three or more games for the first time since 1888, when they were known as the Pittsburgh Alleghenys.

• It was the first time the Pirates have been blanked in three straight games in a series of any length since 1959, when they were held scoreless in the first three contests of a five-game set against the Milwaukee Braves.

• The Pirates struck out 36 times throughout their dreadful weekend in Seattle, and drew only four walks. Three of those walks came in Friday’s series opener.

• Nick Gonzales tallied the Pirates’ lone extra-base hit of the series, a double to right field in the first inning of Friday’s series opener. Each of the team’s other 11 hits during the weekend were singles.

• The series-long shutout marked the first in franchise history for the Mariners (of 3+ games), a club that played its first MLB game in 1977.

• Sunday’s shutout loss marked the 13th of the season for the Pirates, the most of any club in MLB.

• Sunday’s loss secured the sixth time this season where the Pirates were swept in a three-game series. Four of those six sweeps occurred on the road.

“I think that we definitely could have [been better],” manager Don Kelly said after the loss. “Especially coming off that home stand and coming here. It’s frustrating, when you put up that many good at-bats, and score that many runs at home, and then come here and get shut out for a series.”

As Kelly noted, the Pirates arrived in Seattle playing their best baseball of the season, having won six straight games. The back end of that streak featured a sweep against the Cardinals, where Pittsburgh prevented the opposition from scoring a run in each of the three contests that series. Per OptaSTATS, the Pirates are the first team in MLB history to have back-to-back series of 3-plus games with a sweep of shutouts for and against, in either order.

“It’s not what you envision after the homestand we had,” shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa said. “I feel like they were ahead of us a lot, the whole series. We gotta get back to being aggressive and putting the ball in play early, just putting pressure on the other team early. We can be better. Just gotta find a way.”

Skenes’ early hook

Skenes looked to be on pace for a historic effort of his own, recording a season-best 10 strikeouts over five scoreless innings. But after throwing just 78 pitches, his day was brought to an early end. The quick hook was something Skenes knew was coming, before his outing even began.

“Yeah,” Skenes responded when asked if he knew Sunday would be a low-volume work day. “I didn’t know the extent of it, but I knew that it was going to be lighter.”

The effort marked the third-straight start where Skenes logged five or fewer innings on the mound. The first of those three starts occurred on June 25, the same day it became known that the Pirates were going to take a more conservative approach toward monitoring their ace’s season workload.

“We have a plan, and to sit there and know that we want him on the mound, he wants to be on the mound, but also he’s in the top five in innings pitched in the big leagues,” Kelly said. “Like we’ve talked about before, just trying to find ways to manage that with him and for him. We want him for a full season, and make sure he’s in a good spot.”

As Kelly noted, Skenes has still logged 116 innings this season, tied with Tigers left-hander and reigning American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal for fourth-most in MLB. The difference between Skenes and the other elite arms in the game, however, is his win total.

Sunday marked Skenes’ fifth no-decision in his last six outings, and eighth overall this year. Skenes has now gone seven starts without earning a win, with his last victory coming on May 28 against the Diamondbacks. He has thrown the ball well over that stretch, allowing seven earned runs over 40 2/3 innings (1.55 ERA).

“It’s incredible,” Kiner-Falefa said. “In my opinion, he’s the best pitcher in the league. … Seeing Paul every day, we’re spoiled. For him to be so dominant, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it.”